All that sparkles need not be too costly

Heather Black says her 2.5-carat pendant was '1000-and-something dollars rather than 20,000-and-something'. Picture / Richard Robinson

Diamonds may be a girl's best friend but Phyllis Fung and her mother, Annie Chee, reckon simulated diamonds look just as good - and are a lot cheaper.

The Auckland women were so impressed with the quality, look and price of laboratory-grown diamonds on sale at the Stamford Plaza Hotel yesterday that they spent nearly $5000 between them.

Mrs Chee came away with a 3-carat pendant, a 2-carat ring and a gold and diamond bracelet, while her daughter fell in love with a 2-carat pink-diamond necklace.

Admiring her new pendant, Miss Fung said her $700 simulated pink jewel was just as good as the more expensive kind.

"Even a lot of the jewellery stores wouldn't be able to distinguish the difference," she said.

The Simone range of jewellery, brought into the country for the first time by businessman Imran Chaudhary, is created in a New York laboratory.

Rare minerals are extracted from the earth, refined and then melted at more than 2760C before being crystallised to form the simulated diamonds.

Aucklander Heather Black was one of about 100 people who visited the jewellery display yesterday and was impressed enough to buy a 2.5-carat trilogy pendant set in white gold.

"It's a D [colour] equivalent which is really hard to get in normal diamonds because they cost a bomb," she said.

"What I'm buying is 1000-and-something dollars rather than 20,000-and-something."