Natural fancy-color diamonds gain ground as white engagement rings fade

At Khepri Jewels, Reema Chopra is centering natural fancy-color diamonds and unusual shapes as classic white engagement rings lose their pull in a lab-grown-heavy market. The appeal is no longer a perfectly matched white center stone, but a ring that looks rare at first glance and stays memorable after the proposal.

In The Knot's 2025 data, 61% of consumers who married chose a lab-grown center stone for their engagement ring, up from more than half in 2024, when synthetic centers crossed that threshold for the first time. Average engagement-ring spend also slipped to $4,600 in 2025 from $5,200 a year earlier.

Natural diamonds command attention when they come with color, size or both. De Beers data show U.S. women spent an average of $4,063 on a natural diamond in 2025, up 25% from $3,242 in 2023, while the average size of a natural diamond bought in the United States rose to 1.86 carats from 1.65 carats. Among households earning $150,000 or more, 15% purchased mined stones in 2025, up from 12% in 2023.

Launched in 2025 and expanded into bridal on April 14, 2026, De Beers’ Desert Diamonds campaign highlights cream-, champagne- and brown-colored natural diamonds as a visual counterpoint to lab-grown stones, which are often sold on high color and high clarity. National Jeweler puts bridal purchases at only 25% of U.S. natural diamond demand, leaving a much larger non-bridal market to defend.

The Knot's 2025 survey put yellow gold at 39%, the most in-demand metal, and nearly 90% of respondents either made custom edits or designed rings from scratch. Vintage cuts, bezel settings, east-west orientations and other non-round silhouettes are gaining ground. Edahn Golan says lab-grown diamonds dominate below $2,500 while natural diamonds are selling above it. Khepri Jewels was among the new exhibitors at Luxury/JCK in Las Vegas.