Jared Jewelry Lab-Grown Diamonds Review – Should You Avoid?
Jared Jewelry Lab-Grown Diamonds
USD 1500
Last Updated on June 5, 2023 by LabGrownCarats
Jared Jewelry is one of the most well-known jewelry stores in North America. You can find them in or close to most malls, not far from Kay Jewelers, Helzberg, or Zales.
Jared Jewelry offers a wide selection of traditional diamonds and, as of recently, also lab-grown diamonds. That’s why we decided to take a closer look and share our Jared Jewelry lab-grown diamonds review.
As you probably know, lab-grown diamonds are becoming increasingly popular among consumers due to their affordability and ethical production process. In this review, we will take an in-depth look at Jared Jewelry’s lab-grown diamond offerings and compare them to other leading jewelers such as James Allen, Clean Origin, Ritani, and Brilliant Earth.
Our Jared Jewelry, lab-grown diamonds review, finds that while they have a good selection of diamonds and prices are better than at comparable mall jewelers, they are still higher than at our recommended best places to buy lab-created diamonds. The shopping experience is not as great, either, and shipping and returns do not meet our expectations.
Overall, there are a few benefits associated with purchasing your next piece of jewelry from Jared Jewelry – namely, access to high-quality stones backed up by a reputable brand name. But we recommend looking elsewhere for better prices, better lab-grown diamond selection, better shopping experience, and better customer service.
Who is Jared Jewelry?
The History of Jared Jewelry
Jared Jewelry, or as they are also known, Jared the Galleria of Jewelry, is part of the Sterling Jewelers company. Sterling was founded in 1910 by Henry Shaw and operates similar brands, such as Kay Jewelers.
In 1987, Sterling was acquired by Signet but continued to operate as a subsidiary. In the 90s and 2000s, Sterling grew rapidly as it acquired smaller jewelers to finally become one of the largest jewelers in the United States.
Signet, too, has been acquiring jewelers, including Zale Corporation (behind the Zales brand) and, more recently, James Allen and Blue Nile, two of our highly-rated lab diamond jewelers. Today, Signet is the world’s largest jewelry retailer.
Sterling, including Jared, has been surrounded by some controversy, including a class-action suit for alleged sexual discrimination and misconduct and a case about pressuring or even deceiving customers to sign up for services without them knowing.
What is special about Jared Jewelry
Compared to the other Sterling mall brands, Jared was created to be a more upscale diamond jeweler, often located outside the malls themselves, with a more premium experience (and higher prices).
Does this translate into today’s online shopping experience? And how do lab-grown diamonds fit into Jared Jewelry? Let’s find out in this Jared Jewelry lab-grown diamonds review.
Jared Jewelry lab-grown diamonds
For many years, the diamond industry resisted the advent of the better, cheaper, and more ethical diamond production process of lab-created diamonds. Yet, to this day, some jewelers still do.
But more are coming around, responding to smarter and better-educated diamond shoppers. Jared Jewelry, too. But why are lab-created diamonds so popular?
Why choose lab-grown diamonds?
First of all, you should know that lab-grown diamonds are real diamonds. But they have been created in a laboratory rather than mined from the earth. They are also known as lab-created or simply lab diamonds and offer a better alternative to mined diamonds. Lab-created diamonds look identical to mined ones, with the same chemical composition and physical properties.
- Ethical sourcing: Lab diamonds are the only guaranteed ethically-sourced diamonds, which have a much less negative impact on the environment and climate. Some are even produced 100% climate neutral.
- Price advantage: Lab-created diamonds are up to 60-80% cheaper than mined diamonds with the exact same 4C diamond grades.
- Quality: Lab-grown diamonds boast the exact same quality and sparkle as their earth-mined counterparts.
So, having learned that lab-grown diamonds are the future of diamonds, let’s take a closer look at Jared Jewelry’s lab-created diamonds.
Jared Lab-Created Diamonds: Selection and Quality
In this part of the Jared Jewelry lab-grown diamonds review, we’ll examine the selection and quality of lab diamonds available at Jared. We’ll start by reviewing their selection of loose lab-grown diamonds and then look at their pre-set jewelry.
Jared loose lab-grown diamond selection and quality
Most, actually all, mall jewelers that we have reviewed in the past, including Zales, Kay, Helzberg, or Pandora, do not have a selection of loose lab diamonds that you can sort through. However, we always recommend that you find a loose diamond that you want to couple with your jewelry since you’ll avoid the often lower-quality diamonds jewelers pick for you, and you can optimize the diamond to the exact piece you’re considering.
But luckily, Jared stands out from their peers: At Jared Jewelry, you can select from their selection of loose lab-grown diamonds. The filtering and selection, at first glance, look very impressive.
And also very familiar.
See the resemblance? Now, remember that Signet owns both James Allen and Jared (it’s James Allen on the left and Jared on the right).
