Melee Diamonds Essential Guide to Small Diamonds
Discover the sparkling world of melee diamonds – tiny gems that make a big impact in jewelry design and enhance the beauty of larger stones
In today’s diamond market, there are a variety of shapes and sizes of diamonds available to choose from, and melee lab grown diamond is one of them. Melee diamonds are shinny and tiny diamonds used in jewelry and that is what makes the halo and pave settings so alluring. These diamonds are frequently too small to be used only by themselves, so their primary goal is to highlight a large center stone with their sparkle, as shown in the lab grown diamond engagement ring below;
These Melee lab-created diamonds are used in different types of prong fancy settings to provide dazzling sparkle with fire and brilliance to a diamond engagement ring and other jewelry pieces, while also adding volume and all-around shine to the diamond at the center. There are some popular ring settings with melee diamonds including pavé, halo, cluster, and channel settings. Melee lab diamonds are created in the laboratory feature, which means these diamonds are grown in a lab using organic methods to create a real diamond which is made up of carbon seed that has all the physical, chemical, and optical properties of earth-mined diamonds.
What are Lab Grown Melee Diamonds?
The term melee refers to smaller fancy brilliant-cut diamonds as well as all small diamonds that are used to embellish larger gems’ mountings. According to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), those diamonds which are categorized under 0.2-carat size are considered as melee diamonds. These loose Melee diamonds are usually used in setting and mountings with other diamonds that have a radius of 3-6 carats. Well, a Melee lab diamond comes in two main cuts- signal cut and full cut, so it is important to know which shape would be best suited for your jewelry piece. So, here we’ll take a quick look at these two cuts;
- A single cut: A diamond cut that contains a table, eight crown facets, eight pavilion facets, and (very occasionally) a culet. It has a round girdle outline with 17 or 18 facets depending on whether the culet is present.
- A full cut: It is also known as a complete brilliant-cut diamond with 57 or 58 facets, including 32 crown facets, 24 pavilion facets, and (typically) a culet. The 99% of melee diamonds that are used in jewelry are full-cut diamonds that have exactly the same cutting style as modern round brilliant diamonds.
Questions You Should Ask Before Buying
Now that you’ve learned about a melee lab created diamond that how they’re grown and cut, let’s discuss how you can find out if they’re right for you or not. Below we will discuss some important questions you should ask yourself before buying a lab-grown melee diamond;
Are they a good investment?
Melee diamonds are not as valuable as other lab diamonds because they are very small, between 0.001 and 0.2 carats in size. But, their high quality and unique design make them a great shine for jewelry collectors and those who are looking to add a little something extra shine to their collection. While you may think that they are cheap, they are still very valuable! Also, they are largely used in rings and different accessories rather than as end pieces.
So, Melee Lab created diamonds can also be considered a small good investment because they will last you a lifetime. When you’re investing in loose melee lab diamonds, let’s also keep the quality of your precious stones in mind. Choosing the wrong quality loose diamonds can be very bad for your safety as well.
Is it safe to buy melee diamonds online?
The safest way to buy diamonds is by visiting a physical store but also they are not always the safest as you thought. But, if you’re looking for something special and don’t have time to go out or if you live in an area that doesn’t have any physical stores, then buying online may be the best option for you. You can visit any online manufacturer to buy loose melee diamonds in bulk at very affordable price ranges also in a wide variety of choices. Plus, the online manufacturer always has a 100% satisfaction product guarantee so you can be sure that your purchase is safe and quality-wise, it will meet your expectations. Online sellers are carefully selected to provide you with the best quality of diamonds at each moment they come in your hand.
Another option to buy melee diamonds is by simply calling a jeweler or going to an actual physical store but not all of them actually sell melee lab diamonds, sometimes they may give you something fake diamond known as simulated, cubic zirconia, or Moissanite. These are a few other types of diamonds that are much harder to distinguish from real melee lab diamonds with the naked eyes.
Nowadays, shopping for authentic melee lab diamonds online is the best option because you can find almost any kind of diamond there at very affordable prices and with a very wide variety to choose from with certification too.
Where do they come from?
When you are buying any diamond it is compulsory to know where do your diamonds come from. These melee lab diamonds are made with the same process as other lab-grown diamonds are made, this process includes the CVD method and HPHT method. CVD: Chemical vapor deposition is a technique that involves a vacuum chamber of gases in an atmosphere under a controlled temperature. This process deposits material on a substrate by the action of heat and plasma.
HPHT: High-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) is an industrial diamond manufacturing technology used to produce high-quality diamonds with properties close to those found in a natural diamond. Melee diamonds produced by the HPHT diamond method are typically higher in quality as compared with the CVD diamond method because the HPHT method uses extremely high pressures and temperatures which can easily produce small-size diamonds also of good quality. While CVD diamonds can also produce small-size diamonds but they are not always higher in quality sometimes because of their procedure technic.
How do I know if I’m buying from an ethical seller?
When you’re looking to buy melee lab diamonds, it’s important to look for ethical diamond sellers. Unethical mined diamond sellers don’t work with conflict-free minerals or do things that can hurt the environment and our planet. Here are a few ways to determine if a seller is ethical or not:
- Ask the seller about their policies on conflict minerals.
- Check whether the diamond source has been reported by human rights organizations as abusive or corrupt.
- Compare how much money the seller is asking for each diamond against what others are offering to ensure that they’re not overcharging.
An ethical diamond seller or manufacturer won’t sell you melee lab diamonds that are mined in an abusive or corrupt way, and they’ll likely charge a lower price than other unethical sellers. So one thing to keep in mind while buying melee diamonds is to make sure that you are buying a diamond from an ethical manufacturer and seller.
Is it conflict-free?
Conflict-free means that the source of your diamond is free from claims of human rights violations or environmental pollution affecting people in other parts of the world. Buying conflict diamonds has been deemed a major problem because selling them fuels civil war and contributes to situations like slavery and child labor.
Lab-grown melee diamonds are totally conflict-free diamonds and have no ethically questionable origins, so they make a great ethical choice when it comes to diamond jewelry. As they are made in the lab they do not require any mining at all, and they are also environmentally friendly as they are not dug up from the earth’s crust!