Our diamonds
We work predominantly with lab-grown diamonds, with ethically sourced natural diamonds available on request. The two share everything that makes a diamond a diamond, and they differ in where they come from and in what that origin makes possible.
Lab-grown diamonds: same atom, different origin
A lab-grown diamond is a diamond. It shares the same chemical composition, optical properties, and grading standards as a mined stone, and it is assessed on the same scale of cut, colour, clarity, and carat. A lab-grown diamond begins the same way a natural one does, with carbon, and it forms under the same conditions of extreme pressure and heat, reproduced in a controlled environment above ground. To the eye, including a trained eye, there is no visible difference.
What the origin changes is possibility. Because a stone is specified before it exists, it can be grown around a design, shaped to the piece it will sit in. Through longstanding relationships with our growers, we commission diamonds to exact specifications: particular colours such as blush, champagne, cognac, blue, and green; precise cuts; unusual shapes; and tailored proportions. If you have imagined a stone in a specific hue or an uncommon shape, it can most likely be grown. What that represents is human ingenuity, innovation married to craft.
Ethically sourced natural diamonds
For clients who want a mined stone, we source natural diamonds on request through channels known for their traceability. The natural diamond trade has long struggled with transparency, and tracing a stone’s path from mine to market can be difficult. where we work with natural stones, we do so through suppliers who can account for their origin.
A tradition of diamonds
Our leading lab-grown supplier is based in India, which sits at the centre of the diamond world in both history and craft. India was the first place diamonds were found and traded, the only known source of these stones for well over a thousand years. The stones that reached antiquity and the courts of Europe came from there. Today the country cuts and polishes the overwhelming majority of the world’s diamonds, and it has become a leader in the technology of growing them. That combination of deep tradition and new capability is exactly the meeting of craft and innovation on which Leil is built.
Every diamond carries a history before it reaches a hand. In the video below, Leil travelled to India to share the story of the people that shape our diamonds: the cutters, growers and colour specialists who work generations of knowledge into every stone. Because a diamond is much more than a material; it’s the people that shape every stone by hand.
A film by
Ramy Hankash, Director and Cinematographer
Joy Hallak, Editor
Written by
Rebecca and Elias El Morr
With special thanks
Vijay Sarkhelia, Interviewee, Lab owner
