Lab Grown Diamond Trends 2027: What Couples Are Really Buying

On average, couples spent £4,234 on a lab diamond ring in 2026. This has risen slightly from £4,172 in 2025.

From 2024 and throughout 2025 we noted that overall engagement ring spend had plateaued, as lab grown diamonds meant couples no longer needed to spend more to get the ring of their dreams.

That shift hasn’t reversed. In fact, it’s accelerated.

With lab diamonds costing less than natural diamonds, couples are using these savings to go bigger rather than reducing budgets for a cheaper ring. Clients are also using the price advantage of lab grown stones to move into larger 2–4 carat diamonds, while also choosing higher colour and clarity grades. Take a look at our guide covering how lab grown and natural diamonds compare on price for more information.

2027 see ring buyers spending more intentionally, rather than spending less.

Oval is the most popular lab grown diamond shape, and the most popular diamond cut overall according to Queensmith's data. So, if you're considering an oval lab grown diamond engagement ring, you're in good company.

For years, round brilliant was the undisputed default diamond shape. Our data shows that this is changing, and lab grown diamonds are a big part of the ‘why’.

As lab grown removes some of the cost barrier to choosing a larger or more distinctive stone, shapes like oval, marquise, elongated cushion and emerald are gaining ground that would once have gone to round as standard.

For couples who'd once have defaulted to a round, a marquise lab grown diamond engagement ring or a lab grown emerald cut diamond engagement ring is now a realistic choice rather than a stretch.

2026 saw a clear revival of old mine, antique and vintage-inspired diamonds. The trend reflects a growing appetite for designs with character, individuality and heritage, rather than the uniformity of a modern round brilliant.

Yes, though not an antique one. There's no such thing as an antique lab grown diamond, because lab diamonds are a modern creation. Today's cutters can recreate old mine-style faceting, though. Our largest sale of 2026, a 10.01ct lab grown elongated old cushion, is proof.

Natural old mine cut diamonds are increasingly rare and expensive. For example a modern, quality 1ct natural diamond would cost around £6,200. An old mine cut diamond of the same carat and quality could cost between £8,000 to £12,000, depending on its rarity.

They were cut more than 100 years ago, and many original examples have since been recut into more modern shapes, making well-preserved specimens less common today.

Interestingly, requests from clients to view old mine cut diamonds rose dramatically following Taylor Swift's engagement, and most of these couples are choosing modern lab grown cushion cuts over antique stones, driven by superior value for money, appearance and availability. Other celebrities to duel the old mine cut lab diamond trend include Zoe Kravitz and Zendaya.

Lab grown cushion cuts offer high-quality sparkle and lower price per carat, while still allowing couples to capture a vintage aesthetic through setting styles like rubovers, mixed metals and Georgian-inspired detailing. Choosing yellow gold is another simple way to get the look. Yellow gold lab grown diamond engagement rings echo the warm metals of Georgian and Victorian jewellery.

Similar to the appeal of an old mine cut but designed to offer a far superior, intense sparkle that only a modern-day cut diamond could achieve. Just like the popular oval diamond, an elongated cushion diamond offers exceptional finger-coverage per carat, meaning the elongated spread of the diamond enables it to appear larger than other, non-elongated shapes of equal carat weight.

Lab grown diamonds are rewriting what counts as a ‘normal’ carat weight. Our average lab diamond carat weight jumped from 1.57ct in 2025 to 1.92ct in 2026, a 22% increase in a single year, and 25.5% since 2024.

In 2026, colourless lab diamonds remain the most popular and obvious choice for ring buyers, with 93% opting for the top colour grade, D.

Yet 3% of our clients chose a diamond graded E–Z rather than D – a notable rise from 2025. Not every stone in that range looks warm: E–F are still graded colourless, and stones in the G–J range can read as slightly warm depending on the setting and the light. A visible warm tone typically appears from K colour downwards.

Warm diamonds have a natural hint of colour, ranging from soft yellow and brown tones to the richer shades of champagne lab grown diamonds. While a traditional colourless diamond is prized for its bright, clear appearance, a warmer stone offers a softer, more individual look – and some gemmologists put the emerging trend down to the fact a warmer diamond could appear more like a natural diamond. A slight myth, because a lab diamond can also be created in any tone.

It’s a shift that echoes a wider moment in the diamond world. De Beers’ ‘Desert Diamonds’ campaign has put warm, earth-toned natural diamonds firmly in the spotlight this year.

What’s notable is that some lab grown buyers are moving in the same direction, independently, without a marketing campaign behind them. The appeal of warm colour isn’t manufactured hype but a genuine shift in taste, with lab grown options simply making it more affordable to follow.

This growing interest in warm colour tracks closely with the renewed appetite for vintage-inspired jewellery, particularly in cushion cuts, pear shapes and other stones that let depth of colour show through.

We’re finding clients are drawn to warmer diamonds for both their individuality and their relative affordability. Set in yellow gold, a warm stone looks deliberate rather than tinted. That's part of the reason yellow gold lab grown diamond rings fit so naturally into the vintage revival.

The common assumption is that people choose lab grown diamonds mainly to get a bigger stone for less money, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Our customer data shows that clients are using the price difference across the 4Cs.

Lab grown diamond clarity is where this shows most clearly. 86% of lab grown diamonds we sold in 2026 were graded VVS, a level of near-flawless clarity that has historically been reserved for the highest-spending natural diamond buyers. In other words, couples aren’t choosing between a bigger stone and a better one. Lab grown gets them both.

Custom engagement ring designs are growing year on year as people seek rings that tell a personal story. Popular custom features include contoured band, east-to-west solitaires, chunky settings and rubover designs.

Data shows that lab grown clients are notably more likely to personalise their ring than natural diamond clients. This points to a difference in priorities rather than pricing.

A natural diamond client’s budget often goes primarily towards carat weight, while a lab grown client, having already achieved that larger stone for less, has more room left to spend on making the ring distinctly their own.

With a little extra flex in their budgets due to the lower price points of lab diamonds, some ring buyers are seeking ways to make their engagement rings more personal. From small touches, like a hidden halo, to totally custom designs – 2027 will see the rise of the unique engagement ring, and perhaps a decline in today's most prevalent ring design, the oval solitaire ring.