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Summary of Vrai Diamond Jewelry Review
Vrai is perhaps best known for its affiliation with Diamond Foundry, a celebrity-backed lab diamond producer that is 100% sustainable and carbon-neutral (something that Pandora Jewelry aspires to be and Brilliant Earth is too). Vrai, being owned by Diamond Foundry, sources its diamonds exclusively from them and, therefore, is carbon-neutral.
Vrai was formerly known as Vrai and Oro but now goes by the shorter name. Vrai, meaning “true”, “real”, or “right” in French, seems a fitting name for a business that’s wholly dedicated to supporting an ethically and environmentally better diamond choice.
Our Vrai review assesses them based on their lab-grown diamond focus, ethical and environmental impact, the buying experience, size and quality of inventory, and, of course, price level. We’ll also look at their shopping and shipping policies and conclude our Vrai review by summing up our findings.
In our Vrai review, we find that they excel when giving the customer a premium experience. Starting from the buying process and sleek website to their virtual video appointments and celebrity endorsements, there’s a distinct premium feel to it. Vrai’s collaborations with designers and bespoke collections are a plus, too, if you’re looking for something unique.
Second, through their use of lab-grown diamonds from Diamond Foundry, their owner, Vrai, offers completely sustainable diamonds produced using renewable energy and not dependent on any carbon offsetting.
However, it comes at a cost. The prices at Vrai are higher than at any of our highest-rated lab diamond jewelers, including price-leaders Clean Origin and Ritani, as well as similarly environmentally-conscious Brilliant Earth (see our Brilliant Earth vs. Vrai comparison). They are also higher than what James Allen offers but without similar advanced diamond inspection features or gemologist support.
In addition, Vrai (or rather Diamond Foundry) does not independently certify diamonds. While they provide diamond certificates, these are produced by an in-house GIA-trained gemologist. Not to be confused with a GIA certification. We find that slightly misleading, making it harder for consumers to assess and evaluate their diamonds.
That said, Diamond Foundry does create high-quality lab-grown diamonds, and our experience is that the diamonds used by Vrai generally are of excellent quality too. You just can’t be sure.
So, if sustainability is the highest on your list or you value the premium feeling associated with the brand, then we think Vrai is an excellent choice. Vrai is also a perfect choice for anyone who loves its gorgeous bespoke jewelry and designer collaborations. However, Vrai is not for the budget-conscious shopper.
Vrai Jewelry is a reputable and trustworthy company with helpful customer service and great buying terms. Backed by large investors, Vrai is definitely legit and an excellent choice for the fashion-conscious and sustainability-minded. If you prefer shopping at a physical store, that is also an option with flagship showrooms in LA, San Francisco, and China.
Our Vrai review lands on a very respectable 4 out of 5 stars with no hesitation to recommend buying there – especially if sustainability, designs, and a premium brand value are important to you.
Vrai review in a nutshell: Gorgeous and sustainable lab diamond design jewelry – but you pay a brand premium.
Pros and Cons of Vrai Diamond Jewelry
3 lab-grown diamond jewelers you should also consider
To learn more, keep reading our Vrai review.
Who is Vrai Jewelry?
Vanessa Stofenmacher and Chelsea Nicholson initially founded Vrai and Oro to create a simpler and cheaper approach to buying and designing jewelry. They quickly gained a following with a focus on cutting costs and creating simple yet beautiful jewelry designs.
In the beginning, they did not sell lab-created diamonds but instead ethically-sourced mined diamonds (an oxymoron: learn why lab-grown diamonds are the better choice). However, later they switched to the conscious choice of lab diamonds and, in 2016, were acquired by Diamond Foundry as the jewelry arm of the lab diamond producer.
Diamond Foundry, a celebrity and tech billionaire-backed producer of lab-grown diamonds, is famous for creating 100% sustainable lab diamonds powered solely using renewable energy. And for having Leonardo DiCaprio as an investor, of course.
