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If you want to purchase a diamond and have decided on a lab-grown diamond, you’ve probably come across Vrai and Brilliant Earth, two leading diamond retailers offering ethical and sustainable lab-grown diamonds. In this review, we’ll compare the two to help you choose the best option.
Both retailers boast a large selection of high-quality lab-grown diamonds and excellent customer service. Vrai exclusively sells lab-grown diamonds that are created using 100% renewable energy. Brilliant Earth, conversely, sells both (ethical) mined and lab-grown diamonds (the only truly ethical diamond choice).
In addition, Brilliant Earth offers a subset of lab-grown diamonds that are 100% sustainable and, like Vrai, uses sustainable and eco-friendly practices throughout the process. We’ll get more into that later.
So, what sets them apart? In this guide, we’ll explore the differences between Vrai vs. Brilliant Earth to help you decide where to buy your next diamond jewelry.
- Quick Comparison of Brilliant Earth VS. Vrai
- Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai Comparison Summary Overall Verdict
- Introduction to Brilliant Earth
- Introduction to Vrai
- Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Lab-grown Diamond Selection
- Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Price Comparison
- Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Shopping Experience
- Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Sustainability
- Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Shipping and Returns
- Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Pros and Cons
- More Diamond Seller Comparisons and Reviews
BLACK FRIDAY PROMO ALERT! : Free diamond jewelry with purchase at Brilliant Earth!
Quick Comparison of Brilliant Earth VS. Vrai
Low-priced sustainable diamonds and jewelry, build your own.
Stunning and sustainable lab diamond design jewelry.
Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai Comparison Summary Overall Verdict
The choice between Vrai and Brilliant Earth depends on personal preferences and shopping needs. Both brands offer excellent options for those seeking sustainable and lab-grown diamonds.
Brilliant Earth
- Inventory: Over 417,000 loose lab diamonds in their massive inventory.
- Customization: Ideal for those looking to customize lab-grown diamond earrings, as it allows for selecting both the diamond and the setting. They offer the opportunity to select your lab-grown diamond and setting.
- Pricing: Generally offers lower prices on loose diamonds, all of which are independently graded.
- Focus: Best for standard jewelry pieces like engagement rings where diamond quality is prioritized over unique design.
Vrai
- Design: Best for shoppers seeking ready-to-ship jewelry with unique and modern designs, such as earrings, bracelets, and rings. Vrai has an extensive and unique selection of earrings, bracelets, rings, and pieces you will not find anywhere else.
- Selection: Vrai has a more modern and edgy selection of lab-grown diamond jewelry than other diamond retailers.
- Sustainability: All diamonds are 100% zero-emission lab diamonds, giving Vrai a slight edge in sustainability.
Introduction to Brilliant Earth
Brilliant Earth was founded in 2005 to offer more ethical and sustainable diamonds. It is one of the most prominent online diamond jewelers, carrying many lab-grown and mined diamonds.
Brilliant Earth offers a wide selection of gorgeous jewelry styles designed in its San Francisco studio. It also provides sustainably graded lab-grown diamonds, uses precious recycled metals, offsets carbon emissions, and uses recycled materials and packaging.
Learn more in our detailed review of Brilliant Earth.
Introduction to Vrai
Vrai, first called Vrai and Oro, was founded to create a simpler and cheaper approach to buying and designing jewelry. They quickly gained a following by focusing on cutting costs and creating simple yet beautiful jewelry designs.
Today, Vrai is just called “Vrai” and continues to grow. It has opened flagship stores on the West Coast, Spain, and China. They have been acquired by Diamond Foundry, which is famous for two things. 1) being co-owned by Leonardo DiCaprio and 2) creating 100% sustainable lab diamonds powered solely using renewable energy. Vrai exclusively uses diamonds from Diamond Foundry and, thus, is entirely sustainable and carbon-neutral.
Read more about Vrai in our in-depth review of Vrai.
Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Lab-grown Diamond Selection
First, we’ll compare Brilliant Earth’s diamond inventory with Vrai’s and see which has the better diamond and jewelry selection.
Brilliant Earth Diamond Quality and Inventory
Brilliant Earth boasts one of the largest inventories of high-quality lab-grown diamonds. They cater to a wide range of preferences with over 417,000 loose lab-created diamonds and 72,000 mined diamonds in popular shapes like round, oval, cushion, pear, and princess. Carat sizes range from 0.25 to an impressive 56.77 carats (yes, you read that right!), providing options for every style and budget.
Brilliant Earth also offers a wide selection of jewelry designs, covering everything from classic styles to more contemporary and unique creations. In addition, Brilliant Earth lets you build your own diamond jewelry by pairing it with loose lab-grown diamonds that you pick from their extensive inventory. That generally means you get much better quality than pre-set diamond jewelry, often paired with sub-par diamonds.
Vrai Diamond Quality and Inventory
Selection
Vrai offers a significantly smaller selection of loose lab-grown diamonds compared to Brilliant Earth and other competing jewelers. It’s important to note that Vrai’s inventory is primarily tailored for engagement rings, focusing on larger stones. With that in mind, we expanded our filters to include diamonds with D-F color, 1-4 carats, and VVS1-VS2 clarity, which provided a better range of options to choose from.
So, for diamond rings, you’ll be able to find a suitable diamond for your needs. However, when it comes to their pre-set jewelry, you’ll have to contend with what pairings Vrai has decided as they don’t allow customization by picking diamonds from their inventory.
That said, most diamond jewelers tend to pair pre-set jewelry with lower-quality diamonds. Vrai is an exception in that they generally pair with higher-quality diamonds. But, as we’ll note later, Vrai does not use independent diamond graders; thus, you can’t necessarily trust the diamond grades (the diamond 4Cs).
Unique Designer Collections
The second part of Vrai is luxury and a premium brand feel. Through collaborations with household-name designers, unique collections, celebrity endorsements, and partnerships, Vrai has created a valuable jewelry brand in the lab diamond space.
Vrai has an extensive collection of ready-to-ship jewelry, which makes sense given the brand’s focus on designer jewelry collaborations and minimalistic design ethos. As a result, Vrai’s designs range from slightly different takes on classic jewelry pieces, such as the martini stud earrings, to bespoke and unique pieces that you will not find anywhere else.
Vrai makes up for it by offering some of the most gorgeous and stylish diamond jewelry designs. In fact, with Vrai’s focus on sustainability (which we’ll get into later), its unique selling point is its stunning jewelry design. So, Vrai is, in some ways, closer to a fashion jeweler but with high-quality and sustainable diamonds.
Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Price Comparison
The next step in our review of Brilliant Earth and Vrai is to compare the prices, starting with Brilliant Earth.
Brilliant Earth Diamond Prices
Brilliant Earth offers some of the lowest and most competitive prices for loose lab-grown diamonds on the market. Compared with some of the other price leaders, Brilliant Earth is similar to Ritani, so you’ll be sure to make a great deal at Brilliant Earth.
Price Range:
For a 1-carat, VVS2, F, super ideal cut diamond—one of the most popular specifications—prices at Brilliant Earth range from $1130 to $1,690. This places them among the most competitive in the market, only slightly higher than Ritani, the current price leader in our comparisons with other diamond jewelers.
With 200 lab-grown diamonds in the 1-carat range featuring super ideal cut, near colorless, and clarity, Brilliant Earth offers plenty of high-quality options, making it easy to find the perfect diamond to suit your budget and preferences.
Brilliant Earth’s jewelry settings are generally very reasonably priced, so the total price will be very low for whatever jewelry pieces you pair with their low-priced lab diamonds. As we mentioned above, the quality of their lab diamonds is often excellent. So you’ll not only get a great diamond, but you’ll get it at the best price possible.
