Why Giant Engagement Rings Are Everywhere And Suddenly Affordable

The Moment

Have you noticed that engagement rings are starting to look less “sweet little sparkle” and more “portable chandelier”?

Every time Taylor Swift flashes that rumored 10-carat old-mine cut, Zendaya shows off her elongated cushion sparkler, or Lauren Sanchez steps out with what basically looks like a disco ball on her finger, the photos ricochet across social media. And like clockwork, jewelers say regular couples walk in asking for the same thing – or at least as close as their budget can manage.

Here’s the twist: more and more of them actually can manage it.

According to U.S. jeweler Nisarg Mehta, speaking in a recent interview about engagement ring trends, lab-grown diamonds now make up roughly 50 percent of engagement rings sold in the U.S., up from less than 10 percent in 2019. He says a one-carat lab-grown diamond averages around $1,000, while a comparable mined stone hovers near $4,200.

That price gap is why your neighbor, your niece, and your coworker in HR suddenly have rings that look like they came with a bodyguard.

Mehta estimates that a natural 10-carat stone similar to Swift’s would be about $750,000 – but a lab-grown version? Around $20,000. Zendaya’s style of ring, estimated around six carats, might run $275,000 if mined, versus roughly $12,000 if lab-grown. And Sanchez’s colossal 30-carat pink diamond, valued in the low millions, could theoretically be replicated with a lab-grown stone for somewhere in the $50,000 range.

“Hollywood size, Honda budget” is suddenly a thing.

The Take

I don’t think America secretly got rich. I think America got Wi-Fi, Instagram, and lab-grown diamonds.

We’re living in the era of the zoomed-in ring selfie. Your proposal moment is going to be screenshotted, reposted, and dissected in group chats. Of course people want a rock that reads from the back row. The culture shifted from, “Is it a good investment?” to “Does it look stunning on my hand when I’m holding a latte?”

Lab-grown diamonds slid into that moment like they were waiting in the wings. They’re chemically and optically the same material as mined diamonds – the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has been saying this for years – but they’re made in a lab, not pulled out of the ground. Technology improved, production exploded, and prices fell hard. Industry analyses, including Bain & Company’s 2023 Global Diamond Report and De Beers’ Diamond Insight reports, have been tracking this surge for a while.

So now, instead of choosing between a modest one-carat mined stone and a down payment on a condo, couples can pick a three-, four-, even five-carat lab-grown stone for the same money. As Mehta and other jewelers put it, people are shopping for presence – the look and the emotional meaning – not rarity or resale value.

It’s like luxury cars: most people aren’t obsessing over auction value 30 years from now; they just want the leather seats and the heated steering wheel today. With rings, the “heated steering wheel” is that oversized center stone that looks like it wandered out of a Met Gala.

There’s also the ethics question. Younger buyers in particular have grown up hearing about conflict diamonds, environmental damage, and worker exploitation in mining. Lab-grown stones are marketed as the cleaner, kinder alternative. The reality is more nuanced – labs still use serious energy, and not all branding claims are equal – but for many couples, it feels better than picturing a mine pit every time they look at their finger.

The result? Your average engaged couple can now cosplay as A-listers, at least from the knuckles up.

Receipts

Confirmed:

• U.S. jeweler Nisarg Mehta recently stated that lab-grown diamonds now account for about 50% of engagement rings he sells, up from under 10% in 2019, and estimated average pricing around $1,000 per lab-grown carat vs roughly $4,200 for comparable natural stones.
• Jewelers Monil Kothari, Alexandra Samit, and Clint Casmiro have all reported a clear shift toward larger lab-grown engagement stones, with some saying their average lab-grown ring is now around four carats.
• Bain & Company’s Global Diamond Report 2023 and De Beers’ 2023 Diamond Insight Report both document rapid growth in lab-grown diamonds and significant price declines over the last decade.
• The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) confirms that lab-grown and natural diamonds share the same crystal structure and basic physical and optical properties, though they must be clearly disclosed and graded separately.

Unverified / Estimated:

• Carat weights and dollar values for celebrity rings (including those associated with Taylor Swift, Zendaya, and Lauren Sanchez) are expert estimates based on photos, not numbers confirmed by the celebrities or their representatives.
• Whether those specific celebrity stones are mined or lab-grown has not been publicly confirmed; most industry experts assume they are natural, given their size and reported value.

Sources: A November 2025 feature on U.S. engagement ring trends quoting jewelers Nisarg Mehta, Monil Kothari, Alexandra Samit and Clint Casmiro; Bain & Company, “Global Diamond Report 2023”; De Beers, “Diamond Insight Report 2023”; Gemological Institute of America (GIA) educational materials on lab-grown diamonds, updated through 2023.

Backstory (For Casual Readers)

If you tapped out of the engagement ring conversation back when “three months’ salary” was the rule, here’s the quick catch-up. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, natural diamonds were still king, and most rings hovered around one carat. Then two things happened: people learned about conflict diamonds (remember the movie Blood Diamond), and social media arrived. Millennials and Gen Z started asking tougher questions about sourcing and experimenting with colored stones, vintage rings, and alternative gems.

Meanwhile, lab-grown diamonds quietly evolved from tiny, expensive science experiments into mass-produced stones that look just like mined diamonds to the naked eye. Over the 2010s and early 2020s, their prices plunged while quality improved. By the time engagement-ring selfies became a genre, lab-grown stones were perfectly positioned to give people that big, dramatic look without the old-school price tag.

Whats Next

So where does it go from here?

Jewelry designers are already seeing what they call “carat creep” – average center stones ticking up year after year. If lab-grown production keeps ramping up and prices keep easing, you can expect even more people to treat three to five carats as “normal” instead of “lottery winner.” Oversized ovals, cushions, and antique cuts will stay in heavy rotation because they photograph beautifully.

We’ll likely see more couples customizing rings instead of defaulting to whatever the traditional jewelry case offers: hidden halos, fancy settings, unusual shapes. When the stone itself is cheaper, you have more budget to play with design.

The mined-diamond industry, for its part, is already leaning hard into the idea of natural stones as ultra-rare, heirloom luxuries that hold value. That pitch will still land with some buyers, especially those who care about tradition and long-term resale. But for a whole generation, the ring is less about future appraisal and more about how it feels, looks, and aligns with their values right now.

The one thing that seems certain: those tiny, barely-there engagement stones? They’re going to look even tinier next to everyone’s lab-grown showpieces.

Your turn: If you (or someone you love) were ring shopping today, would you go smaller and natural, or bigger and lab-grown – and why?