[RabidRat]

Generalizing, I think women skew a little more sensitive to societal perception, and tend to be more judgmental and nosy amongst their circles. Can't blame them that that's how it is for them and they can't do anything about it.

Lucked out that my wife's circle of friends leans toward practical and even has one close MD friend she looks up to, who had insisted on getting a lab grown sapphire from her fiance for her engagement ring. That set us up for full freedom to go either lab or mined at a responsible price. Except her freaking mom came out of no where with random comments like "oh I'd be SO embarrassed if I had any lab grown anything. I was told by a jeweler that they won't even do adjustments on a ring if it has a dirty fake diamond in it because it could just shatter and that's a liability." Fml so in the end, my wife couldn't defy her meddling mom.

At least we were able to source a probably-not-blood diamond from a Canadian mine.