If you come across any stores or online shopping sites that say cheap diamonds for sale, you should be careful. Diamonds are one of the most valuable materials on the planet, and they cannot be purchased for a low price. Any stores that are selling diamond jewelry at a very low cost compared to the market price are selling fake diamonds. Recently, many online shops that were selling “cheap loose diamonds” were taken down by the authorities.

Therefore, you need to be very careful when you look for loose diamonds in an online diamond store. Here are a few ways to tell if a diamond is fake or not.

Black Light Test

You need a strong UV light for conducting this test. Hold the stone up to the UV light to observe whether the color changes at all. If the stone has a bluish hue to it, it is almost certainly a genuine diamond. This test isn’t conclusive because of the way light works in real diamonds.  Even if it was a real stone, you wouldn’t notice a blue light because some genuine diamonds lack fluorescence. If the diamond does not produce a blue glow or glows a different color when exposed to UV light, you can repeat this experiment.

Magnification Test

First, look at your suspected diamond under a microscope. Compare and contrast the differences between fake and real diamonds. Internal or external flaws that occur naturally in diamonds are called inclusions. If the stone is cubic zirconia or moissanite, it’ll be defect-free on the inside and out. The reason for this is natural diamonds are formed in the earth, while cubic zirconia and moissanite are lab-made. They aren’t subjected to the same environmental stresses as diamonds when they form, thus they lack the telltale peculiarities that distinguish a genuine diamond.

Fog Test

In a somewhat cool setting, blow hot air on the stone. You’re trying to enclose the stone in a warm, moist environment. Because a true diamond does not hold heat well, your breath will not produce fog on its surface. However, a moissanite piece will immediately become fogged up.

Water Test

Just toss the loose diamond that is under suspicion into water. When dropped in a cup of water, loose diamonds should end up at the bottom due to their density. Because they are less thick, many diamond imitations, including glass and quartz, will float or sink more slowly.