Brilliant Earth Review | Read Before Buying (2023)

On this page you’ll learn everything you need to know about:

Starting with a positive review, it’s clear that this person is extremely please with both the purchase experience and the ring itself:

I cannot say enough about Brilliant Earth. I really admire the company’s mission and values, and LOVE my ring (almost as much as I love my fiance). 😉

I had seen the ads for Brilliant Earth online and had started doing some research into the company. I value sustainability, and knew that I wanted my ring to be conflict-free. I really appreciated their commitment to giving back to those communities where they are working.

The more I read about Brilliant Earth, the more excited I became. It seemed too good to be true!

When the time came, my boyfriend and I made an appointment, and went to look at engagement rings. (Yes, I picked out my own ring.)

Their staff was friendly, and obviously well-trained in helping folks understand what they do/don’t like. Our associate helped me go back and forth, between this and that, really guiding me and helping be zero in on what I truly liked. As a result, I walked away with a BEAUTIFUL, custom-made ring that wows me to this day.The ring itself is a high-quality. It arrived right on schedule, and we haven’t had any issues!Once it came time to purchase our wedding bands, there wasn’t even a choice – we knew we were going right back to Brilliant Earth.

As I mentioned above, buying an engagement ring is a very emotional time in everyone’s life, so the majority of reviews are quite extreme – it’s uncommon to find a three star review relating to an engagement ring!

The following is an example of an obviously frustrated customer experiencing something that unfortunately can happen at any online jeweler:

Beware this Brilliant Earth company posted a diamond for a good deal. After placing the order in the following weeks I made plans and reservations for a romantic proposal.

A week later they called me to tell me the diamond that I selected was unavailable and offered me “comparable” diamonds that were smaller in carat size but MORE MONEY.

They clearly are running scams and have completely put me in a horrible position for my proposal plans. I had to cancel the order after opening the line of credit with them.

Many online jewelers use offshore suppliers to hold their inventory, and the same diamond may be available on several retailers’ websites at the same time. Sometimes, a diamond may therefore be sold by two retailers at similar times, with one buyer unfortunately missing out.

In this example, it sounds like Brilliant Earth could have conducted themselves better – I would hope that they would offer at least an equivalent quality diamond for the same price to counteract the disappointment of the original stone no longer being available.

Again, this review is from an obviously-frustrated customer who experience post-purchase didn’t match up to the previously good buying experience:

My engagement ring is from Brilliant Earth so we purchased my wedding ring from the company as well. After two years of wearing the ring, a stone went missing.

I do wear the ring daily, as most people do with a wedding ring, but I do not do any rough work with my hands.

Well, the ring was not covered by the warranty and it will cost $170 to fix.

After just shy of two years of wearing the ring, this is disappointing. If I am lucky enough to live another 50 years and I continue to wear my wedding ring for a lifetime, which most people do, I will spend roughly $4,250 if I need to repair it every 2 years.

My hope was to purchase the lunette ring to go on the other side of my engagement ring for our 5th year anniversary but now I will have to take my business elsewhere.

We’ve already spent $10,000+ with this company and I don’t fee comfortable spending a penny more. It is sad because I am always complimented on my ring and I always pass on the Brilliant Earth name. I can no longer do this in good faith.

It is an unfortunate fact that melee diamonds, as set into pave bands or halo settings, and most jewelers won’t replace these after a certain period of time has lapsed.

Just like white gold rings need to be replated with rhodium every 18 months to 2 years, rings with melee stones may need to have stones re-set, no matter where it was purchased from.

As with many reviews, Brilliant Earth’s conflict-free positioning and service are highlighted:

I always use to have this fear that jewelry/ring shopping would be stressful/problematic. I can honestly say that shopping with Brilliant Earth was one of the easiest experiences I had.

My partner (now fiancé!) and I had been discussing marriage and talks of an engagement ring came up. I advised him of my interest in ethical jewelry, and something that isn’t a diamond. My grandmother loved gemstones, and her love for them rubbed off on me over the years. After researching we found that brilliant earth had a generous selection of gemstones and wasconflictfree. Although I had ideas in mind I also wanted my partner to collaborate with me and look at rings. So we easily booked an appointment online at the Beverly Hills office for Black Friday 2020.