This matters because Vrai exclusively uses diamonds from Diamond Foundry and thus, by extension, is also completely sustainable and carbon-neutral. Great job.
Today, Vrai has lost the Oro part of the name (Spanish for gold) and continues their impressive growth trajectory and opening flagship stores on the West Coast and in luxury-loving China. (their name is styled as VRAI, but we’ll use the standard capitalization).
Luxury and a premium brand feel is the second part of Vrai. Through collaborations with household-name designers, unique collections, celebrity endorsements, and partnerships, Vrai has created a valuable jewelry brand in the lab diamond space.
We applaud Vrai for bringing lab-grown diamonds into fashion magazines and the consciousness of celebrities, no doubt helped by DiCaprio’s Hollywood connections. However, in our review, we will disregard any brand value associated with Vrai, and next, in our Vrai review, we’ll compare them to any other lab diamond jeweler.
Is Vrai Jewelry legit?
Are Vrai Diamonds sold in stores?
Vrai only sells lab-created diamonds (now)
Though Vrai started their business sourcing mined diamonds, they only sell lab-created diamonds and lab diamond jewelry today. They are fully dedicated to making a positive environmental and societal impact and thus praise the many benefits of lab-grown over mined diamonds.
As an extension of Diamond Foundry, the leading sustainable producer of sustainable lab-created diamonds, Vrai is similarly selling environmentally sustainable diamonds created using renewable energy only.
Vrai has devoted a significant amount of their website to educating visitors about the many environmental and societal benefits of lab diamonds. However, unlike other diamond sellers, particularly those who also are interested in selling mined diamonds, such as GemsNY, Helzberg, and Zales, Vrai does not try to diminish the benefits of lab diamonds or the drawbacks of mined diamonds.
That’s refreshing, and we highly appreciate the resources that Vrai has invested in promoting the ethically better diamond choice.
In addition, Vrai sponsors a host of causes that is not directly related to diamonds and jewelry but that do great things for the community. But whether you donate to causes yourself or do it through buying from a company that does the same is a personal choice. We would rather decide ourselves what causes to sponsor but praise Vrai for drawing attention to important causes.
The most important societal and environmental impact that Vrai, and their owner Diamond Foundry, can have is through their direct operations. And they are unquestionably at the forefront of that through their 100% sustainable diamond production.
Next in our Vrai review, we’ll examine the actual diamonds that Vrai sells and Diamond Foundry produces. We’ll start by assessing their diamond and jewelry inventory.
Vrai lab-grown diamond inventory
At Vrai, you can buy loose diamonds, but it’s not easy to figure out how. You will have to start the process of creating your own engagement ring, and then when at the diamond detail page, you are presented with the option of buying the loose stone.
However, most people searching for diamonds are not looking for loose diamonds but rather diamond jewelry.
There are basically two ways you can purchase diamond jewelry. First, you can buy a pre-set piece of jewelry where most or all decisions have been made for you. That includes the quality of the diamonds, and you typically will not know what exact diamonds are used until you receive your jewelry. Better diamond sellers will include a diamond certificate but, unless you want (or can) make use of the return policy, it’s too late if you are unhappy with the quality of the diamonds.
That’s why we recommend that you always “create your own jewelry”. That means you decide what jewelry sets you are interested in and then choose which diamonds you would like to have put in that jewelry. This way, you can get precisely the type of diamond you want, and is best suited for the particular jewelry and material you have chosen.
Often, diamond sellers will also try to offload their lower-quality diamonds in pre-set jewelry. And more often than not, they won’t even inform you about all the diamond quality aspects of the diamonds they will be pairing the jewelry with. Notable exceptions include Ritani (see more in our Ritani review), which uses diamonds of the highest quality on the pre-set jewelry, which is also why you’ll typically pay slightly more.
Luckily, at Vrai, you can do both. In the next section of our Vrai review, we’ll start by looking at their pre-set jewelry and later look at their create-your-own jewelry and their selection of loose diamonds that you can match it with.
