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Simulacra

I remember when lab grown diamonds really took off, and deBeers and others started calling their diamonds "natural"

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Buy our “Rare” Organic Non-GMO Rock!

you can ++ that by adding gluten free

Gluten? In my diamonds? It's more likely than you think

“artificial diamonds are radioactive” (because of Carbon 14)

1ppt of C14? That's s drop in an ocean.

Indeed, that's supposed to be a bullshit marketing argument used by the diamond cartel

Lab grown minerals should rebrand as "bloodless" to counter back.

If you think that will increase their appeal then you don't truly understand why diamonds are valuable. It's what they represent.

The princess doesn't want a gem on her finger that has been cultivated by a nerd and comes with a "vegan, soy-based, cruelty free" approval on it. She wants a warlord to return from conquering and pillaging foreign lands, leaving rivers of blood in his wake, to deliver the prize to his queen as a symbol of her value and his material investment and dedication to her.

Obviously no woman in her right mind is consciously thinking that, but that's the psychology behind it. "Bloodless" is icky.

I don't think you've been associating with the kinds of princesses that I have been.

Where do you find princesses anymore? Sweden?

They used to flock about Jarvis Cocker, the Sloane Rangers and Chelsea Daggers.

There's a London pub nicknamed the Sloaney Pony; maybe try there?

If you'd only read your Daily Mail or Tatler, you'd know to find Princess Gabriella in Monaco.

As far as reigning-house europeans go:

  Princess Elisabeth
  Princess Eléonore
  Princess Isabella
  Princess Josephine
  Princess Marie-Caroline
  Princess Amalia
  Princess Gabriella
  Princess Catharina-Amalia
  Princess Alexia
  Princess Ariane
  Princess Ingrid
  Infanta Leonor
  Infanta Sofía
  Princess Estelle
  Princess Adrienne
  Princess Charlotte
  Princess Lilibet

At press time, Princess Peach was in another castle.

Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TQmo5TvZQY

This company should hire Lily James to make a counter commercial to the "only natural" campaign.

Jewelers have already done this successfully with a lot of gemstones. Artificial rubies, sapphires，and emeralds are dirt cheap, but natural ones are 100-1000x the price.

How do they tell the difference? Impurities?

The very cheap artificial sapphires are basically made by melting aluminum oxide in bulk. They're usually cut in a factory, so they don't look very nice. I got very large artificial ruby (also corundum) for my wife (actually to satisfy my own curiosity), and it basically killed all interest in rubies for her. It basically looks like a chunk of plastic. Under high magnification, you can supposedly see a lot of parallel curves lines of bubbles due to how the crystals are grown.

There are also nicer artificial sapphires which are grown in similar conditions as natural ones. These have inclusions similar to natural ones, but they are usually uniform in color. Natural ones tend to have parts that are more saturated. It's not a technical limitation though, so I'm sure you can make less perfect-looking artificial sapphires that can fool your average jeweler. However, gemological testing will use advanced spectroscopy, which spits out enough data to distinguish between natural and artificial ones.

But will it really be the same if you didn't have some little kid dig them out of mines? /s

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