Is Brilliant Earth Diamonds Legit? Discover the Real Truth.

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Brilliant Earth Diamonds is a global leader in ethically sourced diamonds and jewelry, committed to selling Beyond Conflict-Free™ diamonds and engagement rings.

This Brilliant Earth Review will highlight what sets this online powerhouse apart from the pack. It's been a few years since I dug into their site, and there have been a lot of improvements.

The key takeaway is that Brilliant Earth is a global leader in ethically sourced diamonds and jewelry. Their commitment to selling Conflict-Free™ diamonds and engagement rings makes them one of the most openly ethical brands.

Arguably, all the vendors I work with actively strive to comply with the Kimberley Diamond Act of 2003. In that case, you can rest assured that the diamond you buy from them is also conflict-free.

Brilliant Earth Review Cute Dog Proposals.

Create a Pawesome Engagement Ring!

Is Brilliant Earth Legit?

Luxe Viviana Setting from Brilliant Earth.

Designer Settings from Brilliant Earth.

"Is Brilliant Earth Reputable?" is something people frequently ask us online and via Reddit. The company was established in August 2005 by Beth Gerstein and Eric Grossberg. According to Businessweek, Brilliant Earth has been influential in promoting ethically-sourced jewelry.

The Brilliant Earth headquarters resides in San Francisco, California, with stores throughout the country. There are more than 100,000 Brilliant Earth Diamonds to choose from on an average day. Approximately ten thousand of those diamonds are blockchain-enabled.

In addition, about 80% of the diamond listings have 3D high-definition videos that enable you to see the inclusions from 360 degrees. The Brilliant Earth Diamonds search is fully customizable so that you can adjust the filters based on your preferences.

For example, you can search using essential criteria, such as shape, carat weight, color, clarity, and price. Additionally, you can filter by countries of origin, such as Canada, Botswana, or sustainably lab-grown.

One of the founding principles of Brilliant Earth Diamonds is to raise the industry's ethical standards. In that case, Brilliant Earth aims to cultivate transparency, sustainability, and compassion.

Are Brilliant Earth Diamonds Real?

Brilliant Earth Diamond Prices Compare Shapes and Sizes.

Conflict-free Brilliant Earth Diamonds.

Brilliant Earth boasts an extensive inventory of lab-graded natural and lab-grown diamonds. When you Search Brilliant Earth, you can filter the results by lab preference, such as GIA, IGI, and HRD-Belgium.

Consequently, Brilliant Earth is a certified member of the Responsible Jewelry Council. The RJC is the leading authority for defining ethical standards for the industry, and Brilliant Earth passed its audit.

Beyond Conflict-Free™ Diamonds from Brilliant Earth are selected for their ethical and environmentally responsible origins. Their rigorous protocols for sourcing diamonds exceed the standards of current industry practices.

Brilliant Earth is one of the first jewelers to offer blockchain-enabled diamonds that enable you to trace the origin of your diamond. Suppliers must rely upon rough diamonds from specific mining operations and follow internationally recognized labor, trade, and environmental standards.

Are Brilliant Earth Diamonds Lab Grown?

Tacori Engagement Rings from Brilliant Earth.

Tacori Engagement Rings from Brilliant Earth.

Brilliant Earth offers natural and lab-grown diamonds so you can choose whichever option. Both natural and Brilliant Earth lab-grown diamonds have pros and cons, which is why you should read our article on lab-created diamonds.

Regardless of your preferred option, it comes with a diamond grading report from an independent laboratory. Brilliant Earth also provides 30-day returns and free shipping both ways.

Consequently, if you're looking for something Truly Brilliant™, that is a collection of expertly curated natural diamonds. It consists of natural, blockchain-enabled diamonds within a select range of carat weight, color, and clarity. This new collection offers mine-to-market traceability and transparency that meets Brilliant Earth's Beyond Conflict Free™ pledge.

Are Brilliant Earth Rings Good?

Side Stone and Halo Settings Brilliant Earth Diamond Reviews.

Side Stone & Halo Settings by Brilliant Earth.

If you've spent any time on social media looking for #ringspiration, then you've probably seen the beautiful designs from Brilliant Earth. They are well-known for designing stunning engagement rings that are as comfortable as beautiful.

They also strive to ensure the durability of their high-quality designs and use 100% recycled precious metals. In that way, they minimize their carbon footprint and diminish the negative impacts of metal mining.