Finding the store was easy and everyone was masked. We had one whole room to ourselves, which made me feel super safe. Everyone also maintained their distance and there were appropriate glass/window barriers. Riley Johnson was our customer experience representative. She was extremely helpful, answered all my questions (no matter how silly they were), and was able to pinpoint the perfect gemstones and bands for us to look at. The appointment was smooth, did not feel rushed, and I was able to look at a number of options. Riley never pressured us about purchasing anything and even explained the differences between natural and lab created gems and how ethical each gem was. After I gave her an idea of which gems and bands I liked best, she created a ring online and emailed us the link with further resources. The email was sent immediately after the appointment.

While we both had an idea of the ring at this point, I had no real idea when the proposal would happen (was assuming maybe this spring or summer. It wasn’t until last week that he popped the question after a thoughtful dinner in the comfort of our own home.

The ring is absolutely flawless and exactly what we had envisioned/pictured. I can’t stop staring at it and have been showered with many compliments already. I never fail to tell people about where it’s from haha. It’s like, the air fryer of engagement rings.

See Also

Honest Review of Brilliant Earth in 2023

In summation: We had a great experience, I received a beautiful ass ring, and we are very happy and pleased with the services of Brilliant Earth and their knowledgeable staff 🙂

Of the options available, the one I think is the smartest is the ability to choose a diamond that has been tracked on the blockchain throughout the supply chain.

For example, for this 1 carat diamond:

Can be tracked all the way back to the individual mine and the individual rough diamond that it was created from:

You can see this rough diamond at full sizehere.

When I first saw this, I was blown away – I can’t think of another product of business that would allow you to trace the final article back to the original raw materials.

The blockchain tracking then allows you to see how the rough diamond was assessed to be split into two different pieces used CAD modelling:

Again, you can see the full size image of thishere, which shows that the original rough diamond was split into two separate stones

• The first would end up weighing 1.004 carats, and was 61.98% efficient in its use of the 1.62 carat of diamond rough
• The second would end weighing 1.048 carats and was 50.31% efficient in its use of the 2.083 carat of diamond rough

This may just be my inner diamond-nerd coming through, but I think that is super-cool, and isthe sort of detail that can’t be found from most other retailers.

For me, knowing the story of a diamond’s origin and seeing where it came from adds a lot to the story and the specialness of it.

There are currently around 10,000 blockchain-tracked diamonds available through Brilliant Earth, which should be more than enough to find a stone that fits what you’re looking for if this appeals to you. You can check them outhere.

GIA origin reports are an extension to the standard GIA report, but also include the country that the diamond was originally mined in:

Countries that can be tracked back to include: Canada, Russia, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Australia, Brazil, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

As well as appearing on the certificate, the country of origin is also included in the laser inscription on the diamond’s girdle (the ring around the middle of the diamond)

GIA collects and analyzes physical measurements, spectroscopic data (how it interacts with light), and imaging of the diamond as a rough crystal before it is cut and polished to match it to the original rough diamond and the country of origin.

This isn’t as comprehensive as the blockchain tracking, or as cool, but it does mean that you can have some comfort that if a diamond says that it is Canadian, for example, that it really is.

Even above lab grown, or ethically sourced natural diamonds, recycled diamonds are the most eco-friendly of all choices.

These are diamonds that have previously been mined, cut, and polished, purchased, and are now being made available again.

Because they are repurposed, these diamonds require no new mining, and minimal new energy to produce.

Before being made available for sale, these diamonds are graded by an independent gemological lab, which means you can be sure of their quality and compare them to other diamonds on a like-for-like basis.

At the time of writing, Brilliant Earth had 383 recycled diamonds available to choose from:

This isn’t the largest selection, but you could get lucky and find one that matches what you’re looking for. In theory, this could be a great option for people looking for an ethically-sourced stone.

However, one issue with Brilliant Earth’s recycled diamonds is their price compared to a new diamond. For example, this 1.04 carat, G color, VS2 recycled diamond is priced at $9,130:

A non-recycled diamond with pretty much identical specs (G color, VS1 clarity butslightlylighter carat weight at 1.01)is priced around $1,400 lower at $7,760:

‘Hearts and arrows’ is the name given to diamonds that have been cut to have exceptional symmetry, which can be seen when a special light is shined on it.