Vrai pre-set lab-grown diamond jewelry
Vrai has an extensive collection of pre-set jewelry, which makes sense considering their 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.
Where Vrai stands out is with its unique designs that are both simple and very elegant. As a result, you won’t find colorful, creative jewelry such as at Barkev’s, but instead discrete and subtle pieces that let the diamonds themselves do the work.
We think that Vrai’s jewelry designs are some of the best we’ve seen. We particularly appreciate the subtle yet exquisite designs that are exceptionally creative while also somehow understated. They are mostly unique pieces that you will not find elsewhere, and, as we’ll note later in our Vrai review, you pay a premium for that.
Most jewelry is available with several different carat-weight diamonds (size is correlated with but not equal to carat weight), and several of them can be fitted with various diamond shapes.
The numerous classic and creative designs coupled with the option to fit them with different carats and shapes are very impressive, and it’s one of the best inventories of unique jewelry designs we have come across. At the time of the review, there is 251 unique design, most of which come in several carat weight and size options. That’s quite impressive.
As we noted earlier in our Vrai review, the drawback of choosing pre-set jewelry is often that you cannot choose the quality of the diamond. And worse, the pre-selected diamond quality is sub-par. This is common in the industry, but nevertheless an issue (Ritani is an outlier, they use high-quality diamonds in the pre-set jewelry).
The color grades and clarity are great and may even, in some cases, be too good (meaning that you’re overpaying and could have sufficed with a lesser grade).
However, the diamond cut grade, the single most important aspect of a diamond’s quality, is not listed. Upon request (through their responsive and friendly chat), we have been informed that the diamond cut grade is excellent.
That is adequate but not great. But, with diamonds, you should never settle for adequate. You should always pick the best possible diamond cut, which, at Vrai, is ideal (or ideal+hearts).
And, as we’ll note later in our Vrai review, there are more problems with the diamond grade. All the grades that Vrai lists are based on an internal assessment, not an independent laboratory report! We’ll get back to that.
Lastly, for some of the pre-set jewelry pieces, there is only one-carat weight available and for some, it is relatively low. While this from a design perspective may make sense, in some cases, the stones will be too small to allow enough light to be reflected, making the diamond sparkle much less noticeable (and that’s one of the key reasons to buy a diamond in the first place).
So, while Vrai offers some of the best jewelry designs we’ve reviewed, we are disappointed by Vrai not pairing their jewelry pieces with the best diamond cuts.
Hopefully, by choosing your own diamonds, you can get around that. And that’s what we’ll look at next in our review of Vra.
Vrai lab-grown loose diamond selection (create your own jewelry)
As mentioned a few times throughout the Vrai review, we generally recommend that you pick your own diamonds and pair them with whatever jewelry you’re looking for.
Fortunately, Vrai allows you to do that. But, unfortunately, it’s only possible for engagement rings and jewelry with a minimum of 1-carat diamonds (or 2 carats if it’s a pair, such as earrings).
It’s a shame, and we think a huge miss, that you cannot choose your own diamonds at lower diamond weight such as you can at our top-rated lab-grown diamond jewelry sellers such as Brilliant Earth, Ritani, Clean Origin, and James Allen.
If Vrai instead paired their (sub-1-carat) jewelry with the best-cut diamonds (ideal or higher), this would be less of a problem.
But, at least it’s possible to select your own diamonds when buying an engagement ring and 1+ carat jewelry, so let’s do that. We’ll focus on engagement rings since this is typically where someone would go beyond a 1-carat diamond.
Vrai lab-grown diamond engagement rings
The first step to creating your own lab-grown diamond engagement ring at Vrai is to pick either the design first or the diamond. We’ll start with the diamond since we’re primarily interested in assessing their diamond inventory.
At the time of review, they have 3,849 loose diamonds available to choose from. They cover all diamond shapes, from the most popular round brilliant to the more exotic and historic shapes such as Asscher and emerald cut. All diamonds available have a minimum of an excellent cut grade, which will either be the highest or the second-highest grade, depending on the diamond grading institute. GIA uses excellent while IGI, which grades most lab diamonds, uses ideal.