It's a little-known fact that precious metals can be recycled repeatedly without degrading their integrity. Brilliant Earth chooses recycled alloys without sacrificing comfort, quality, or durability. In that case, you can cherish your engagement ring for a lifetime without guilt or worry.

Benefits of Buying from Brilliant Earth Diamonds:

Brilliant Earth offers competitive 30-day returns and a lifetime upgrade policy. If you want to upgrade, you'll receive full credit for your original purchase and need only spend fifty percent more to qualify. The only caveat is that their trade-in policy does not apply to lab-created diamonds.

It's also possible to purchase a ring online or visit a Brilliant Earth Showroom. At the present moment, there are fourteen showroom locations:

Brilliant Earth Showroom Locations:

  • Atlanta, GA.
  • Austin, TX.
  • Boston, MA.
  • Chicago, IL.
  • Dallas, TX.
  • Denver, CO.
  • Flatiron, NY.
  • Los Angeles, CA.
  • Philadelphia,PA.
  • Portland, OR.
  • San Diego, CA.
  • San Francisco, CA.
  • Seattle, WA.
  • Washington D.C.

In that case, you can visit a showroom to look at settings and select a diamond. You can also schedule an appointment to speak in person, chat online, or book a virtual meeting.

How to Search Brilliant Earth Diamonds:

In the first place, Brilliant Earth offers conflict-free diamonds in every popular diamond shape. However, I will focus on round brilliant cut diamonds since that is the most popular diamond shape.

The proportions of a round brilliant cut diamond dictate the volume of light return and balance of brilliance and dispersion. At the same time, the degree of optical precision will also factor into light performance.

With that in mind, we recommend the following range of search criteria and proportions:

Recommended Search Criteria:

  • Total depth between 59 – 61.8%.
  • Table diameter between 53 – 58%.
  • Crown angle between 34.3 – 35 degrees.
  • Pavilion angle between 40.6 – 40.9 degrees.
  • Lower girdle facet length between 75 - 80%.
  • Girdle between 0.7% thin to slightly thick.
  • Culet: GIA "none” or AGS "pointed” (same thing).
  • Polish of AGS Ideal or GIA Excellent.
  • Symmetry of AGS Ideal or GIA Excellent.

Suggested Search Parameters:

For the sake of this example, let's search Brilliant Earth for a conflict-free diamond with these characteristics:

  • Shape: round brilliant.
  • Price: $10,000.00 or less.
  • Carat weight: 1.00 carats and larger.
  • Clarity: VS-2 or higher.
  • Color: G-color and higher.
  • Fluorescence: none to strong blue.
  • Cut class: Super Ideal.

Those are the settings used to find the diamond at the top of the page. This screenshot shows the search criteria that I use to search for the best diamonds from Brilliant Earth.

Screenshot of Search Criteria:
How to Search Brilliant Earth using advanced filters.

Search Brilliant Earth Using This Criteria.

Advanced Filter Settings:

Set the advanced filters on Brilliant Earth as shown above if you're looking for the best looking round diamonds:

  • Real View Available.
  • Hearts and Arrows.
  • Excellent Polish.
  • Table Diameter between 53 - 58%
  • Report: GIA.
  • Fluorescence: Strong to None.
  • Excellent Symmetry.
  • Total Depth between 59 - 61.8%.

You can check the boxes to designate a country of origin if you have a preference. However, I prefer to leave those options open to benefit from the most extensive selection. After all, it's already difficult enough to find diamonds that meet my selection criteria.

Filtering the Search Results:

In this instance, there were only nine diamonds with characteristics within the scope of the search criteria. Be that as it may, only a few of those diamonds will survive the next step.

After all, the majority of them will not have a desirable crown/pavilion angle offset. In other words, you're only looking for the diamonds with the following crown/pavilion angle offset:

  • The Crown angle between 34.3 - 35 degrees.
  • A Pavilion angle between 40.6 - 40.9 degrees.

With this in mind, the next step is to open up all the diamond details pages in a separate tab of your browser. To do that, follow these steps:

  1. 1
    Right-click your mouse over "View".
  2. 2
    Select "Open Link In New Tab" from the dropdown list.
  3. 3
    Repeat this process for every diamond in the list.

How to View the Diamond Details:

How to Choose the Best Looking Brilliant Earth Diamonds.

How to Pick the Best Brilliant Earth Diamonds.

The image above shows what these steps might look like in your browser. If you're using Google Chrome, it will look pretty much exactly as shown above.

