What Is the Difference Between Natural and Lab-Grown Diamonds at Blue Nile?

Blue Nile lists natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds as two separate shopping paths, and both can be used in engagement rings and other diamond jewelry. The practical difference on the site is how you browse them: you choose the diamond type first, then filter by shape (round, princess, cushion, emerald, pear, oval, radiant, Asscher, marquise, heart) and continue into a setting or a design-your-own flow. For quality questions, the site points shoppers to its Diamond Guide rather than to a single comparison page.

How the two categories are organized on bluenile.com

The navigation treats diamond type as a top-level choice. Under Diamonds, the site lists Natural Diamonds, Colored Diamonds, and Lab-Grown Diamonds as separate entries, and the same split appears in engagement rings (Natural Diamond Engagement Rings and Lab-Grown Engagement Rings). That structure matters when you shop: a filter you set in one category does not carry over to the other, so decide the type before you start narrowing shapes and settings.

The site does not present a side-by-side spec table for the two types in the material available here, so treat the navigation split as the reliable guide and read each diamond's own listing for its details.

What actually differs when you are choosing

The distinction shoppers care about is origin: natural diamonds are earth-mined, while lab-grown diamonds are created in a lab. Blue Nile keeps them in separate catalogs rather than mixing them in one result list, which makes the choice explicit at the start of the purchase. Both categories feed into the same ring-building tools — you can start with a diamond or start with a setting — so the setting, metal, and style options are reached the same way regardless of type.

Shape is the main shared filter. If you want an oval or emerald cut, you can look for it in either category; the shape list is identical in the navigation. What you cannot do is compare a natural and a lab-grown stone of the same shape in one filtered view, because the two live in different sections.

A concrete example

Suppose you want an oval diamond in a solitaire setting. You would first pick Natural Diamonds or Lab-Grown Diamonds, filter to oval, choose a stone, then move into settings and select solitaire. If you later decide to switch diamond type, you start the diamond selection again in the other category — the setting you liked is still reachable, but the stone list is different. Planning the type first saves a round of filtering.

Choosing between them

• Choose natural diamonds if origin and the traditional mined-diamond category are what you want; the site gives this its own full section, including natural diamond engagement rings.
• Choose lab-grown diamonds if you prefer to shop within the lab-grown category; it has its own diamond listing and engagement ring section with the same shape filters.
• In either case, use the site's Diamond Guide before finalizing, since the navigation directs quality and buying questions there rather than offering a direct natural-versus-lab comparison.

The site also runs promotions and services around these categories — the Fall Edit sale, a free gift with purchases over $1,500, in-store visits, and virtual appointments — but these are store-wide offers, not a difference between the two diamond types.