Vrai’s diamonds are graded excellent, ideal, or ideal + hearts. The latter is a type of grade that some sellers take upon themselves to bestow on diamonds that they find are the very best (and, in this case, presumably exhibit the coveted hearts and arrow patterns). But note that this is not a grade that an independent institute has awarded, so take it with a grain of salt.
What is the Ideal + Hearts cut grade?
In Vrai’s case, as we already touched on earlier in our Vrai review, they don’t even use an independent grading institute. So we can’t know for sure what each grade means. But, with Diamond Foundry being a reputable company and one of the leading manufacturers of lab diamonds, we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s comparable to what a grading institute would have landed on (Vrai themselves claim that is the case).
To further assess the extent of the inventory, we typically look for a reference diamond. This is based on a popular set of grades that also, in many instances, are our recommended ones.
The reference diamond is a round brilliant-cut, weighing 0.93-1.07 carats (by going just under and over the popular 1-carat, you sometimes can find an excellent deal). The reference clarity is VS1-2 with a color grade between I and J. The cut, of course, is always the best. With lab-grown diamonds, most often certified by IGI, that is ideal.
However, searching at Vrai presents a few challenges. You are only able to filter on shape, carat, and price. You cannot filter for cut, color, or clarity. However, you can sort on these grades. It’s all a little odd and inconvenient for the user. Especially since Vrai’s selection of lab-grown diamond is actually pretty decent. But, it’s a far cry from what Brilliant Earth and Ritani boast, but it’s enough to be able to find a selection of suitable candidates.
Through sorting and searching, we found around 15 stones with a minimum cut grade of ideal. That is a good selection and close to what we have seen at other jewelers. Usually, we would further inspect these diamonds, but as we shall discuss later in the Vrai review, that is as easy as we would have liked it to be.
Before we get to that, we’ll note that 15 suitable diamonds may not seem like that many, especially out of almost 4,000 in total. This, however, is primarily due to our criteria not matching well with Vrai’s inventory that caters to engagement rings (which tend to be larger and span more diamond shapes). All in all, Vrai’s selection of lab-grown diamonds is excellent and, if you’re shopping for an engagement ring, chances are you’ll be able to find several suitable candidates.
In the next part of our Vrai review, we’ll examine the buying experience, and as part of that, the ability to inspect diamonds in detail.
Vrai diamond buying experience
The overall experience of shopping at Vrai is very 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 particularly the case when you’re buying pre-set jewelry, while it’s a little more cumbersome when you’re building your own engagement ring.
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, critical for any diamond jewelry purchase.
Vrai diamond inspection features
Once you have narrowed down your search to the diamond that fits your criteria, the next step is to look closer at each diamond. We refer to this as the diamond inspection (learn more about it in our lab-grown diamond buying guide).
At Vrai, you can see the details while still on the search results page, or you can click “see more details”. We recommend that you stay at the search results page since your filters are not stored when you go back from the diamond details page. On a desktop computer, the diamond 360-degree video is also way too big. On the phone, the video size is preserved.
Luckily, the “see more details” is actually not true. You can see the exact same information by staying on the results page by clicking the diamond certificate (it opens up in a new window).
The details listed here include the 4C grades, cut, color, clarity, and carat. These are what you primarily use to assess the diamond quality and the first step to the diamond inspection.
Another critical step is to study the diamond by viewing high-definition videos and images. This allows you to look for any imperfections (blemishes and inclusions), and assess brilliance and color.
Fortunately, Vrai features a 360-degree video of all their diamonds, which allows you to perform an inspection. However, there are no HD still images available. Our top-rated lab-grown diamond sellers, notably James Allen, offer this critical feature.
The next step is to inspect the diamond certificate, which contains additional details about the diamond (the same as are listed on the diamond details page on Vrai’s website).