Beyond Conflict Free Diamonds from Brilliant Earth.

Create Your Perfect Ring on Brilliant Earth.

Next, just right-click your mouse over the line listing for each diamond. Secondly, you're going to select the option to Open Link in New Tab. Then, you'll repeat the process in like manner for all of the diamonds that appear in the search results.

Once the diamond details pages are open in separate tabs, you will evaluate the proportions. It is a time-consuming process to have to open up the diamond details pages individually.

Unfortunately, this is a necessary part of the process at this point. Be that as it may, the result will be worth the time spent if we're able to find a diamond with the right proportions. With that in mind, let's review the diamond details pages for the two that meet my selection criteria.

Brilliant Earth H&A Diamond Review #1:

Brilliant Earth Hearts and Arrows Diamond Review.

Brilliant Earth Hearts and Arrows Diamond, SKU 12174729.

The screenshot above shows the basic details for this Brilliant Earth Hearts and Arrows diamond on October 20, 2021. If you click on the icons on the left, the larger image will appear in place of the hearts' image.

Contour Engagement Ring Sets from Brilliant Earth.

Contour Wedding Sets from Brilliant Earth.

In this case, the hearts' pattern is inconsistent and does not meet our criteria for the hearts and arrows designation. The heart in the relative eight o'clock position is closest to our expectations.

Whereas the rest of the hearts' look more like lawn darts from our perspective. Regardless of that fact, the proportions of this diamond do meet our selection criteria.

According to the GIA, the diamond has a 40.8 degree pavilion angle that is offset by a 34.5 degree crown angle. In that case, the stage is set for the diamond to produce a high volume of light return.

It should also exhibit a virtual balance of brilliance and dispersion. However, the sparkle would be even more vivid and intense if the optical precision were better.

Then again, the diamond would be more expensive because it takes up to 4X longer to achieve the higher degree of optical precision. That is the consistency of facet shape, size, and alignment from the perspective of 360-degrees.

As that may be, the overall cut grade of this diamond is well within the Top 1% of the annual production for rounds. However, it's not in the Top 0.001% that we consider worthy of the H&A designation. To put it another way, it's going to perform like a standard Porsche 911 non-turbo, but it's not a GT3 RS.

Brilliant Earth H&A Diamond Review #2:

Hearts and Arrows Diamond Review for Brilliant Earth.

Brilliant Earth Hearts and Arrows Diamond, SKU 12057915.

Halo and Sidestone Engagement Rings from Brilliant Earth.

Choose Your Favorite Ring Style from Brilliant Earth.

Once again, the screenshot above shows the details for this hearts and arrows diamond from Brilliant Earth. As you can see, the hearts' pattern is inconsistent, so it does not meet our definition of hearts and arrows.

However, the diamond does meet our proportions criteria. According to the GIA, this diamond has a 40.8 degree pavilion angle offset by a 35-degree crown angle.

In that case, the stage is set for a high volume of light return and a virtual balance of brilliance and dispersion. It's worth mentioning that less than 0.001% of round diamonds meet our criteria for the H&A designation.

The fact that this diamond exhibits hearts is an indication that it is on the higher end of the spectrum for the GIA Excellent grade. In that case, it's a good candidate if you're looking for a diamond that will perform better than most.

Pick Your Favorite Diamond Shape:

Brilliant Earth offers more than 100,000 loose diamonds in the most popular shapes. In order to help you select the best performing diamond, we provide the following tutorials:

Are Brilliant Earth Diamond Prices Good?

Brilliant Earth Review the Waverly Halo Setting.

The Waverly Halo Setting by Brilliant Earth.

Of course, Brilliant Earth offers competitive pricing on their diamond ring selections. However, jewelry is a luxury product, so pricing will fluctuate across certain categories. For example, the diamond shape can affect price, as well as its individual characteristics.

Another benefit of buying from Brilliant Earth is that they design most of their own settings. In that case, the price you pay depends primarily on the components and design elements. The fact of the matter is that some ring styles are more complicated and labor intensive than others.

At the end of the day, rest assured that Brilliant Earth prices are relatively comparable to other brands. In other words, the majority of online retailers price similarly because they’re competing on a global scale.

Payment and Financing Options:

  • Cash/Wire Transfer (1.5% discount).
  • Debit or credit card.
  • PayPal.
  • Affirm and private label financing.
  • Layaway.
  • Apple Pay (mobile devices only).
Brilliant Earth Financing and Payment Options.

Brilliant Earth Payment Options.

