Brilliant Earth Review: Your Expert Guide to Sustainable Diamonds (2024)

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Brilliant Earth is one of the largest online diamond jewelers, and chances are you will have come across their brand at some point. The company was founded in 2005 and has grown quickly since. And there’s good reason for their fast ascent. Brilliant Earth has pioneered much of the renewed focus on ethical trade in mined diamonds, pushing the industry to do better than the flawed Kimberly Process. 

As part of its commitment to conflict-free diamonds, Brilliant Earth now offers lab-created diamonds that are more ethical and climate-friendly. The company goes even further by providing completely sustainable lab diamonds. 

That’s why we decided to review Brilliant Earth and see how they stack up to the competition. At Labgrowncarats, we review diamond jewelry so that you can make an informed decision, get the best diamond jewelry, and save money. In the following review, we will share our thoughts on Brilliant Earth, and whether or not we recommend shopping there.

Summary of Our Brilliant Earth Review

Key Takeaways: We’ve thoroughly assessed Brilliant Earth’s selection of lab-grown diamonds diamond and jewelry quality, pricing for loose diamonds and jewelry, the buying experience, and customer service. And, importantly, Brilliant Earth’s commitment to sustainability.

We find that they live up to their goals of a more ethical and environmentally friendly way of selling diamonds. Coupled with competitive prices, an excellent diamond buying experience, great support and service, we award Brilliant Earth one of our best ratings with an impressive 4.7 stars out of 5.

BLACK FRIDAY PROMO ALERT! : Free diamond jewelry with purchase at Brilliant Earth!

How We Have Reviewed Brilliant Earth

As experts in lab-created diamonds, we’ve conducted an in-depth analysis of Brilliant Earth, including their diamonds and jewelry. We’ve compared Brilliant Earth with its competitors and evaluated the pros and cons against industry standards.

Our review is based on extensive research and experience gained over several months. We tested the shopping experience by purchasing and returning products, examining the diamonds and jewelry, and assessing the craftsmanship. We also put Brilliant Earth’s customer service to the test by asking numerous questions.

Our diamond jeweler reviews, including of Brilliant Earth, are reliable and up-to-date as we update our reviews several times a year. We welcome our readers’ comments and feedback on your experiences with Brilliant Earth, which we will include in our assessments.

Why You Should Trust Us

With decades of expertise in the diamond industry, LabGrownCarats is the first and the leading site for all things lab-grown diamonds. Our seasoned team of diamond experts delivers accurate, up-to-date information, in-depth reviews, and trusted buying guides that empower our readers to make informed decisions. This Brilliant Earth review was led by our esteemed diamond expert, Rolf Hartmann, along with insights from several of our seasoned contributors.

Ranking Criteria

We have evaluated and ranked Brilliant Earth using these criteria:

• Price
• Diamond inventory
• Jewelry selection
• Quality
• Shopping experience
• Customer service
• Sustainability
• Shipping and return policies

Introducing Brilliant Earth: Who Are They?

Beth Gerstein and Eric Grossberg founded Brilliant Earth in 2005, intending to improve the ethical standards of the diamond industry. The founders did not find that the existing frameworks for the ethical diamond trade were adequate, something we have also highlighted.

We’ll get more into what this means below, but suffice it to say that Brilliant Earth has worked hard to better the ethical practices and buying experience, namely when it comes to mined diamonds. They also focus on the environmental impact and strive to minimize their carbon footprint.

Ethical Impact and Growing Demand

While we believe that lab-grown diamonds are the way forward for the diamond industry, we appreciate and applaud what Brilliant Earth has done and achieved in challenging the incumbents who might be more prone to turn a blind eye to the issues of the industry.

And it has paid off, too. Today, consumers are much more aware of their consumption’s ethical and environmental footprint, and Brilliant Earth has been perfectly placed to answer this growing demand.

Brilliant Earth is one of the best jewelers for conflict-free diamonds, which, of course, is only relevant when you are considering mined diamonds. Fortunately, Brilliant Earth has invested heavily in minimizing the negative environmental impact and eliminating its carbon footprint by introducing lab-grown diamonds. We’ll get into that later in our Brilliant Earth’s sustainability profile assessment.

Are Brilliant Earth diamond jewelry sold in stores?

While Brilliant Earth is online-first, they have grown to establish 37 showrooms across the country (and counting). Brilliant Earth also has its own design studio in San Francisco. As we’ll bring up later, its jewelry designs are impressive, and have an extensive offering of classic, modern, and creative jewelry designs.

