Friendly Diamonds Review – Read This Before Buying (Updated 2023)

Friendly Diamonds

USD 1113

3.8

Price

3.5/5

Selection

3.8/5

Service

3.5/5

Features

3.8/5

People & Planet

4.5/5

Pros

• Easy, transparent buying
• Support by certified gemologists
• Great services
• Decent prices
• Fully focused on lab-grown diamonds

Cons

• Prices a little higher than Clean Origin and Ritani
• Smallish inventory
• Limited return period (30 days)
• Features and inspection not as advanced as some competitors

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Summary of Friendly Diamonds Review

Friendly Diamonds is a newcomer in the lab-grown diamond world. However, that does not mean that they are not an excellent option for your lab-grown diamond needs. They specialize in lab diamonds and primarily focus on engagement rings, but they also offer earrings and other pieces of lab diamond jewelry and loose stones.

Our Friend Diamonds review finds that Friendly Diamonds provides excellent service, fair prices, a limited but high-quality selection of lab-grown diamonds, and an easy buying process. In addition, they offer expert gemologist guidance, and you can book appointments on their site.

However, we would have liked to see more advanced and in-depth diamond inspection features, such as HD images and HD videos for all diamonds. Nevertheless, they make certificates readily available which is excellent and partly makes up for the lack of inspection. In addition, they have a considerable selection of GIA-certified lab diamonds in their inventory, which is a plus for anyone who prefers diamonds graded by the most well-known institute in the world.

Their selection is also somewhat limited compared to market leaders such as Clean Origin, James Allen, Brilliant Earth, and Ritani. We would also like them to list their address on their site for added trustworthiness, but their support is pretty responsive.

That said, Friendly Diamonds still offers an excellent assisted diamond shopping experience, and their prices are reasonable. If you find the perfect lab diamond in their inventory, you should consider them but also compare them with our higher-rated jewelers (see below).

In our updated 2023 Friendly Diamonds review, we award them 3.8 stars out of 5.

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Who are Friendly Diamonds?

Friendly Diamonds started its journey selling mined diamonds and focusing on B2B sales to completely change course and sell environmentally-friendly lab-grown diamonds to consumers. Great choice. While they might be relatively new to selling lab-created diamonds to consumers, the people behind Friendly Diamonds are not newcomers to the diamond industry and seasoned experts.

Friendly Diamonds’ audience targeting slightly varies from the mainstream diamond sellers. It is, perhaps, closer to that of LightBox Jewelry. Luckily, Friendly Diamonds does a much better job selling lab-grown diamonds than Lightbox.

One of the ways that this shows is that they are not limiting themselves to their website as the only sales channel. Like New World Diamonds, Grown Brilliance, and Best Brilliance, their diamond jewelry is also sold through Etsy and Amazon. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but you would probably not see DeBeers selling diamonds directly on Amazon (but maybe LightBox Jewelry will one day) or lab diamonds on QVC. In fact, we applaud them for expanding access to high-quality lab diamonds to new audiences and channels.

Lab-grown diamonds only at Friendly Diamonds (now)

Friendly Diamonds only sells lab-grown diamonds. They do this because they believe in the environmental and social benefits. So do we. They are committed to doing better than the traditional diamond industry and giving consumers a better and more conscious choice.

Being solely focused on lab-created diamonds allows them to gain expertise and source the best lab diamonds. Their customer service and gemologist guidance reflect this deep knowledge, and anyone new to lab diamonds can confidently shop at Friendly Diamonds.

We would have liked to see Friendly Diamonds dedicate more resources to lab-created diamond information and education. However, we appreciate that they have invested in educating consumers about the false promise of conflict-free diamonds and the societal impact of mining.

Next, our Friendly Diamonds review examines whether their focus on lab-created diamonds is mirrored in their inventory.

Friendly Diamonds lab-grown diamond selection

As mentioned earlier in our Friendly Diamonds review, they focus 100% on lab-created diamonds. Their selection, however, is somewhat limited compared to the market leaders such as Ritani, James Allen, and Clean Origin. For example, when searching for our reference diamond, we had to expand our criteria and only found three fitting diamonds. That’s compared to 59 when we recently searched Ritani’s website using the stricter criteria.

While the inventory might be a little smaller than at other sellers, we did find that the lab-grown diamonds they offered often were of high quality. So it’s definitely worthwhile searching their inventory. And as you can read in our conclusion to our Friendly Diamond review, we do recommend buying from them – if you can find a diamond that fits your needs (more on how to find the perfect diamond in our easy buying guide).

In our review of Friendly Diamonds, we found that all stones are certified by reputable grading institutes, primarily by IGI (the leading lab-grown diamond grading institute). However, what sets Friendly Diamonds apart is that they also feature a decent amount of lab-grown diamonds graded by GIA, the most well-known grading institute worldwide (and the inventor of the diamonds 4Cs).

So if you prefer GIA-graded diamonds, a good place to look is Friendly Diamonds. However, note that GIA-graded diamonds are typically more expensive (but it doesn’t make them better).

Friendly Diamonds buying process

The next step of our Friendly Diamonds review is assessing the buying experience.

The buying process at Friendly Diamonds is pretty straightforward. You either pick a ready-to-ship jewelry piece or start by choosing a setting or a loose diamond. We like the flexibility and the easy steps, guided by relevant diamond information and educational sections. This helps buyers with less knowledge about the diamond appraisal process.

However, we strongly encourage shoppers to educate themselves on lab-grown diamonds and how to pick the perfect lab diamond. Luckily, we’ve written an easy-to-follow lab-grown diamond buying guide.