Perfect hearts and arrows looks like this:

You should be able to see that in the image on the left, each of the hearts are symmetrical and evenly spaced from the chevron in front of them ,which on the image on the right, each of the ‘arrows’ is perfectly straight with the head connected to the shaft.

Hearts and arrows is a ‘nice to have’ and perfect symmetry like this doesn’t necessarily mean that the diamond will sparkle better than one without hearts and arrows but which has proportions better optimised to reflect as much light as possible.

Brilliant Earth do offer a selection hearts and arrows diamonds, but this isn’t their specialty.

This diamond is marked as hearts and arrows and is pricedslightlyhigher than a stone with equivalent specs that doesn’t isn’t H&A:

However, you should be able to see that its hearts aren’t all perfectly symmetrical.

It’s not terrible, and the symmetry is much better than a diamond that hasn’t been cut to create hearts and arrows would be, but it’s not perfect.

Even if you are willing to pay more, the symmetry is slightly better, but still not perfect:

For me, when I’m looking for a hearts and arrows diamond, I want it to be absolutely perfect – otherwise the diamond misses the point slightly.

While you may be able to find a perfect hearts and arrows diamond from Brilliant Earth if you look hard enough, there are other retailers in myrecommended retailers listthat specialise in this, which I would recommend above Brilliant Earth.

Lab-created diamonds have come a long way in the last three years in terms of acceptance, and they have now lost pretty much all of the stigma that was once associated with ‘synthetic diamonds’.

The reason for this is that they are chemically identical to natural diamonds and, for a good one, display the same physical and optical characteristics as natural diamonds, including the same fire, scintillation, and sparkle.

Lab created diamonds offer excellent value when compared to natural diamonds, as these two stones with identical specs show:

1 carat, G color, VS2 claritynaturaldiamond:

1 carat, G color, VS2 claritylab-growndiamond:

The price of lab grown diamonds has fallen significantly in the last year, while natural diamond prices are increasing, which makes them an attractive proposition. Read our article onlab-grown diamondsfor a full explanation of the pros and cons of lab grown stones.

If you’re looking for a lab-grown stone, Brilliant Earth offer a wide selection (over 80,000), including a good selection of less common cuts. At the time of writing, there are over 4,000 lab-grown emerald cut diamonds available – a greater choice than most retailers offer.

One feature of Brilliant Earth’s lab grown diamond selection that I really liked is that when a lab grown center diamond is chosen, I was shown settings that feature diamond side stones.

For example, this ring automatically changed its side stones to lab-grown after I selected a lab-grown center diamond:

While the setting above automatically changed to ‘lab diamond engagement ring’ to signify that the side stones are lab grown, not every setting does this.

However, most can have lab-grown diamonds used, but it may have to be requested, as the Brilliant Earth live chat confirmed:

Lastly, one thing to note with Brilliant Earth lab-grown diamonds is that the vast majority of them are accompanied by anIGIcertificate, rather than one fromGIA.

While I would normally recommend a GIA reports for natural diamonds, at present IGI reports are far more common across the industry for lab-grown stones. The reason for this is that IGI reports give a more detailed grading for lab-grown diamonds than GIA reports: while the IGI report would tell you that a lab grown diamond is a G color and VS2 clarity, for the same diamond, GIA would only tell you that it is ‘near colorless’ and ‘very slightly included’. The IGI report is therefore much more helpful to help you identify the exact specs of a diamond and compare stones on a like-for-like basis.

Overall, I found that Brilliant Earth are doing a better job than most retailers in offering a wide selection of lab grown diamonds in a variety of shapes, as well as making it easy to stay consistent with your choice of lab grown diamond across the setting too, which most retailers currently do not offer.

Check out the current selection of lab-grown diamondshere.

My final thoughts on Brilliant Earth

Brilliant Earth are an excellent choice for the conscious consumer.

While there are some mis-steps (recycled diamonds are too expensive, the hearts and arrows selection isn’t great), overall the selection of diamonds and settings are better than almost any other retailer.

For me, the real pick is the blockchain-tracked diamonds – a really awesome innovation that allows you to be certain of the origin of the stone and knowing the backstory of such a financially and emotionally significant purchase really appeals.

If you care about where about where products come from and the effect that they have on the earth, it should be an easy decision to choose Brilliant Earth for your diamond ring.