Cubic zirconia rings and other cubic zirconia jewelry are lovely substitutes for diamond jewelry. It has an interesting history combining science and beauty. Two German scientists discovered it in 1937. However, it was not until the 1970's when Russian scientist found a way to create it in a laboratory. Cubic zirconia did not become popular until the 1980's when Swarovski & Co. began making them in mass quantities.

A cubic zirconia is made through a complicated process and is a made up of zirconium oxide and yttrium oxide. Together the two chemicals create a beautiful, radiant crystal. It takes almost 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit to melt the two chemicals together and the most important process is cooling. The chemicals must be carefully cooled in order to create flawless crystals.

The cubic zirconia is a beautiful substitute for those who cannot afford a real diamond or just simply prefer not to spend that much. It has a little less sparkle and brilliance, but with more fire and color. Also, a cubic zirconia weighs 75% more than loose diamonds with the same carat weight. Cubic zirconia stones are durable, brilliant, and beautiful. Most people cannot tell the difference. One of the ways to tell the difference between a cubic zirconia and a real diamond is to look at the cubic zirconia under a 10x magnification. You can see the facets do not point properly and where facets intersect, it is not a straight line, but the intersection is more rounded than the diamond's facets. Other ways to tell the difference are doing a specific gravity test on an un-mounted stone, marking ink on the top of the stone (the ink beads up on a cubic zirconia), when gem-printed a cubic zirconia photograph's reflective and refractive patterns, and when measuring heat conductivity, a cubic zirconia registers red on the indicator (a diamond is green).

Cubic zirconia has a hardness of 8.5 of the Mohs scale of hardness. Cubic zirconia is clear and is brilliant. There are even some cubic zirconia that come in almost every color of the rainbow.