A little while ago I learned a new word: “affordibauble”. Alright, alright, you got me. It’s not a real word, so to speak.Here at the shop, we made it up. But this made up word IS "A Word That Saves You Money".
Beyond great entertainment that brought in $170+ million US dollars at the box office globally, few movies have been more influential in stirring a call for change than this 5-time Academy Award nominated film.
For humanity: the world became more aware of the human rights abuses, dangerous labor practices, terrorist funding, money laundering, and environmental destruction wrought by the mined natural diamond industry.
For our business: new customers had yet another powerful reason to choose our 5A diamond-quality CubicZirconia.com CZ stones instead of buying a mined, natural diamond.
For the marriage-minded, engagement proposal planner with a future fianceé on the fence about choosing natural mined diamonds or an alternative: he/she can simply have a movie night and watch Blood Diamond together (you won’t have to say much, and if you haven’t seen it…he/she will want to talk after watching).
Today we’re sharing a brief roundup of some of the more common scams, deceptions, manipulations and money-grabbing tactics used by unethical jewelers that give our industry a bad rap.
We wanna arm you with the knowledge that each of these common scams and unethical business practices exist...because, once you see it, you can’t UNSEE IT.
In some cases, police and governments have gotten involved. But in most cases, it’s up to ethical jewelry companies to call out the bad actors in our industry.
We hope this 5 minute read can give you the info to spot these shenanigans, and we can rest assured that our friends and customers won’t be deceived (again).
Take a look at the Google Trends for “cubic zirconia” (what we make and sell) versus “fake diamond”, “man made diamond” and “artificial diamond”.
What's more popular?
Fake diamonds
Artificial diamonds
Man made diamonds
Cubic zirconiaHere's what the Google search research says...
"I’m a beginner at poker”, she said before we started the game. Then she took all my poker chips (it seemed like she KNEW WHAT CARDS I WAS HOLDING!)-- plus three flawless 3 carat stones the game observers at the same party believed were genuine diamonds worth hundreds of thousands of US dollars. My super sneaky wife is the reason why. Here's the story...Plus I'll explain how if you ever lose a single stone you purchased from CubicZirconia.com, it won’t be expensive to replace.
Since the founding of our website-- check out our top, most-read 17 blog posts to date! Topics include diamond deprogramming, relationship tips, engagement proposal ideas and stories, product care and cleaning, picking the right engagement ring, gift ideas and what factors make our 5A diamond-quality cubic zirconia stones the best!
How are diamonds mined? What is the environmental impact of diamond mining? Are there any environmental benefits of using Cubic Zirconia instead?
These videos show the most popular different shapes of cubic zirconia loose stones we make and sell, as well as the customizable center stones available for setting atop the highest percentage of most products we make and sell in our jewelry catalog.
Choosing the size of your ring’s center stone – is bigger always better?
Not yet decided on the right shape of the center stone of your engagement ring? No problem! Let’s see if we can talk through it together.
Forget so-called 'home-remedies' for cleaning jewelry and expensive jewelry cleaners that only work for some kinds of jewelry (and damage others). There are two simple ways to clean your CubicZirconia.com jewelry yourself, at home. One method is basically free, and the other will cost you less than US$15 bucks. We'll discuss both methods of cleaning fine CZ jewelry in this post.
We recommend cleaning daily-wear rings, earrings, and pendants from CubicZirconia.com every week or at most every two weeks.
Follow our care and cleaning FAQ’s simple rules for proper and regular care, and avoid letting your jewelry encounter these harmful substances too much, and there’s no reason your fine cubic zirconia jewelry from CubicZirconia.com can’t last you a lifetime.
Sorry, but in most cases “grandma’s jewelry organizer” where everything is jumbled together is a BIG NO-NO. Be aware of what other objects that you/your jewelry may come into contact with and store your rings, earrings, pendants and more safely with these jewelry storage tips.
The Moh's Scale of Hardness ranks minerals, gemstones, metals and other materials based on what material scratches what other materials, and what materials are scratched by it in return. Basically, a material can be scratched by anything ranked above it and can scratch anything ranked below it. This is important because you're going to learn how to mostly prevent the #1 reason fine precious metal jewelry becomes damaged and doesn't last the lifetime you expect it to last!
Journalists have known for decades what anyone who tries to do so finds out pretty quickly: it’s hard to sell a diamond for anywhere close to what you paid for it. But if you need cash and fast...what’s to do?
Enter CubicZirconia.com's "Diamond Downgrade" program, which allows you to keep your jewelry, just sell the diamond for fast cash at a fair price, have it replaced with our 5A/AAAAA cubic zirconia...and be assured that no one will ever know the difference.
Sterling silver will tarnish more/more often over time than 10 karat gold, which is more susceptible to tarnishing than 14 karat gold. 14 karat gold is itself more likely to become tarnished than 18 karat gold. Here's why...and what it means to you as a jewelry buyer.