One of the key aspects of the diamond certificate is documenting where any imperfections are. This allows you to further assess the size and placement of the imperfections, and it gives hints to what part of the images and video you should pay extra attention to.
Sadly, Vrai does not use independent diamond institutes to grade their diamonds. This not only casts doubts over the grades that they assign. It also means that the imperfections are not noted on the “certificate” that their in-house gemologist has produced.
The certificate itself is not very impressive. It looks a little homemade (because it is), and the various mentions of GIA just add to the confusion, perhaps misleading some consumers to think that this is a GIA certificate.
That said, it does contain valuable information such as diamond diagrams, polish, symmetry, and fluorescence. But, unfortunately, it’s just not enough.
We have no reason to doubt their in-house, GIA-trained gemologists’ grades, and we don’t necessarily think they are wrong. In fact, Vrai offers a warranty on the validity of the grades so that if an independent institute grades it differently, you presumably can get your money back.
The problem is that such grading costs an additional $375 (quoted by Vrai). So you can probably guess why Vrai (or Diamond Foundry) did not find it necessary to have their diamonds independently graded.
In addition, GIA’s highest diamond cut grade is excellent. So we are not sure how the warranty works when Vrai themselves are using two additional higher grades. We doubt that anyone has ever availed of Vrai’s generous offer of a $375 GIA grading.
It should be noted that GIA’s grading reports are the most expensive, and IGI’s costs are lower. However, the lack of an independent grading report should be added to the true cost of Vrai’s diamonds and diamond jewelry.
Vrai virtual and in-person appointments
As part of the buying process, Vrai offers virtual and in-person appointments. Unfortunately, in-person appointments are available only in California. Still, they do have pop-up events, currently limited to New York City and Philadelphia (and Manchester and London in the UK).
Instead of traveling, most people will probably opt to schedule a virtual appointment. This is something that James Allen, Ritani, Brilliant Earth, and Clean Origin also do, and it’s a great option to receive gemologist advice in the complex diamond buying process.
Vrai’s virtual appointments work really well, and while you are being guided by independent gemologists such as at James Allen, the advice given is honest and transparent and far from the experience of pushy salespeople, you might have experienced at traditional brick-and-mortar jewelers.
We recommend that you do your homework in advance and pick out diamonds and jewelry that you want to discuss before the meeting. However, we also recommend that you make the purchase later to avoid making a hasty decision and allow you to compare with alternative options.
Vrai support and service
Altogether, we find that the service and support offered by Vrai through virtual appointments, chat, and email is excellent. The knowledge of their staff is excellent, and answers and replies are prompt. Their advice is honest, and they understand your needs and guide you toward the best choices for you.
Our take on the buying process in our Vrai review is generally favorable. Still, we are disappointed by the lack of independent diamond grading and would have preferred that Vrai was a little more forthcoming when sharing this information.
Vrai lab-grown prices
In our Vrai review, we have so far found that Vrai’s lab-grown diamond inventory is decent, and, taken at face value, the diamond quality is also high. The buying experience, for the most part, is excellent but evaluating and inspecting diamonds is not anywhere near what we would have wanted to see.
In the following part of the Vrai review, we visit another critical part of any diamond purchase – the price.
We’ll first look at the prices of their pre-set diamond jewelry. While it’s challenging to assess the quality-to-price ratio, we’ll still make an educated attempt at reviewing Vrai’s prices.
Vrai pre-set lab-grown diamond jewelry prices
Without independent diamond grading, it’s challenging to compare Vrai’s prices with competitors. However, we know that the cut grade is excellent. We’ll thus be using this price level to compare a couple of samples.
One of the most popular diamond jewelry pieces is the classic diamond stud earrings. At Vrai, the 1-carat total weight (that’s 2 x 0.5 carat) costs $1,400. Oddly, they list the price of a single earring, and this is the price listed on the inventory page. A little misleading, but we’ll let that one slide.