But, if there was anyone you should copy, it’s James Allen. So this is very positive.
With the same filter settings, James Allen offers 11,639 lab-grown diamonds, but Jared Jewelry only lists 3,089 lab diamonds. The filter used is the minimum grades we usually consider for round brilliant lab diamonds, i.e., excellent/ideal cut, J color, and VS clarity.
The reason is that Jared Jewelry generally carries higher color grades: You will often find D and E grades at Jared Jewelry, and the selection of lower grades is minimal. For example, the number of I and J lab diamonds at Jared with minimum VS2 clarity and ideal cut is 41. But for D and E color grades, there are 4,614! For F, G, and H combined, there are 1,508 (only a third as many).
That is a little odd and unfortunate, we think. You’ll often overpay for diamond high color grades, and choosing a lower color grade is one of the best money-saving tips for lab diamonds.
In almost all cases, D or E would be too expensive, and the difference between an H, G, or F will usually not be noticeable (even I or J can be fine).
What we do like is that Jared Jewelry only offers larger lab diamonds with an ideal cut grade, the best grade available (if you ignore the “True Hearts” non-standardized grade). Starting around 1-carat, all lab diamonds at Jared have ideal but. Not selling poorly cut round brilliant diamonds is a huge help to customers, which, 99% of the time, should buy the best-cut grade. So if you’re after a smaller diamond, stay clear of the lab diamonds with very good cut grades.
Lastly, we have noticed that a fair share of lab diamonds at Jared, graded as VS1-2, have noticeable inclusions or blemishes. Despite the decent clarity grade, they are not what you would call eye-clean. See, for example, this VS2-graded lab diamond at Jared.
And here’s an example of a VS1-graded lab diamond from Jared with poorer clarity than we would recommend.
While you’ll find diamonds with inclusions and blemishes in the VS range at most lab diamond jewelers, the prevalence seems higher at Jared compared to James Allen, Ritani, or other highly-rated lab diamond jewelers.
In the next part of our Jared lab diamonds review, we’ll look closer at their pre-set jewelry.
Jared Jewelry lab diamond jewelry selection
Diamond jewelry can either be pre-set with a diamond of the jeweler’s choice, or you can customize it by selecting the exact diamond you want to pair the jewelry with, as we recommended above. Sometimes, you’ll be able to choose diamond quality levels, similar to what you can do at Ada Diamonds, which works well. Or what we saw in our Kay Jewelry lab diamond review, which works very poorly.
And speaking of Kay Jewelry, remember that Signet owns not only James Allen but also other brands, such as Zales and Kay?
Now, compare this:
Except for the price, they’re identical!
As it turns out, almost all of Jared Jewelry’s website looks very similar to Kay and Zales. In fact, they’re almost entirely the same. The most notable difference is the “diamonds” menu item, which leads to the loose diamond selection and seems to be a white-labeled version of James Allen (this part is actually on a different diamond: design.jared-diamonds.com).
Incidentally, this is the best part of Jared’s website and offers. Well, actually, there is a good reason for that, as you can learn more about in our James Allen lab diamond review.
Even the website menu structure and look change when you’re on bridal.jared.com.
And speaking of the menu, similar to what we’ve seen in our reviews of Zales and Kay, the selection of lab-grown diamond jewelry is well-hidden and seems like an afterthought, tucked away between pearl jewelry and religious jewelry.
Therefore, it should not be surprising that the selection of lab diamond jewelry is also very limited.
Jared lists 410 lab-grown diamond jewelry pieces vs. 9,367 set with mined diamonds, meaning that the share of lab diamonds out of all Jared’s listed diamond jewelry is a measly 4%. (weirdly, if you click on the “lab-created diamonds” menu link, you’ll only find 334 jewelry pieces since some are apparently miscategorized.
So, in summary, Jared Jewelry does reasonably well with their loose lab-grown diamond selection, only because it’s seemingly a white label of James Allen. And very poorly on pre-set and “semi-customizable” jewelry, which looks like a shared platform with Kay and Zales (not good).
Next, in our Jared lab-created diamonds review, we’ll see if their prices are closer to James Allen or Kay and Zales.
Jared Lab-Created Diamonds: Prices
Having learned that the loose lab-grown diamond selection is decent, but the quality behind that of James Allen and the selection of lab-created diamond jewelry is very limited, next our review will see how their prices stack up.
Our Jared lab-created diamonds review will first examine the prices of loose lab-grown diamonds, and next, we’ll compare prices for lab-grown diamond jewelry.
Prices of loose lab diamonds at Jared
To compare, we always use a reference lab diamond, which allows us to compare the price levels with other lab diamond retailers. While no diamond is alike, and they are inherently difficult to compare, like for like, the price ranges indicate the price levels.
