Moissanite Buyer's Guide

Moissanite Facts

Charles & Colvard created moissanite has more fire and brilliance than diamonds. Moissanite is NOT a man-made diamond NOR a cubic zirconia variant.
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Moissanite Facts and Fiction

Despite the best efforts of major moissanite retailers and Charles & Colvard, there remains a tremendous amount of misinformation, poorly educated opinions and conjecture in the marketplace. This page is our resource for separating moissanite facts from fiction.

Moissanite chips easily. FALSE.

Moissanite is very hard -- it is harder than every jewel except diamond. Moissanite jewels are durable and resist chipping.

Moissanite comes in different grades of color and clarity. FALSE.

There is only ONE quality of moissanite - "very good" that is distributed to the public by Charles & Colvard. That said, each Moissanite jewel is unique and no two are identical. Moissanite retailers match moissanite stones from thousands of stones for pendants, earrings and bracelets. Some moissanite retailers claim to offer only the "whitest moissanite" -- but this is a misnomer and simply a marketing ploy.

More than one company manufactures moissanite. FALSE.

Only one company, Charles & Colvard, manufactures moissanite. Charles & Colvard purchase SiC crystals from two major suppliers, Cree Inc. and Norstel AB. But these suppliers do not cut the crystals into moissanite jewels. Charles & Colvard is a publicly-held company based in Morrisville, North Carolina.

Moissanite is a man-made diamond. FALSE.

Moissanite IS NOT a diamond nor a diamond simulant. Diamond is pure carbon [C]. Moissanite is composed of the compound silicon carbide [SiC] Moissanite is a laboratory created jewel. Naturally occurring moissanite is extremely rare and found only in microscopic crystals that are too small to use in jewelry. Each moissanite jewel is grown in the laboratory from a moissanite seed crystal. It takes months from start to finish to grow a single jewel. Created diamonds are grown by a similar process.

Comparison Chart: Beauty, Durability, Specific Gravity

  BEAUTY DURABILITY SPECIFIC GRAVITY
BRILLIANCE
Refractive Index
FIRE
Dispersion
LUSTER HARDNESS
Mohs
TOUGHNESS
Moissanite 2.65-2.69 0.104 20.4% 9.25 excellent 3.21
(CZ) Cubic Zirconia 2.15 0.060 13.6% 8.50 good 5.80