MetroWest Jewelry Store Selling Lab Grown Diamonds

BOSTON (CBS) - There is a new way to save thousands of dollars on diamonds. New technology has now made it possible to make the sparkling gems in a lab.

"It's not a cubic zirconia. It's a diamond. It's not synthetic. It's not artificial. It is a diamond," explains jewelry designer Ilah Cibis. Cibis owns Precious Metals of Sudbury, the first retailer in Massachusetts to sell the diamonds. "People want to feel good about what they are buying. It's an engagement ring or a gift for Valentine's Day. They want to have good positive feelings about it and you get that with Pure Grown Diamonds. It's very little waste. No workers' rights were violated in the process of growing them."

Pure Grown Diamonds is a New-York based company. They create the diamonds in a Singapore lab over a just a few weeks by putting a carbon seed in a pressurized container. "They have all the optical, chemical, and physical properties of mined-diamonds and they are 100% carbon because they are genuine diamonds," says company CEO Lisa Bissell.

The lab-grown diamonds have a special mark so that any trained jeweler can easily tell them apart from mined-diamonds.

These man-made diamonds cost 30% - 40% less. But some jewelers say they also carry less cachet. "'I wed thee with a lab grown diamond.' It doesn't define the moment. It doesn't adequately portray the emotion," says jeweler Reuven Kaufman.

But in Sudbury, Cibis finds many customers taking a shine to the new bling. "It's 30% to 40% less! How could it not catch on?" one customer said.