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).
Why are CubicZirconia.com clearance jewelry pieces so much less expensive than our normal website retail prices for the same item?
Actually, there are three (3) reasons...
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...
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!
We were excited to announce the 2015 acquisition of CZCompany.com, but this 2021 acquisition of WholesaleCZ.com is an even more important investment that is going to make our company stronger, and better positioned in the marketplace.
A common question we get is how much information and details do we need in order to make a custom ring (or other piece of jewelry) exactly as the customer wants it.
The short answer: we want as much information as the customer can conveniently provide us based on what he/she knows (or thinks they do). The more details we have, the easier it is for the custom jewelry team to nail the custom ring design...and do it SOONER in the back-and-forth process as we communicate with the potential customer. The other side of the question is, “Can we make this work with very little detail and/or no pictures or examples from the customer?”As that Obama-era U.S. Presidential campaign sticker on one of my colleague’s car back bumper says: YES WE CAN!
How are diamonds mined? What is the environmental impact of diamond mining? Are there any environmental benefits of using Cubic Zirconia instead?
Mass retailers that sell jewelry are always getting caught red-handed selling items manufactured with materials that are suspect. The result? Toxic jewelry.
Please take a look at today's article. It’s no fun to read, and it was no fun to write. But reading this may save the life of someone you care about (or his/her brain, kidneys, bones, or reproductive function)
Choosing the size of your ring’s center stone – is bigger always better?
Make no mistake. Although our stones are imitation diamonds, the precious metals we use in our jewelry items are exactly that – PRECIOUS.
Did you know a piece of finished jewelry that is complete except for setting stones – example: earrings, ring or pendant – is called a "mounting"? Every single one of our pieces of jewelry can be purchased as a “mounting” without stones. And of course, you can do so less expensively than the piece fully-set with our CZ stones. You don’t need to be a jeweler/jewelry company for a B2B purchase, either; anyone can buy the mountings we manufacture with a few conditions.
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.
Want to write and publish a guest blog post for the CubicZirconia.com blog? You are welcome to get in touch after reading these “Rules for accepted guest blog posts”.
In this post, we fully explained what rhodium is, why rhodium-plating is popular with fine jewelry (and fine jewelry customers!) and provide more rhodium-related info than you’ll probably ever want to know. We even cover the drawbacks to rhodium-plating -- mainly the ongoing maintenance cost and effort-- to help our customers wanting white precious metal jewelry to make the best possible decision.
Please note that rhodium-plating for extra protection and shine comes standard on all fine sterling silver and white gold jewelry created by CubicZirconia.com. Replating white gold and sterling silver jewelry with new rhodium is a service we offer at a low cost.
If you prefer the softer, warm tones of white gold that has not been rhodium-plated, please contact us before purchase so that we can make that modification when you place your order.
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!