Editorial: Evaluating Claims of Glow of the Caribbean™
I spent over a decade living and working in the Caribbean jewelry industry, much of it working with the cruise line’s port lecturers and onboard promotions departments. I learned that, just like Las Vegas, what happens on the high seas stays on the high seas. Until, of course, it gets into an internet website. Then, the facts become far easier to ascertain and it is far easier to separate the amazing from the “caca de toro”.
In 2018 I published an investigative report on a company called Night Glow ® who claimed to have created a high technical cut for a diamond that made it glow in the dark. Here is what they claimed from their own website:
“the most technically advanced diamond in the world that truly glows at night” Night Glow
Of course, any beginning gemologist knows that phosphorescent diamonds are extremely rare, and certainly none continue to glow for hours. As it turns out this “technically advanced diamond” was simply an extremely poor cut diamond with tritium compartments behind it. The same stuff that makes watch faces glow. But let us continue.
Once the bruhaha got going in the industry about these bogus claims these folks went quiet for a while. Recently, when the cruise lines started touting an amazing discovery of Glowing Quartz Jewelry (editor’s note: that quartz is coated with strontium aluminate) the all-new Glow of the Caribbean Jewelry line was included in the discussion. You guessed it, the Night Glow folks moved to the high seas and rebranded themselves as the Glow of the Caribbean.
I thought it would be interesting to review their website claims and compare it to the facts.
Review of Glow of the Caribbean claims:
Claim: ‘Each piece of our beautiful and unique jewelry has hand-selected gemstones …and are precision cut to our patented design specifications to ensure a mesmerizing glow for hours.
Fact: The cut of the gemstone has nothing to do with ensuring a glow for hours. That is the tritium glowing, not your gemstone.
Claim: There are no batteries, no wires and the gemstones have not been exposed to any form of radiation.
Fact: The blue topaz you are advertising on the page has been irradiated to get the blue color. So your claim that the stone has not been exposed to radiation of any form is false.
Claim: The natural gemstones can glow up to 8 hours in total darkness
Fact: Gemstones do not glow for 8 hours. The tritium behind the gemstone may glow for 8 hours if exposed to enough UV light. This is where consumers are being misled, in my opinion.
Claim: The first major breakthrough came when Bill Disinger discovered that a diamond or gemstone could be cut to magnify and maintain scintillation of light.
Fact: The cut you use does nothing of the sort. The cut is actually extremely poor in quality. It is only used as it opens the stone up to allow more phosphorescence of the tritium to be transmitted through the stone. Your “discovery” is a smoke and mirrors claim and I think you know it. It certainly does not “magnify and maintain scintillation of light.”
Below left is the graphic from their website showing this diamond cut “discovery” of Bill Disinger sells to consumers. Below right is a graphic of an AGS Ideal Cut, the industry standard. This is the explanation offered for the diamond glowing for up to 8 hours. Notice there is no mention of tritium being placed under the stone.
Below is the graphic that Disinger submitted to the United States Patent Office to get this concept patented. Compare the graphic below to the one Glow of the Caribbean provides to consumers. The arrows point to where the tritium is located around the stone. Something I could not find disclosed to consumers on their website.
Claim: “…the four diamond cuts have been tested to glow up to 8 hours at night,…”
Fact: And yet again, the diamond cut cannot be tested to glow up to 8 hours a night because the diamond is not glowing. This is a false claim. Where are these tests that prove your diamond cuts glow in the dark? Seriously.
Conclusion
Most of you in the jewelry business are reading this thinking: This is so absurd why would anyone believe it? Well, if you understood the power of the onboard port lecturer and how totally gullible people become on a cruise, you would understand. For some reason, people leave their common sense on the dock and go shop like zombies wherever the port lecturer tells them, and believes without question everything the port lecturer says.
I sent the above to the Glow of the Caribbean folks before posting this newsletter. Just as I did in 2018. No response. Their only previous response was on a Facebook message:
“This has once again been sent to our attorneys this morning as this information that you posted is FALSE.” Sonya L. Disinger, Facebook
I offered to withdraw and retract any part they could show me is false. I never heard from them about that offer.
The sad part is that this patented invention is sort of cool if it was properly represented to consumers. But the carefully worded promotions representing that Bill Disinger has created a highly technical gemstone cutting procedure that makes diamonds and other gemstones glow for up to 8 hours….those claims are just not true. Tritium radiation is glowing, not the gemstones. That is just a plain simple fact.
The gemstone industry has very little, if any, real oversight on these kinds of things. Not the FTC and certainly not the JVC. But there is a group of us that are tired of the chicanery and are here standing watch to report what we see. We believe that honesty and ethics should be the foundation of the gemstone industry.
If you agree, join us. Nothing will change with the types of things you see above unless we all unite and say: Enough is enough!
Glow of the Caribbean is a trademark of Glow of the Caribbean and used here for comparison, discussion, and evaluation of their claims.