Is Moissanite Real? Yes — Here's What It Actually Is

Short answer: yes, moissanite is real. It's a genuine, distinct gemstone — not glass, not cubic zirconia, and not a "fake diamond." The confusion is understandable, so here's exactly what it is and where it comes from.

Moissanite is silicon carbide. It was discovered in 1893 by the French chemist Henri Moissan in a meteor crater in Arizona — he first thought he'd found diamonds, which tells you something about how convincing it is. Natural moissanite turned out to be vanishingly rare, so the moissanite in jewelry today is grown in a lab to gem quality.

People mix the two up constantly, but they're different stones, and it's not close. Moissanite is far harder (9.25 vs about 8.5 on the Mohs scale), throws noticeably more fire, and won't cloud or yellow with age. Cubic zirconia is softer and tends to go dull over time. If CZ is the understudy, moissanite is the lead.

At 9.25 Mohs, moissanite is one of the hardest materials used in jewelry — excellent for daily wear. It resists scratching better than almost any gem except diamond, and it keeps its brilliance for life rather than fading into a cloudy lump in a few years.

Every Airwaves moissanite piece is D-color and GRA certified, with the certificate in the box — so "is it real?" has a documented, verifiable answer rather than a shrug.