Here are the lab diamond 4Cs that we look for:
- Carat weight: 1.0 (plus-minus a little)
- Cut grade: Excellent or Ideal (whichever is the best, depending on the laboratory)
- Color grade: I-J
- Clarity grade: VS1-VS2
- Shape: Round Brilliant
- Origin: Lab-grown
At Jared, the prices for a 1-carat lab-grown diamond with the above 4Cs start at $1,470 and go up to $2,670. As we mentioned previously in our Jared review, the clarity of their lab diamonds sometimes seems a bit on the lower end, despite decent grading. Taking that into account and by inspecting the available loose diamonds, the minimum comparable price you would pay at Jared is closer to $1,800 for a 1-carat lab diamond.
Compare that to Ritani, Clean Origin, Grown Brilliance, or With Clarity, offering high-quality 1-carat lab diamonds for under $1000. Or James Allen or Brilliant Earth, which start just at the $1000 mark for excellent 1-carat lab diamonds. See all prices in our 1-carat lab diamond price comparison.
So, Jared is significantly more expensive than any of our recommended best places to buy lab diamonds. And we’ve seen higher prices even at online-only lab diamond jewelers!
But, prices are not as high as we had feared. Most mall jewelers do not sell loose diamonds, so it’s challenging to compare the prices of lab diamonds directly. For that reason, we’ll compare the prices of standard lab-created diamond jewelry pieces next in our Jared lab diamond review.
Prices of lab diamond jewelry at Jared
In our Jared lab-created diamond review, we’ve already learned that prices for loose lab diamonds are higher than at any of our recommended best places to buy lab-created diamonds. But they were also not as high as we’ve seen in some places.
In this section, we’ll look at pre-set lab diamond jewelry prices. This will also allow us to compare prices at Jared with similar mall jewelers who don’t offer loose diamonds.
Jared Jewelry lab-grown diamond stud earrings
We’ll compare the price for a pair of 1-carat (total-weight) solitaire round lab diamond stud earrings. This is one of the most popular pieces of lab diamond jewelry that every lab diamond jeweler carries.
Jared offers a pair of lab diamond earrings with two 0.5-carat (1-carat total weight) lab diamonds for $1,500.
But note that the diamond clarity grade is only SI2, which is on the low end, and since you can inspect the particular diamonds, we would advise against them. But, for the sake of price comparison, let’s see what other jewelers charge for something similar.
The color grade is F, which is usually acceptable. However, the diamond cut grade is not listed anywhere. And that is a red flag. Especially for brilliant cut diamonds, the cut grade is by far the most important aspect. So if you don’t know how good the cut is, it’s a problem. And in most cases, it indicates that the quality is not great. Which in grade terms is often “very good” (very good is, in fact, not very good).
So, considering the quality, Jared is a good deal more expensive than any of our recommended lab diamond jewelers:
| Jeweler | Clarity | Color | Cut | Price |
| Ritani | VS2+ | H+ | Ideal | $1,360 |
| Clean Origin | VS2+ | F+ | Very Good | $1,350 |
| Grown Brilliance | VS2+ | F+ | Excellent | $1,750 |
| Vrai* | VS2+ | J+ | Excellent | $1,900 |
| Jared Jewelry | SI2 | F | Very Good | $1,500 |
As you can see from the above table, the price for a set of 1-carat total-weight lab diamond stud earrings is not too bad. However, when you compare the diamond grade, it’s an entirely different story.
Unsurprisingly, Zales and Kay offer the exact same pair, and the prices are $1,879 at both places (though $1,503 during a recent lab diamond sale at Zales). But, another mall jeweler, Helzberg (not in the Signet Group), only wants $1,699 (and $1,299 during a sale at Helzberg). Pandora wants $1,950, but for better quality (though not independently graded).
So, in summary, the prices for lab diamond jewelry at Jared are somewhat affordable, but you should note that the quality is not great, and we would not recommend their pre-set jewelry under any circumstances.
Shipping and Returns of Lab Diamonds at Jared
We’ll round off our review of Jared Jewelry lab-created diamonds by looking at their shipping and return policies.
When diamond quality is questionable, it’s even more critical that you can buy and return lab diamonds and jewelry risk-free. Clean Origin stands out in the business with its generous 100-day risk-free return period. But all our recommended lab diamond jewelers offer at least 30 days of risk-free consideration and inspection at home.
And so does Jared Jewelry. They offer a 30-day return period, and return shipping is free. That is excellent and what you should expect when considering such a high-ticket purchase.
Shipping, too, is free. Jared offers free 2nd-day delivery with UPS for most pre-set pieces, which is pretty impressive. Of course, it’s not free overnight shipping, such as at James Allen or Clean Origin, but it’s pretty good.
You would perhaps be inclined to expect that it’s free, but it’s far from all places that offer free shipping, including Vrai, Pandora, and other Signet jewelers, Kay and Zales. So it’s actually great to see a mall jeweler match the service level of the best online lab-grown diamond jewelers.
