According to Brilliant Earth, they state that they are fully committed to environmentally friendly and ethical jewelry. Is this just a marketing tactic? Or are they true to their word? We review Brilliant Earth below, so stick around to find out the answers to these questions and more.
Before we begin, a few things to know about Brilliant Earth include:
- Their diamonds are environmentally and ethically friendly.
- They claim to be committed to providing aid to communities that are affected by the blood diamond trade.
- They offer free shipping in Australia, Canada, & the US.
- They provide free resizing for 30 days.
- They offer free returns for 30 days.
- The company has received excellent reviews on Google Places and Yelp.
- The company has an A + rating with the Better Business Bureau and they are an accredited business.
- They offer multiple options for their custom-designed rings.
Getting to Know Brilliant Earth
We understand why Brilliant Earth wasn’t publicly known about their practices in the diamond industry. Their mission statement states that their jewelry is gorgeous and absolutely stunning. It also states that they obtain their diamonds in a socially responsible, environmentally friendly, and ethical way.
More important than anything else, their practices of social responsibility are taken a step further according to the company. With every sale, they donate 5% of their profits to communities suffering from blood diamond issues. They also educate the world about the environment and plan to continue to grow their company in as ethical a fashion as possible.
This company is truly committed to making jewelry as ethically as possible. So they focus their efforts on purchasing diamonds from reputable sources that follow the Kimberley Process, which is a process that gets diamonds from Western sources where blood diamonds aren’t a factor.
Responsible mining and ethical diamond sourcing is important. Other online diamond sellers like Whiteflash and Blue Nile also focus on selling conflict free diamonds.
The History of Brilliant Earth
Eric Grossberg and Beth Gerstein founded Brilliant Earth in 2005. When they first got married in 2003, they tried very hard to find an ethically sourced diamond engagement ring and realized how difficult it was. So they performed research and recognized a hole in the market. They realized that other people wanted ethically sourced diamonds as well and they decided to pursue this business vigorously ever since.
Diamond Exclusivity
Many companies claim exclusivity but fail to live up to their own marketing hype. Brilliant Earth delivers a level of exclusivity that’s often hard to find. Since they are only willing to purchase ethically sourced diamonds, two places they buy them from are the Ekati and Daivik mines in Canada.
That’s not to say that diamonds from these mines cannot be purchased on other websites, because they can and Blue Nile and Whiteflash are good examples. So while not necessarily exclusive, they do exclusively stick to selling diamonds from the ethically and morally friendly mines so that’s something to definitely keep in your thoughts.
Custom & Designer Items
Like most diamond sellers, Brilliant Earth has an option for customized designs. Unfortunately, the option they provide isn’t very strong. In fact, we actually recommend Whiteflash and James Allen’s engagement rings as two better options for customized choices.
All things considered, their custom-designed option isn’t the worst thing in the world. It’s easy to use and simple to understand. You’ll have multiple options to choose for the design style and setting, the amount to spend, the shape, the carat, the precious metal, and much more. So even though we prefer recommending to other companies, the multiple options available on the site make it very useful indeed.
Brilliant Earth’s Website
Their website isn’t bad looking and it’s definitely serviceable but it doesn’t really stand out as well. It’s very similar to many of the other diamond selling websites that you’ll find online. But it works, the layout is clear and easy to understand, and it’s simple enough to navigate.
They also provide a section for education on their website. This is pretty good because it provides information about who they are, their company mission, and they even offer a diamond choosing guide and other guides as well. So their process is simple and easy to understand which makes the website dull but definitely serviceable all the same.
Pricing Their Products
The tough thing about buying diamonds from this site is the lack of technology to help you fully analyze the diamonds. Most sites are offering HD videos, ideal scopes, ASET maps, diagnostic images, light performance, and more for their customers to view so they can truly get an idea of the quality of their diamonds. You can then look at these videos and compare them to diamonds on other websites to see which are better. Since Brilliant Earth doesn’t offer any of these technological advances, it becomes impossible to compare their diamonds to their competitors.
So, logically speaking, you will most likely end up paying more money for less quality. You can probably find better quality diamonds on other websites for a lower price. But it’s impossible to say for certain because of Brilliant Earth’s technological disadvantage, so keep that in mind when making your next purchase on their site.
Product Imagery
They have halfway decent imagery on their website. But the odd thing is they do not have any images of their diamonds, which makes it very difficult to buy them.
Again, the website is fully serviceable and it’s easy to use, but when it lacks HD videos, ideal scopes, and ASET maps, it becomes really difficult to recommend this company to our readers when there are better options out there like James Allen and Whiteflash.
Being able to view crystal-clear, beautiful HD videos and 3-D images of diamonds is incredibly important when buying online. Remember, diamonds are far from equal and they are very different from one another. So please keep this in mind the next time you decide to purchase a diamond online.
Shopping on Brilliant Earth’s Site
With the exception of their major flaw in lacking pictures of the diamonds for saleon their site, the buying experience itself is smooth and very simple to accomplish. They provide secure payments and multiple options. You can buy diamonds without creating an account which is a nice feature, and they will ship everything directly to the address you provide free of charge if you’re in Australia, Canada, or the United States. If you are close by, they even have an option to pick your diamonds up from a nearby showroom.
How Are Their Choices?
The good thing is they have a wide range of diamond options to choose from. They have multiple colors, cuts, and carats and they even offer diamonds from 10 different styles.
They get their diamonds sourced from multiple areas including Russia, Botswana, and Canada. And if you’re really looking for ethically sourced diamonds, this is definitely a good website to try. But some other options to consider include A Cut Above, Whiteflash, Hearts and Arrows Diamonds, and Blue Nile.
The Return Policy
Their return policy is fairly straightforward. All resizes and returns must be completed within 30 days. And within this window they return everything free of charge. They provide two types of lifetime guarantees to their customers, which you could find out more about on their website.
Final Thoughts
Even though this ethical and environmentally friendly company has an amazing mission, it’s hard to actually purchase diamonds from their website because of their lack of images for their products. It makes the buying experience so difficult, and it’s really unnecessary, so they have to get their act together soon.
Other diamond selling websites have social responsibility programs in place so please realize that Brilliant Earth isn’t the only one. Whiteflash has an excellent social responsibility program, and other retailers like Blue Nile and James Allen are also very concerned about the ethical and moral ramifications of the diamonds that they sell.
Brilliant Earth is a decent website but certainly not our favorite. So please keep that in mind when buying anything from their site if you’re brave enough.