Brilliant Earth not only sells mined diamonds with a higher ethical standard. They also have a large selection of lab-grown diamonds, which is well-aligned with their current focus on improving the diamond trade standards.

In our review, we’ll focus mainly on Brilliant Earth’s lab-created diamonds and jewelry, their inventory, prices, support and service, and the general buying experience. As part of our review, we’ll also touch on the environmental impact, an area where Brilliant Earth also excels.

Is Brilliant Earth Legit?

Brilliant Earth is a well-known and trusted diamond jeweler. They are a leader in shaping and improving the ethical business practices of the diamond industry. Brilliant Earth is a certified and audited member of the Responsible Jewelry Council and has created the Beyond Conflict Free diamond standard. Brilliant Earth is a reputable and legit diamond seller with thousands of happy customers who share their enthusiasm for their ethical standards as well as their excellent service and excellent buying experience.

Brilliant Earth Diamonds: Mined, Lab-Grown, and Conflict-Free

Brilliant Earth was started to solve the ethical challenges of the mined diamond industry. And they have done much to further and improve the standards of selling mined diamonds. They are a certified member of the Responsible Jewelry Council and have developed the Beyond Conflict Free diamond standard.

They even employ blockchain technology to improve the traceability of mined diamonds. We appreciate that Brilliant Earth has done much to challenge and better the ethical standards of the diamond mining industry.

However, we’ll focus on Brilliant Earth’s lab-created diamonds and jewelry, which, as you might have learned, are always conflict-free. In fact, unlike mined diamonds, you can only be 100% sure when you purchase lab-grown diamonds.

And, despite lab-created diamonds being precisely the same as mined diamonds, they’re cheaper, too! That’s why we believe lab-grown diamonds are the most ethical and sustainable diamond choice and the industry’s future.

Sustainability and Climate Neutrality at Brilliant Earth

Beyond improvements to the trade of mined diamonds, Brilliant Earth invests a lot in minimizing any negative impact on the environment and the climate footprint.

Through a partnership with Carbonfund.org, Brilliant Earth offsets its traced carbon emissions by contributing to rainforest conservation in Brazil. Through the carbon offset, Brilliant Earth is now a certified carbon-free company.

In addition, Brilliant Earth offers a lab-grown diamond collection that is sustainably rated based on climate neutrality and investments in clean technology. Unfortunately, it’s only about 5% of their lab-grown diamond inventory, but nevertheless, it’s a great initiative and an excellent option for the environmentally-focused consumer.

While the lab-grown diamonds found at Brilliant Earth are not all produced using 100% sustainable energy, as you can read about in our Vrai review and in our Brilliant Earth vs Vrai comparison, offsetting their carbon emissions is coming close. Brilliant Earth’s approach is similar to that of Pandora, which you can read about in our Pandora Brilliance review. We are excited by Brilliant Earth’s commitment to limiting its climate impact and doing what it can for the environment, and they are at the forefront of the industry.

Similar to Vrai and Pandora, and a few other pioneering diamond sellers, Brilliant Earth seeks to use recycled precious metals to minimize their footprint and help diminish the negative impacts of metal mining. This is another critical step in reducing the adverse effects of mining, be it gold, silver, or diamonds.

Brilliant Earth uses responsibly sourced wood ring boxes produced from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests. This, along with sending in shipping packaging from responsibly managed sources, showcases Brilliant Earth’s commitment to the environment and limiting any negative impact.

While Brilliant Earth is not alone in taking some of these initiatives, they are certainly among the leaders in environmental sustainability in the diamond industry. This is an essential factor in rating Brilliant Earth in our review, and we believe that alone should make you consider buying a lab-grown diamond at Brilliant Earth. We think that Brilliant Earth aced the ethical and environmental categories.

Diamond and Jewelry Selection at Brilliant Earth

Loose Lab Diamonds

As of 2024, Brilliant Earth boasts a selection of over 520,000 lab-grown diamonds, making it one of the most extensive collections available. What’s even more impressive is the consistently high quality of many of these diamonds.

Brilliant Earth also has an extensive selection of fancy-shaped diamonds, such as cushion, emerald, and pear-shaped stones, and almost 17,000 fancy-colored lab-grown diamonds as of writing. Being exceptionally rare in nature, lab-created colored diamonds carry significantly lower prices (at the same exact quality). So we recommend you only consider lab-created colored diamonds unless money is no object.