Ready-to-Ship Jewelry Prices:
However, Brilliant Earth’s pre-set diamond jewelry prices are a little more mixed. We’ve found that they tend to be a little higher than price-leader Ritani, while they are on par for some designs. That said, we don’t recommend purchasing a pre-set jewelry piece at Brilliant Earth but instead using their build-your-own jewelry option. As a result, you’ll get a much better diamond for the same price!
Vrai Diamond Prices
Vrai, on the other hand, is on the pricier side. Nevertheless, their prices are comparable to the likes of Kimaï and other design-first diamond jewelers. We pointed to the same when we compared prices in our review of Vrai.
For a 1-carat, VVS2, F, Excellent cut diamond, prices at Vrai range from $1,435 to $1,512, which is higher than those of competing jewelers. Unlike Brilliant Earth, which had 200 lab diamonds available to choose from, we could only find three lab diamonds with the same specifications.
Grading Practices
But, unlike our highest-rated diamond retailers, the diamonds at Vrai are graded in-house at Diamond Foundry by GIA Certified Gemologists to provide diamond certificates, not to be confused with a GIA certification.
That means that Diamond Foundry grades its homework, which can be problematic.
Recommendations for Buyers
We recommend that you either pay for an independent grading or make sure you can return the jewelry if you don’t think it lives up to the diamond grades they’ve awarded themselves.
Adding the value of a grading certificate ($2-400) makes the prices for loose diamonds at Vrai less competitive.
Conclusion
However, if the jewelry design is more important to you and you’re willing to shell out extra for their unique and stunning jewelry (and brand name), Vrai is an excellent option. In our view, Vrai offers the most beautiful and exquisite jewelry designs, which may make the premium price worth it. So, if you are ok with not receiving an independently graded (but usually high-quality) diamond and love their designs, then Vrai’s prices are justified and reasonable.
Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Shopping Experience
The shopping experience, including the ability to inspect prospective diamonds, is perhaps the most essential part of a diamond purchase. In the following, we’ll compare the buying experience at Vrai and Brilliant Earth.
The Brilliant Earth Shopping Experience
Overall Experience
The shopping experience at Brilliant Earth is excellent. The experience is straightforward and effortless. Their site is easy to navigate. All information you need to assess diamond quality is readily available, except for the diamond certificates popping up in low (but legible) quality.
Diamond Inspection and Support
Brilliant Earth offers superior diamond inspection abilities and expert support through trained gemologists. You can email or chat with them or set up a virtual meeting to walk you through the process.
Customization Options
Where Brilliant Earth stands out is its build-your-own diamond jewelry. While other jewelers also offer this service, you can build almost all diamond jewelry yourself at Brilliant Earth.
Many other places only allow you to pick your diamonds for (engagement) rings or very standard jewelry pieces (e.g., diamond stud earrings). This is great as we always strongly advocate that you pick your diamond pairing since you’ll get a much better diamond (and avoid the sub-par pre-set pairings).
Building your diamond jewelry at Brilliant Earth is very easy, but should you need help, you can always contact their highly qualified support.
Physical Locations
In addition to online service and support, Brilliant Earth has 19 locations across America, offering customers the option for in-person assistance.
The Vrai Shopping Experience
Overall Experience
The shopping experience at Vrai is also great, almost as good as at Brilliant Earth. The website is easy to use, and finding the right jewelry or diamonds is effortless. The site looks great, is very clean and modern, and is not overwhelmed by clutter and banners.
Diamond Assessment and Support
The diamond assessment and inspection at Vrai are not as good as those of some leading diamond jewelers, namely James Allen and Brilliant Earth. The biggest issue is their lack of independent diamond grading. However, we would also like better access to HD images.
Their support is excellent, and you’ll be guided along the way. However, while courteous, extremely helpful, and friendly, they were not as knowledgeable as the trained gemologists you may experience at James Allen, Ritani, or Brilliant Earth.
Customization Options
At Vrai, you can only customize and pick your diamond when you shop for a diamond (engagement) ring. The process is very easy and comparable to other leading jewelers. First, choose the ring design and the diamond grades you prefer and start inspecting.