Summary of Jared Jewelry Lab-Grown Diamonds Review
In our review of Jared Jewelry lab-grown diamonds, we’ve both been positively surprised and disappointed. Our expectations from a mall jeweler were not the highest, and many of our expectations have been met. But Jared Jewelry is one of the better mall jewelers.
Let’s summarize our Jared lab diamonds jewelry into the pros and cons:
Pros:
- Name recognition: Jared Jewelry, despite any criticism we may have, is a legit and well-known diamond jeweler. They’re part of the world’s largest diamond jeweler, the Signet Group.
- Physical locations: Unlike some online-only retailers, Jared has a wide presence of brick-and-mortar stores where you can see their lab-grown diamonds in person before making a purchase (but so does Ritani, through their collaborations with physical jewelers).
- Selection: The selection of loose lab-grown diamonds is decent, but there’s no reason you would not go straight to James Allen for an even better selection and better prices.
- Returns & Shipping: Surprisingly, Jared Jewelry offers similar shipping and return prices and terms as our highest-recommended lab diamonds jewelers!
Cons:
- Limited selection: Despite Jared’s decent selection of loose lab diamonds, it’s still smaller than at our recommended places, including James Allen, which we suspect supplies their inventory (and software). The selection of lab diamond jewelry is paltry, identical to Kay and Zales.
- Pricing: Jared’s prices for lab diamond jewelry and loose diamonds are higher than at any of our recommended places to buy lab diamonds. Sure, prices are better than at most other mall jewelers but don’t compare with the worst.
- Quality: The quality of loose diamonds is pretty good, but be aware that some lab diamonds seem to have lower clarity than you would expect based on their grade. The quality of pre-set lab diamond jewelry is, at best, questionable and likely poor and should be avoided.
So, summing up our Jared Jewelry lab-grown diamonds review, we’ve found that Jared Jewelry is probably the best of the mall jewelers but far from the best of the lost. You should look elsewhere if you want the best prices, quality, and shopping experience.
Instead, we recommend any of the following places:
Ritani review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ritani
Ritani tops our list of places to shop for the best lab-grown diamonds because of their market-leading low prices and price transparency, the largest inventory of lab diamonds, customization options, and jewelry store partnership. In addition, Ritani is one of the best alternatives to Jared Jewelry.
Clean Origin review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Clean Origin
Clean Origin is another recommended alternative to Jared and the places to buy lab-grown diamonds. We recommend Clean Origin for its unbeatable prices, extensive lab-grown diamonds and jewelry selection, and excellent support (plus 100-day risk-free returns).
James Allen review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
James Allen
James Allen is among our highest-rated places to shop for the best lab-grown diamonds. As you will have learned in our Jared Jewelry lab-grown diamonds review, James Allen is a much better option. The service is top-notch, prices are low, the selection is enormous, and the quality is superb.
Jared Lab-Created Diamonds Review FAQs
Are lab diamonds from Jared real?
Yes, diamonds from Jared are real. They are created in a laboratory setting using advanced technology to replicate the conditions and processes that occur in nature when creating diamonds. The result is an identical product with the same physical properties as mined diamonds. Many of their lab-grown diamond jewelry pieces have been certified by independent gemological laboratories for authenticity and quality assurance.
Does Jared sell lab-created diamonds?
Jared Jewelry sells lab-created diamonds. They offer an extensive inventory of loose lab diamonds and a decent selection of lab-created diamond jewelry. However, you’ll likely find a better selection, quality, and prices elsewhere.
Where do Jared Jewelry lab diamonds come from?
Jared diamonds come from a laboratory environment, grown using advanced technology. This process starts with a diamond seed placed in an optimal growing environment and subjected to high pressure and temperature. Over several weeks or months, this creates a real diamond crystal identical to those found naturally in the earth’s crust. The resulting lab-grown diamonds have the same physical properties as natural diamonds but without any environmental impact associated with mining operations (and at a much lower cost).
Is Jared Jewelry Overpriced
In our Jared Jewelry lab-grown diamonds review, we’ve found that the prices at Jared are higher than those of the best places to buy lab diamonds. While prices are better than at other traditional jewelers, you’ll be paying a significant premium compared to online lab diamond jewelers.
Where is Jared Jewelers Headquarters
Jared Jewelers is a national jewelry chain with headquarters in Akron, Ohio. The company was founded in 1993 and has grown to become one of the largest jewelry retailers in the United States. Jared Jewelry is owned by Signet, the world’s largest diamond jeweler.
Does Jared Jewelers Sell Pandora Brilliance
Jared Jewelry does not sell the Pandora Brilliance collection. The only place you can find the Pandora Brilliance lab-grown diamond jewelry is on pandora.net, in their stores, or at any of their certified retailers.
