Man-Made Synthetic Opal Rings

We are so proud of our range of solid natural Opal rings and love our customers to own their very own unique genuine Opal ring that is natural. So you can imagine our shock and horror when our researchers informed us that man-made synthetic Opals are currently the bestselling Opal rings online and a top ranking google search term.

We started to check out some other big websites in the USA and so many of the rings being sold were man-made synthetic Opal rings. Many were not clearly labelled as being Synthetic Opal which is a real problem for consumers. There are so many natural Opal rings on the market for every price range, there is no reason to buy a man-made synthetic Opal ring when you can afford the real thing.

Why do websites sell synthetic Opal rings instead of genuine natural Opal rings?

Obviously, the mark ups are huge compared to natural Opal rings. We noticed a man-made synthetic Opal ring advertised for $189.00 that had a 10x8mm Opal. This would cost only about $3.00. The profit is huge. Also it is easy to mass produce thousands of identical synthetic Opal rings and most are made in China or Thailand cheaply. The vendors will only show one image with a note that the actual ring you will receive might be slightly different. When buying a natural Opal ring each piece has its own photo because in nature, no two Opals are the same. Each natural Opal ring is unique and not mass produced.

How do you tell if the Opal is a man-made synthetic Opal or a natural Opal?

If you do not have any Opal product knowledge, it can be difficult as I think a lot of these sellers are deceptive and dishonest. Some companies have professional images made up to show off the Opal ring. Genuine opal rings will have more amateur images as you cannot afford professional images for each individual creation.

We see these man-made synthetic Opal rings sold under so many names and many do not indicate they are man-made Opals. Unfortunately this practise is also rife in the gemstone industry. We found one company had large brilliant red Ruby rings, large blue Sapphire rings and large Opals rings for sale and no mention that they were all man-made stones. They advertise heavily on social media networks sites making their products easily accessible to unaware and ill-informed consumers.

Other Names for Synthetic Opal Rings

It is amazing how many ‘romantic’ names synthetic man-made Opal rings are sold under -

• Simulant Opal Ring
• Created Opal Ring
• Raw Opal Ring
• Moonstone Opal Ring
• Harlequin Opal Ring. This is very deceptive as Harlequin is the rarest natural Opal pattern and the description says it is fire Opal glass. 
• Faux Opal Ring. Vintage design and no mention this Opal is man-made.
• Fire Opal Vintage Ring
• Monarch Opal Ring. This Opal actually has potch lines just like natural Opal but is man-made.
• White Opal Ring.  Many times the title will be White Opal Ring but in the description it will say “Lab Opal”. Lab Opal is short for laboratory synthetic Opal.
• Opal Flake Ring. It looks similar to a mosaic Opal ring but synthetic Opal flakes are used in this ring.
• Eco-friendly genuine vintage glass Opal Cabochon Ring. How fake is ecofriendly glass Opal!
• Dragon Breath Opal Ring. The description normally says Dragon’s Breath Opal (or Mexican Fire Opal) but it is made of Czech Glass. 
• Swarovski Opal Ring. So many buyers even think Swarovski crystal is natural and that the Opals in their ring must be natural also. These are again all man-made synthetic Opals.
• Opal Cocktail Ring 
• Gilson Opal Ring

Another deceptive practice is that a link about the Opal in the ring is included in the product description and that’s where they state that the Opal in the ring is man-made. But who goes to another site to read about an Opal and risk having a virus downloaded? Not worth the risk and very deceitful.

We found one website that had on their front page “Natural and Lab-Created Opal”. But when you go into the shop there is not one genuine natural Opal. They do have word lab created on each item but this is very deceptive for a new Opal buyer as the images look amazing and like real Opal.

Many unethical sellers use the world black Opal to entice buyers. Black Opal is natural Opal mined in Lightning Ridge, Australia and must have body tone N1 to N4. It is the rarest and most expensive Opal. We even see fake triplet Opal rings being sold as black Opal rings.

If you are interested in reading more about how man-made synthetic Opal is made, check out these articles about methods for creating lab Opals and an article on how to make synthetic Opal.

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