A pair of 1-carat, VS2+ with a color grade of min J, and an unknown, but possibly excellent, cut set you back $1,400 at Vrai. That’s $44 more than for Ritani’s VS2+ and H-color (min). But Ritani’s is graded by IGI and has an ideal cut grade (and a better color-grade). So the diamonds that Ritani pairs the earrings with are of significantly better quality.
James Allen is $150 cheaper with a better minimum color grade but a lower clarity grade. However, also James Allen’s stud diamonds are graded by IGI to be of the ideal grade.
You can get around this by choosing a minimum of 1-carat diamonds (which means 2-carat total weight) but then the price also balloons to more than $2,800.
However, what you are paying for at Vrai is the certainty that the diamonds are 100% climate-friendly, the slightly more modern design, and, to some extent, the premium brand value. What you don’t get is the certainty that this is the best diamond cut grade.
The following jewelry piece in our Vrai price comparison is the classic diamond tennis bracelet. Vrai sells three versions, petite, medium, and large. The petite sports a weight of 2.80 total carats, and the stones are, again, graded (by Vrai) as VS2+ and at least J colored. The cut grade is unknown, but we assume it’s excellent.
The price at Vrai is $4,950. Most other diamond jewelers stick with round carat weights, and the closest is 3 carats (total). For example, clean Origin asks $1,985 for theirs, while James Allen, with a better cut grade, would like $2,300 for their 3-carat version.
Again, you’re paying a premium at Vrai, and while the added cost for 100% sustainability at Vrai was small for the stud earrings, the diamond bracelet seems overpriced. In fairness, Vrai’s tennis bracelet design is perhaps a little better, but in our opinion, it’s not worth the 2X price.
These are just two examples, but they indicate the overall price level for Vrai’s pre-set diamond jewelry. A large part of their selection is slightly more expensive than what you’ll pay at price-leading competitors, while another part is grossly overpriced.
We think the higher prices are justified for their more creative and unique designs, however. So if you are looking for classic designs that you can find elsewhere, you can get a better deal at our top-rated lab-grown diamond sellers. But, if you are looking for a particular design and (too) fall in love with Vrai’s beautifully elegant designs, the added cost may well be worth it.
Vrai loose lab-grown diamond jewelry prices (for creating your own engagement ring)
Next in our Vrai review, we’ll assess their prices on loose diamonds (only available for engagement rings and jewelry with a minimum of 1+ carat diamond stones – each).
This is the closest we’ll get to an apples-to-apples price level comparison between jewelers. Of course, no diamonds are alike, but when aggregating across many diamonds with similar grades and characteristics, we’re able to get close.
However, this requires that the grades be comparable, and since Vrai does not have their diamonds independently graded, it’s challenging to stack the diamonds against each other. With other lab-grown diamond jewelers, it’s easier because they often use the same grading institute.
With Vrai, as we have noted several times through our Vrai review, that is not the case. But, as we did with the pre-set diamond jewelry, we’ll attempt by giving Vrai the benefit of the doubt and accept their grades as if they were comparable with those of IGI.
Going back to our reference diamond search (0.93-1.07 carat, VS1-2, color I-J, and ideal cut), we compare the prices to those of our highest-rated lab-grown diamond jewelers.
At Vrai, the cheapest diamond that fits these criteria costs $1,141, but it’s at the lower end of the weight spectrum at 0.94 carats, and the dearest is a 1.05-carats ideal+hearts cut grade diamond at $1,664. In between, we have found a few better-priced stones, for example, a 1.06-carat J-colored VS2 at $1,183.
Similar diamonds at Ritani, GemsNY, Brilliant Earth, and Clean Origin range from just under $1,000 to $1,200. And while there is overlap in the price ranges with Vrai, similar quality diamonds typically are priced $2-300 higher at Vrai.
However, you also need to take into account the lack of independent grading and certificate. The certificate alone represents a value of $2-300. The lack of certainty is hard to put a dollar amount on, but since Vrai does guarantee that GIA will arrive at similar conclusions (even if their scale is different), we’ll ignore this aspect for now.