Brilliant Earth financing is available through Wells Fargo bank and restrictions apply. For example, it is only available to US customers. It is also dependent on credit approval, see site for details. 

Consequently, it’s worth checking out because sometimes special incentives are available. For example, I’ve seen offers like 12 months no interest if paid off within the first year, etc.

Customer Service + Reviews:

Brilliant Earth Customer Service is available 24/7 to ensure your needs are met.

  • 30-day full refund or exchange.*
  • Free shipping + free return shipping.*
  • Free engraving on engagement rings and wedding bands.*
  • 60-day free ring resizing.*

* Terms and conditions apply, see Brilliant Earth for details. Most of this is pretty standard at this point in time. However, it's important to note that custom orders and anything that has modified is non-returnable. That makes sense, right?

One thing that sets Brilliant Earth apart is that they offer free round trip shipping if you need to resize your ring within the first sixty days. In contrast, most of their competitors only provide free shipping at the time of purchase.

Warranty:

  • Lifetime Manufacturer’s Warranty on all jewelry purchases, except for estate and vintage products.
  • Extended Service Plan.
  • Three-year Extended Service Plan provides additional peace of mind beyond their complimentary manufacturing warranty by protecting and upholding the quality of your Brilliant Earth jewelry.
  • Full inspection and cleaning provided for your jewelry as well as covered repairs that may become necessary due to normal wear.

Free Lifetime Diamond Upgrade:

How to Build Your Own Brilliant Earth Engagement Ring.

Build Your Dream Ring on Brilliant Earth.

Brilliant Earth offers full trade-in value for any natural diamonds that you purchase from them. However, lab-grown diamonds from Brilliant Earth are not eligible for their upgrade policy.

In addition, the price of the new diamond must be at least fifty percent more than the original purchase. That's actually pretty good because a lot of places require you to spend 2X the price.

Note that the original documentation, such as the lab report must be provided at the time of upgrade. The diamond must also be in salable condition. That means that it can't be chipped or damaged in any way.

Upgrades are not available for colored gemstones, settings and jewelry, or lab created diamonds. They will recycle gold, or platinum jewelry, and offer a credit based on current metal prices.

Temporary Setting Option:

2 mm Comfort Fit Temporary Setting from Brilliant Earth.

The Temporary Setting from Brilliant Earth.

Brilliant Earth offers a temporary setting option to make it easier to buy an engagement ring. This is great because you can be confident about your diamond choice, but unsure about the setting style.

In that event, you can buy the diamond and have them set it in a temporary setting. Then, you can propose and present the ring and your partner can choose the setting they like.

The classic 18K White Gold 2mm Comfort Fit solitaire engagement ring from Brilliant Earth is the temporary setting available. As you can see, this is one of the classic ring styles that is quite popular.

FSC Certified Packaging:

Brilliant Earth Wooden Ring Box.

Brilliant Earth Wooden Ring Box.

The ring boxes that Brilliant Earth uses are another example of their sustainable mindset. The boxes are crafted from wood that originates from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests.

Those are forests that are responsibly managed to preserve them for the enjoyment of future generations. In similar fashion, the packaging materials that Brilliant Earth uses also come from responsibly managed sources.

They also include a complimentary non-toxic biodegradable jewelry cleaner with diamond or gemstone orders more than one thousand dollars. The exception is for gemstones such as pearls, which the cleaner should not be used due to their delicate nature.

Help Searching Brilliant Earth Diamonds:

If you're looking for a diamond from Brilliant Earth, we're happy to help you search. At the same time, we can help you evaluate the details for any diamonds that you may be considering. Just initiate an inquiry using our Diamond Concierge Service.

* Links & Prices Disclaimer:

Apparently, Brilliant Earth deletes the diamond details pages once a diamond sells. In other words, links to those pages are temporary. In that case, any links to those pages will eventually return a 404 not found status.

With that in mind, we provide links to the search page on Brilliant Earth rather than individual diamond details pages. Screenshots of the diamond details pages shown above are on file. We will provide copies of those pages upon request.

In addition, all diamonds are subject to prior sale or memo, and prices are subject to change. In that case, the prices shown herein represent market conditions at the time this article is written.

Super Charge Your Diamond Buying Skills:

Follow the Steps in The Nice Ice® Diamond Buying Blueprint™ and Unlock the Secret for Maximizing Sparkle Factor and Light Performance. These are the Tips & Tricks from the back office of Nice Ice Diamonds.