Emerald Cut Moissanite Drops
£238.62
Moissanite Dreamcatcher Necklace
£178.78
Moissanite Wings Necklace
£216.18
Rainbow Moissanite Set
£509.15
Moissanite pieces from our collection
Full disclosure up front: we sell moissanite jewellery, so you'd expect us to say it's wonderful. It is — but it isn't a diamond, and pretending otherwise helps nobody. Here's the honest, fact-based comparison so you can decide which stone suits you.
What moissanite actually is
Moissanite is silicon carbide — a crystal first discovered in 1893 by chemist Henri Moissan in fragments of a meteorite crater. Natural moissanite is extraordinarily rare, so all moissanite in jewellery is lab-created. That's not a downside: lab growth means consistent quality, no mining, and a conflict-free origin by definition.
The numbers that matter
| Property | Moissanite | Diamond |
|---|---|---|
| Hardness (Mohs) | 9.25–9.5 | 10 (hardest known) |
| Brilliance (refractive index) | 2.65–2.69 — higher | 2.42 |
| Fire (dispersion) | 0.104 — over twice the rainbow flashes | 0.044 |
| Origin | Lab-created | Mined or lab-grown |
| Typical price | A small fraction of diamond | High; varies with 4Cs |
| Resale / heirloom value | Low | Holds value better (though less than many assume) |
Can you tell them apart?
By eye, most people can't — and moissanite's extra fire means that under bright light it actually sparkles with more rainbow colour than a diamond, which is sometimes the tell for a trained eye. Moissanite is also doubly refractive (light splits in two inside the stone), visible under magnification. Fun fact: moissanite conducts heat much like diamond, so basic thermal diamond testers often pass it — jewellers use electrical testers to separate the two.
Durability in real life
At 9.25+ on the Mohs scale, moissanite is harder than sapphire and ruby and far harder than any everyday material — it will not scratch from normal wear, ever. Diamond remains the hardest substance known, but for practical daily durability, both are effectively lifetime stones.
The honest verdict
Choose diamond if tradition, rarity and long-term value matter most to you — nothing else carries the same cultural weight. Choose moissanite if you want maximum sparkle, an untraceable-by-eye difference, a guaranteed conflict-free origin, and a price that leaves budget for the rest of life. Neither choice is wrong; they're different priorities. We label every stone in our collection as exactly what it is — lab-created moissanite, never "diamond".