Similar to pre-set jewelry, Vrai is slightly more expensive than the price-leading competitors. But, again, this premium can partly be attributed to the fully sustainable production process, which only Vrai offers. If only Vrai would use an independent grading institute and not skimp on the certification, we would recommend their diamonds over the cheaper but less sustainable options.
Vrai shipping and returns
Vrai offers free shipping, but the type of complimentary shipping provided depends on the value of your order.
- For orders over $10,000, Vrai offers free overnight delivery.
- For orders over $700 and made-to-order jewelry, engagement, and wedding designs, the free shipping is two-business days (so no weekend deliveries).
- For all other orders, Vrai uses standard ground delivery taking 5-7 business days.
It’s a little confusing, and we wish they would be a little more generous and offer at least two-day delivery on all orders. James Allen and Clean Origin are examples of how it’s done right.
All orders are fully insured during shipping, regardless of order size. So you can rest assured until your jewelry arrives at your home (and you have signed for it).
We’re a little disappointed about the shipping offered on orders below $10,000, but it’s acceptable. At least all orders are insured. If you buy for less than $700, make sure you order well in advance (the same for any holiday period).
Vrai accepts returns up to 30 days after delivery for a full refund. That’s pretty standard but adequate to allow for a risk-free purchase. Loose diamonds only have a 14-day return period, but we would be surprised if many of Vrai’s customers buy loose stones.
One bonus is that engraved items will also be refunded (minus the engraving fee), which is actually better than at most places. That is particularly important if you buy an engagement ring, which you will often want to have engraved.
Of course, Vrai is still trailing Clean Origin’s generous 100-day-return periods. Still, it is worth noting that during the holidays, Vrai, like James Allen and a few other sellers, extend their return period to early January.
Vrai Sustainability
One of the reasons why you pay more for Vrai diamonds and jewelry, besides their exquisite designs, is their dedication to sustainability. This includes using the first zero-emission lab-grown diamonds from their owner, Diamond Foundry. But it also means using recycled and recyclable packaging and recycled gold.
This is very admirable and in our view justifies, at least partly, their sometimes higher prices.
Vrai Review Verdict
Throughout our Vrai review, we’ve been both very positively surprised and disappointed. Summing up our Vrai review verdict, and in particular, comparing Vrai with competitors has proven challenging.
The reason for that is probably that Vrai cannot be compared to any other lab-grown diamond jeweler. They are the only ones that source 100% sustainable diamonds (from their owner, Diamond Foundry).
In some aspects, they are also closer to a fashion or couture jeweler than the more diamond-focused sellers who top our review ratings.
Perhaps Vrai is best seen as the luxury version of Pandora Jewelry. Both focus on design first and being completely sustainable (Pandora is not there yet). Vrai similarly is brand-driven, and part of the price you are paying is premium experience and brand recognition.
So if you are looking for classic jewelry and the most critical element for you is the diamonds, you’ll get more for your money at places like Clean Origin, GemsNY, and Ritani.
However, if you want something unique and different but are not looking for colorful, over-the-top jewelry such as you’ll find at Barkev’s or even Pandora’s or Lightbox’s more edgy fashion design, then Vrai is the perfect choice for you.
And likewise, if being 100% climate-friendly is important to you, Vrai is an excellent choice. You pay a premium for it, but we think it’s worth it. You just have to trust their grading is accurate (and accept the decreased resale value that the lack of certificate adds).
If environmental friendliness is important to you, consider the sustainably rated lab diamonds that Brilliant Earth offers (read more in our Vrai vs Brilliant Earth comparison and in our in-depth Brilliant Earth review).
To conclude our Vrai review, because of the lack of transparency and independent grading we cannot award Vrai a top rating. However, they redeem themselves through their complete climate sourcing and beautifully elegant and simplistic designs.
For that, our final Vrai review verdict and rating land on a very respectable 4 stars out of 5.