Friendly Diamonds also offers consultations with a gemologist through virtual appointments that you can schedule on their website. Other sellers, like James Allen, have gemologists on call, but the booking system is pretty handy, and finding available time slots is not a problem.

You can also call, chat, or email Friendly Diamonds. While the responses generally were prompt, we were a little disappointed with the clarity of their advice as well as the overall level of support we received. This detracts from the trustworthiness of Friendly Diamonds.

Friendly Diamonds inspection

The gemologist’s consultation is decent, and they can guide you through the buying process. However, it’s far from the outstanding experience you’ll find at James Allen, Ritani, Brilliant Earth, or Clean Origin.

And, as you’ll learn next in our Friendly Diamonds review, venturing out to find and inspect available diamonds on your own is another matter.

Once you have narrowed down your search and want to inspect your diamond candidates in detail, Friendly Diamonds gives you access to 1-2 images, 360-degree video inspection, the diamond dimensions and characteristics (the 4Cs), and access to the diamond certificate.

This is pretty standard for the better diamond sellers and, in some cases, will be sufficient. But if you need to dig a little deeper (which we recommend you do), you’ll not have access to HD video or images. And that’s a shame. Jewelers such as Clean Origin, Ritani, and, in particular, marketing-leading James Allen do offer this. If you really want to do your homework, you should study high-resolution images and videos.

You may be able to request HD images, just like you can when shopping at Ritani. Still, ideally, these would be readily available, and coupled with direct access to the certificates of every diamond, Friendly Diamonds still offers a fair opportunity to conduct research.

The following section of our Friendly Diamonds review will take a closer look at their prices for lab-grown diamonds.

Friendly Diamonds lab-grown diamond and jewelry prices

The lab-grown diamond prices at Friendly Diamonds are generally higher than what the price leaders Clean Origin, Brilliant Earth, and Ritani offer. However, they are comparable to what James Allen offers, so they are still great prices, just not as low as some competitors.

While James Allen’s slightly higher prices are justified by a superior buying experience and lab diamond inspection features, Friendly Diamonds lack the same advanced capabilities. That said, their prices are still very reasonable and much lower than what you would expect to find in a traditional jeweler or even many other online stores.

The last part of our Friendly Diamonds review is assessing their shipping and return policies and comparing them to their competitors.

Friendly Diamonds shipping and returns

Friendly Diamonds offers free shipping on all US orders (international shipping costs are added). Shipping is fully insured, so you don’t have to worry about lost parcels. They use UPS, FedEx, and USPS to deliver – the quality of each may vary in your area (in New York City, we would not feel confident having USPS deliver precious cargo such as diamonds).

Returns are similarly free, but unlike some competitors, Friendly Diamonds does not send you a return label, and you have to make your own arrangements (they’ll reimburse you). Again, this is perhaps not atypical of a newer company, but we would expect a high-end diamond seller to ensure a seamless and smooth return process.

Returns are free for up to 30 days, which is pretty standard but nowhere near Clean Origin’s generous 100-day period.

Friendly Diamonds Review Verdict

Throughout our Friendly Diamonds review, we have been both positively surprised and spotted gaps. Friendly Diamonds is a newcomer, and it shows. The logistics, website, features, etc., are not as mature and advanced as what competitors like Ritani, Brilliant Earth, James Allen, and Clean Origin offer.

We also were disappointed by their customer service and support. For increased trustworthiness, we would also like to see them list their address.

However, Friendly Diamonds offers more features than your average diamond seller, even compared with most online sellers. We do appreciate that they have 360-degree videos and access to the diamond certificates.

We like that they are dedicated to lab-grown diamonds and the expertise that comes with the focus on lab-created stones. In addition, they are strong advocates for the lab-grown choice that is friendlier to the environment and society than mined diamonds. Expanding access to lab-grown diamonds to new buying platforms such as Etsy and Amazon, we have seen New World Diamonds, Grown Brilliance, and Best Brilliance do, is also a plus.

While we applaud them in our Friendly Diamonds review for their dedication to lab-created diamonds, their inventory is somewhat smaller than you would expect. Luckily, their lab-grown diamonds are of high quality, including GIA-graded lab-created diamonds (which you don’t find everywhere).

Prices run higher than price-leaders Ritani, Brilliant Earth, and Clean Origin and are closer to James Allen’s offerings but without the added features. So for that reason, we can’t recommend Friendly Diamonds over our top-rated lab diamond jewelers. That said, the prices at Friendly Diamonds are still reasonable and better than most prices the average diamond jeweler offers (such as Helzberg, Zales, Kay Jewelers, and other mall jewelers).

While we find the features to be adequate and the prices acceptable, we don’t find Friendly Diamonds as trustworthy as the above-mentioned alternatives. The lack of a physical address is one reason, and our experiences with their customer service are also lacking.

But if you do happen to find the perfect diamond at Friendly Diamonds, they may be worth considering. But the selection is a little limited, and they are far from as great as our top-rated jewelers, so the odds are that you’ll have to look at other sellers’ inventory, too (we always recommend that, anyway).

If you don’t find what you’re looking for, we recommend you also try out Clean Origin, James Allen, Brilliant Earth, With Clarity, and Ritani for their extensive inventories and superior service and support. You can read more about them and other sellers in our lab-grown diamond seller reviews section.

Don’t just take our word for it

Friendly Diamonds sells through not only its website but also various platforms. Shoppers on Etsy are more positive towards them than we were in our Friendly Diamonds review. However, compared to other diamond Etsy sellers, Friendly Diamonds are among the better.

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