TCC Lore: Just so ya
We both come from the not-for-profit sector, not jewellery. Our work has always been centred on things like fairness, equity, and making systems more accountable to the people they’re supposed to serve.
The idea for this business came up after I lost my engagement and wedding rings (my bad…!) so we started looking into what it would take to replace them.
That’s when we realised just how inflated the prices were. It felt impossible to make sense of the costs. We were seeing markups of 900 percent OR MORE on lab-grown diamonds, even though the production cost was a fraction of what was being charged. The more we looked into it, the clearer it became: there was no real transparency, just layers of branding and middlemen and sales tactics.
We weren’t trying to start a diamond business at the time, we just wanted to understand what we were paying for. But once we saw how much was being added on, and how little people really knew about what they were buying, we felt like there had to be a better option.
So we created one.
That’s how The Carat Commons began!
It’s not about being anti-natural diamond. This isn’t a purity war.
We’ve spent years living and working in East Africa, and we’ve seen the mining sector up close.
We know it’s complicated. When done responsibly, mining can absolutely bring income, infrastructure, and opportunity. But that’s not the norm, and most of the wealth rarely stays in the communities doing the hard work.
Lab-grown diamonds felt like a good alternative, they’re conflict-free, don’t require mining, and are much more affordable. But the thing no one in lab grown ‘ethical’ diamonds wants to say? It isn’t a perfect solution either.
There are still questions around the environmental impact of growing diamonds in high-energy labs, especially in countries where electricity comes from coal. And many of the factories producing lab-grown stones are in places where labour laws are weak or poorly enforced. Those issues matter too.
So this isn’t about claiming lab-grown diamonds are flawless like many do. It’s about being honest about the trade-offs, and making those trade-offs visible to people so they can make informed choices.
For us, that’s what The Carat Commons is about. Not just affordability, but transparency.
We want to cut out the smoke and mirrors. We want to show you what you’re really buying, where it comes from, and how to get more value from it. Not just in terms of cost, but in the way it’s made, who it supports, and how long it lasts.
So we built a business around that.
We don’t sell finished rings.
We don’t do markups on settings.
We focus on what we do best: sourcing exceptional lab-grown diamonds at wholesale price, and making them available directly to you.
From there, you can take your stone to your own local jeweller.
Someone who understands your culture, your style, your story.
We want you to inject money back into your local artisans, not into a shareholder portfolio.
Let’s revalue what matters and those who are often undervalued and those that get priced out by an industry that prioritises volume over craft.
We want to help change that (and not by driving up your cost which is often the case!)
Because in this economy? People need value. And they shouldn’t have to choose between quality and fairness to get it.
We believe that when you spend smarter, you can spend better:
Go for 22K gold instead of cutting down to 9K
Get the ring made in YOUR size not resized and compromised
Choose a thicker band that will last for decades
Add a euro shank, a custom detail, a design you’ve loved forever
Build something real, not just expensive
Most diamonds don’t hold value.
But craftsmanship does.
So does gold.
So does meaning.
The Carat Commons is just the two of us, a small, values-led business trying to make this space more transparent and more grounded in real life.
We started it because I lost MY rings… and in the process, we saw behind the curtain.
Now we want to offer people a way to do things differently. To keep the beauty, the intention, the symbolism but and drop the markup, the pressure, the gatekeeping.
If that speaks to you, we’d love to help you get started.
Whether you’re creating something to propose with or designing a piece just because you can, you deserve better options.
This space was made for that.
This space was made for you.