In all, we find that their selection of high-quality lab-grown diamonds is more than adequate, and you should have no problem finding the perfect diamond for your needs at Brilliant Earth.

Ready-to-Ship Lab Diamond Inventory

Brilliant Earth now offers 384 jewelry designs with lab-grown diamonds, compared to 558 with mined diamonds. A few years ago, the selection of lab-grown options was much smaller, so this growth is exciting to see.

The jewelry designs at Brilliant Earth range from timeless diamond stud earrings to modern and uniquely creative pieces. Having their own design studio clearly benefits their collection. S, you are likely to be able to find something to your liking. And if you’re looking for a classic piece, Brilliant Earth will have you covered.

One thing that we don’t like is that often the diamond quality is not mentioned. This is common practice across the industry, so perhaps not surprising. You’ll sometimes find that the diamond cut quality is unavailable, which is also the case with Brilliant Earth.

Pro Tip: When cut quality isn’t listed, it usually means the diamond is graded as “very good”—which, contrary to the name, isn’t ideal. For the best results, look for diamonds with an “excellent” or “ideal” cut. This is why we always suggest customizing your own jewelry to ensure you get the highest quality.

Brilliant Earth Create-Your-Own Diamond Jewelry

When shopping for diamond jewelry, we always recommend creating your own jewelry by picking the diamond stones yourself from the loose diamond inventory. Not all diamond jewelers allow you to do that, such as Pandora and Lightbox Jewelry, but leading diamond sellers do – including Brilliant Earth.

At Brilliant Earth, you can create your own lab-diamond rings (incl. engagement rings), earrings, and necklaces. It would have been great to see bracelets and other jewelry included. However, we find that the three categories’ selection is extensive and similar to the selection when choosing a mined diamond.

The process of building your own jewelry is very easy at Brilliant Earth, which is what we’ll go through in this guide.

Pro Tip: We recommend customizing your own jewelry rather than purchasing pre-set pieces to avoid lower-quality diamonds typically found in pre-set options.

Support Services for Diamond Buyers at Brilliant Earth

Purchasing a lab-grown diamond (or any diamond, for that matter) is a challenging and complex process, requiring you to learn about lab-grown diamonds. Therefore, we highly recommend that you get a basic understanding of diamonds before throwing yourself into the diamond-buying process. But, even if you’re not an expert, there’s expert help to get.

The best diamond sellers offer honest and skilled guidance, often by a trained gemologist whom you can chat with or set up an online appointment. And of course, so does Brilliant Earth.

It’s effortless to set up an appointment with one of their experts. They will guide you to find the perfect diamond for you – even if it means suggesting something under your budget. That would probably rarely happen at your local mall jeweler.

Brilliant Earth also has excellent support via chat and email, and you’ll receive a similar level of support and knowledgeable service.

Our impression is that they stack up well with the market leaders and do a great job at supporting you through the buying process – be it by making the necessary features available for inspection or direct buying support.

Pro Tip: It pays off to know a little first. So do your homework and have an idea about what you are looking for. We also suggest you have already found some diamonds before your appointment that you can discuss.

Lab-Grown Diamonds Prices

When assessing Brilliant Earth lab diamond prices, the first thing we look at is the price of loose diamonds. These are, on paper, easy to compare, though diamonds with the same characteristics (such as the 4 Cs) can be pretty similar. So instead, we compare several lab-grown diamonds across their inventory with their competitors to get an overview of their diamonds’ price level and quality.

Brilliant Earth Loose Lab-Grown Diamond Prices

Using our reference diamond from our review of Brilliant Earth’s lab-grown diamond inventory, we look at their price levels. As mentioned, this is not straightforward, and our assessment is based on comparing Brilliant Earth’s total inventory and price level with the market and our best-reviewed diamond sellers.

For comparison, I searched for the most commonly purchased diamonds: a round brilliant-cut stone weighing 0.93-1.07 carats (by going just under and over the popular 1-carat, you can sometimes find a marginally lower carat but much cheaper diamond). The clarity is VS1-2 with an I or J color grade (some will prefer a higher color grade, but most often, it’s unnecessary). The cut, of course, is always the best. With lab-grown diamonds, most often certified by IGI, that is ideal (for GIA, it’s excellent).

Prices for our reference diamond start at $1,200 and go to $1,890. In between the price ranges, we’ve found several great diamonds and competitive prices. Overall, the prices at Brilliant Earth are slightly above those of price-leader Ritani – but only slightly. We find that their prices are also a tad lower than James Allen’s, another of our favorite sellers.

