🔗 Share this article

Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing Rachael Parnell learned a supermarket was offering a new skincare range that seemed similar to offerings from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

Rachael dashed to her nearest shop to purchase the store-brand face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 price tag of the luxury brand 50ml item.

Its smooth blue tube and gold cap of each products look remarkably similar. While she has not tested the high-end cream, she claims she's pleased by the alternative so far.

She has been purchasing lookalike products from high street stores and grocery stores for years, and she's in good company.

More than a quarter of UK shoppers report they've purchased a beauty or cosmetic lookalike. This rises to 44 percent among younger adults, based on a February survey.

Dupes are skincare products that imitate well-known labels and offer cost-effective options to luxury products. These products often have comparable labels and design, but in some cases the formulas can vary considerably.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Always Better'

Skincare specialists contend some alternatives to luxury brands are reasonable standard and help make beauty routines cheaper.

"In my opinion costlier is invariably more effective," comments dermatology expert a doctor. "Not every low-budget product line is inferior - and not every high-end beauty item is the best."

"Certain [dupes] are absolutely amazing," says a skincare commentator, who hosts a show with celebrities.

Numerous of the products based on luxury labels "sell out so rapidly, it's just insane," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert Ross Perry believes dupes are suitable to use for "basic skincare" like moisturisers and face washes.

"Alternatives will serve a purpose," he says. "These items will handle the fundamentals to a acceptable degree."

Another skin doctor, suggests you can spend less when you're looking for single-ingredient items like HA, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"When you're buying a simple item then you're likely going to be fine in opting for a lookalike or a product which is very inexpensive because there's very little that can go wrong," she adds.

'Don't Be Swayed by the Packaging'

Yet the professionals also recommend buyers investigate and note that higher-priced products are at times worthy of the extra money.

Regarding high-end beauty products, you're not only funding the brand and marketing - at times the higher price also is due to the components and their grade, the potency of the active ingredient, the research utilized to create the product, and studies into the products' efficacy, she notes.

Facialist Rhian Truman says it's valuable considering how certain dupes can be sold so inexpensively.

Sometimes, she says they could have filler ingredients that lack as many benefits for the skin, or the materials might not be as carefully selected.

"One major question mark is 'Why is it so inexpensive?'" she asks.

Podcast host McGlynn says on occasion he's bought beauty products that look similar to a big-name brand but the product itself has "no connection to the premium version".

"Do not be sold by the packaging," he added.

SimpleImages/Getty Images

For advanced items or ones with ingredients that can inflame the complexion if they're not made correctly, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, the specialist advises using medical-grade companies.

The expert says these will likely have been subjected to expensive studies to assess how efficacious they are.

Beauty items are required to be assessed before they can be available in the UK, explains expert another professional.

When the label makes claims about the performance of the product, it needs data to support it, "but the seller does not necessarily have to conduct the trials" and can instead reference testing completed by different brands, she adds.

Examine the Ingredients List of the Pack

Is there any components that could suggest a product is low-quality?

Ingredients on the list of the bottle are arranged by amount. "The baddies that you should avoid… is your petroleum-derived oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, parfum, benzel peroxide" being {high up