Conclusion
The overall shopping experience at Vrai was smooth and easy. Navigation is simple, and the structure makes sense. You are guided through the buying process, and the whole experience is relatively effortless. This is mainly the case when buying pre-set jewelry while building your engagement ring is a little more cumbersome.
Part of the hassle is dealing with the missing filters, but it’s not too bad. The biggest challenge is the diamond inspection part of the buying process, which is critical for any diamond jewelry purchase.
Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Sustainability
Both Vrai and Brilliant Earth are leaders in sustainability and ethical diamond retail. In the following, we’ll compare Vrai vs. Brilliant Earth to see who offers the more sustainable diamond options.
Brilliant Earth Sustainability
Both Brilliant Earth and Vrai are fully committed to being eco-friendly, sustainable, and ethical in the diamond trade and production.
Mission and Vision
Brilliant Earth was started to improve sustainability and give conscious buyers a better ethical diamond choice. From the onset, they focused on challenging the diamond industry to increase its positive impact on society.
Diamond Offerings
Brilliant Earth sells both mined and lab-created diamonds. While we focus on their lab-grown diamonds, they also have a vast selection of ethically mined diamonds. While we don’t believe mined diamonds can be guaranteed to be ethical (as opposed to the always ethical choice of lab-grown diamonds), it’s an improvement.
In addition, Brilliant Earth has started offering sustainably graded lab-grown diamonds produced using sustainable energy sources and following specific guidelines. While the selection is still somewhat limited, it makes them comparable to Vrai, as we’ll get back to later.
Sustainable Practices
Brilliant Earth doesn’t just stop at sustainable diamonds but also goes out of its way to limit its environmental impact. For example, their packaging is sustainable and carbon-neutral, while they use recycled metals in their jewelry production.
Read more about Brilliant Earth’s commitment to sustainability in our review.
Vrai Sustainability
Vrai was similarly founded with a vision to improve the impact of the diamond trade and its sustainability. To start, Vrai sold mined diamonds but later moved to sell only the conscious diamond choice: lab-grown diamonds.
Commitment to Renewable Energy
Since being acquired by Diamond Foundry, a leading lab diamond producer committed to sustainability and only using renewable energy, Vrai is now a leading sustainable diamond jeweler. They only use diamonds from Diamond Foundry.
Environmental Initiatives
Like Brilliant Earth, Vrai has invested in further reducing any negative environmental impact. Vrai also uses recycled and compostable packing materials and recycled jewelry metals.
Learn more about Vrai’s commitment to sustainability in our Vrai review.
Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Shipping and Returns
Shipping Policies
- Brilliant Earth offers free FedEx shipping on every US, Canadian, UK, and Australian order.
- Vrai offers complimentary US standard delivery (5-7 business days) for all orders.
Return Policies
Both Brilliant Earth and Vrai offer a 30-day free return policy, giving customers the flexibility to return their purchases if they are not satisfied.
Do note that Vrai deducts a $200 recycling fee from each engagement ring refund unless you accept to have your refund applied to a non-refundable VRAI digital gift card.
Engraving Refunds
Unlike Brilliant Earth (and most other retailers), Vrai allows refunding engraving items (minus the engraving fee). That is particularly important if you buy an engagement ring or wedding band, which you will often want to have engraved.
Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai: Pros and Cons
Below, we have listed the pros and cons of Vrai vs. Brilliant Earth so that you can better decide between the two.
What We Like About Brilliant Earth (Pros)
What We Don’t Like About Brilliant Earth (Cons)
What We Like About Vrai (Pros)
What We Don’t Like About Vrai (Cons)
More Diamond Seller Comparisons and Reviews
At LabGrownCarats.com, we review all the best (and not-so-great) lab-grown diamond sellers to help you find the best places to purchase diamond jewelry. We compare diamond sellers in our vs. reviews to help you decide between specific jewelers – should you be split.