Prices for their sustainably graded diamonds are also fair and only in some cases a little higher than the other diamonds. However, we had expected a significant premium for these. So if you can find one that also fits your needs, we highly recommend going with a sustainably graded lab-grown diamond.

Based on our review of Brilliant Earth’s lab-grown diamond prices, we think they are very competitively priced and that you are very likely to get a great deal on your diamond, should you choose to pick a loose diamond or create your own jewelry.

Pro Tip: Opting for a diamond slightly under or over the popular 1-carat mark can often get you a similar size at a significantly lower price.

Brilliant Earth Pre-Set Lab-Grown Diamond Jewelry Prices

In our analysis of Brilliant Earth, we also look at their pre-set jewelry. Our reference here is a pair of the ever-popular diamond stud earrings set with a total carat weight of 1. These are often set with lower-quality diamonds, and we found this to be the case at Brilliant Earth as well. For this reason, we recommend customizing your own diamond stud earrings, whether at Brilliant Earth or elsewhere.- as you can read in our Ritani review, they are one of the few exceptions to this rule).

At Brilliant Earth, their pair of 1 total carat diamond stud earrings cost $1,290, while a certified pair with a higher color and clarity grading and 18K gold costs $1,590. First, we recommend that you never buy uncertified diamonds. Luckily, the vast majority of diamonds at Brilliant Earth are certified, and only select promotional items do not come with a certificate.

Second, $1,590 for the diamond stud earrings is fairly steep (though they are set in 18K gold, unlike other places using 14K). But, as you will have read above, Brilliant Earth’s prices on loose, high-quality diamonds are much more competitive, so you’ll be better off creating your own pair anyway. We recommend that you do that with any diamond seller.

Shipping and Returns at Brilliant Earth

Diamond shipping and returns should always be free, and they should be easy and fully insured. All leading diamond sellers offer that, but surprisingly, many others do not (see, for example, our review of Helzberg Diamonds).

Brilliant Earth is luckily among the ones that do. Brilliant Earth has fully insured free shipping and return shipping through FedEx. Unfortunately, they do not offer Saturday and overnight delivery, which other jewelers such as James Allen do, but it’s available for an additional $30. So before you put in a sizeable last-minute order, we suggest you contact them, and perhaps they’ll waive the fee.

You have 30 days to return your purchase at no cost, making shopping for diamonds at Brilliant Earth easy and stress-free.

Our Pros and Cons of Brilliant Earth

Before we sum up our thorough assessment of Brilliant Earth, we list the key benefits and drawbacks that we have found.

Pros

• Exceptional dedication to social and environmental impact.
• Carbon offsets and sustainably graded diamonds.
• Great buying experience and service.
• Large selection of lab-grown diamonds.
• Competitive prices.

Cons

• Not all diamonds have images and 360-degree inspection.
• Pre-set jewelry is expensive with sub-par diamond quality.
• A limited selection of lab-grown diamond jewelry.

Our Honest Verdict on Brilliant Earth

We’ve been impressed by their commitment to the ethical diamond trade and improving the environment by taking small but significant steps toward minimizing the carbon and environmental footprint.

As we have reviewed Brilliant Earth’s lab-grown diamond selection and jewelry, we have found that their inventory is extensive. And even if it’s not as big as a few competitors, you will be able to find a large selection of high-quality lab-grown diamonds suitable for your needs.

The buying process is straightforward, and we appreciate the helpful features, such as showing alternative options and making the initial assessment of the diamond 4Cs easy. Their support, including the option to set up a virtual appointment, is excellent and on par with most leading diamond sellers.

The diamond inspection features, allowing you to conduct thorough due diligence, are more than adequate, though not always the best in class. That said, we’re mostly happy with the ability to study the lab diamonds in their inventory.

Lastly, we find that their prices are competitive. They are not always as low as some of the lowest on the market, but it’s very close, and we don’t think the price differences should deter you from considering Brilliant Earth. Especially taking their environmental commitments into the picture, which to some extent offset the price difference.

In summary, we find that Brilliant Earth is among the very best lab-grown diamond sellers we have reviewed. That lands Brilliant Earth a fantastic review rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, which puts that at the very top of our reviewed lab-grown diamond jewelers. We highly recommend Brilliant Earth to anyone shopping for lab-created diamond jewelry – particularly if you care about the climate and environment.

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