Lab Simulated Diamonds Hot this Christmas

With Christmas budget cuts, people are looking for ways to buy fancy jewelry for their loved ones. People are now finding that they can still purchase diamonds for their loved ones, thanks to lab simulated diamonds. Diamonds are being created in labs and are identical to mined diamonds but half the price. If you are having trouble affording diamond jewelry, look into lab simulated diamonds.

How to Be an Eco-Chic Bride

Even though it's your wedding day, you can still do your part for the environment!

Follow these eco-chic tips for planning an environmentally conscious, or "green," wedding:

• Consider a Hemp Dress - GetConscious.com has beautiful hemp dresses for each member of the wedding party.
• Look for a Green Hotel - Choose a hotel who has adpoted sustainable practices.
• Recycle - Ask your caterer to recycle leftover bottles and paper products. You can also print invitations and thank you notes on recycled paper.
• Donate - Leftover food can be donated to homeless shelters.
• Propose with an Eco-Friendly Diamond - JewelNet offers beautiful, eco-friendly, lab created diamonds for your engagement or wedding ring.

Blood Diamond Update

In the diamond-mining industry, a blood diamond (converted diamond, conflict diamond, hot diamond or war diamond) refers to a diamond mined in a war zone, usually in Africa, and sold to finance an insurgency, invading army’s war efforts, or a warlord’s activity.

However, the concept of a blood diamond was not popularized until the 2006 Leonardo DiCaprio movie, 'Blood Diamond'. The movie's vivid images and touching storyline hit the mined diamond industry hard - all of a sudden consumers wanted to know how much blood someone may have shed for their engagement ring. This resulted in diamond lobbyists needing to clear their name, and start cracking down on the blood diamond market.

But how far have these lobbyists and PR firms come?

In 2004, Amnesty International and Global Witness conducted a survey of diamond jewelers to see if they were living up to their promises to stop the trade in conflict diamonds. It was discovered that while some efforts have been made, many retailers were not doing enough: Only 18% of stores surveyed could provide a copy of their conflict diamond policy and 22% said they had no policy at all.

This is why Renaissance Diamonds exclusively offers lab-created diamonds. You can be sure that our diamonds were not mined in conflict areas - because our diamonds were never mined!

Alch-emy: Turn Tequila to Diamonds

A team of Mexican scientists were experimenting with ways to create lab diamonds from common organic solutions when they stumbled upon tequila.

As it turns out, tequila has just the right amount of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen needed to make diamonds. Cheap, white tequila returned fantastic results: tiny, spherical diamonds.

This discovery could greatly improve the industrial production of hard, heat-resistant diamond films. Large scale production will begin in 2011.