How Does a Moissanite Compare to a Diamond?

In today's economic turmoil luxury items such as diamond jewelry is taking a beating. There is a need to fill the gap that is being left by a lot of people who want to buy diamond jewelry but just can't afford it. Moissanite nicely fills in this gap by providing a product which is very similar to a diamond but costs 1/10th of the diamond equivalent.

Moissanite is a man made gemstone which has very similar physical, chemical and optical properties when compared to a diamond. Moissanite is made up of silicon carbide , where as a diamond is made up of carbon. Because of this a normal diamond detector which uses thermal conductivity as the base to identify a diamond also shows moissanite as one.

The hardness of moissanite at 9.25 on the Mohs Scale is lower than that of a diamond which is 10 but is higher than any other gemstone including rubies, sapphires and emeralds.

- The clarity of a moissanite is that of vs1-vs2 on GIA's clarity scale.
- The color grade is in the range of H-I-J on the GIA color scale.

The luster and brilliance of a moissanite is higher than that of a diamond and it has got higher heat resistance as well. All this makes for very good durability and a piece of moissanite jewelry will last you almost as long as that of a diamond.

Charles & Colvard have the patent to manufacture synthetic moissanites and most jewelry retailers will provide a lifetime warranty certificate for its optical properties. The best part is that it is almost impossible for a layman to differentiate between a moissanite and a diamond.

So now you can derive the pleasure of wearing very beautiful jewelry without burning a hole in your pocket.

By Jagmala Singh