🔗 Share this article

Rachael Parnell

When one shopper found out a discounter was offering a new product collection that seemed akin to items from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

She hurried to her closest store to buy the supermarket face cream for a low price for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 price tag of the luxury brand 50ml item.

The streamlined blue container and gold cap of each products look remarkably similar. Although she has never tried the luxury cream, she states she's impressed by the product so far.

Rachael has been buying skincare dupes from popular shops and grocery stores for some time, and she's not alone.

Over a 25% of UK buyers say they've tried a skincare or makeup lookalike. This rises to nearly half among younger adults, as per a recently published study.

Alternatives are beauty items that copy well-known labels and provide budget-friendly options to premium products. They typically have alike names and packaging, but occasionally the formulas can differ substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Is Not Necessarily Superior'

Beauty specialists argue many substitutes to premium brands are decent quality and help make skincare cheaper.

"It is not true that more expensive is always more effective," comments skin specialist one expert. "Not all affordable skincare brand is inferior - and not all high-end skincare product is the finest."

"Certain [dupes] are truly excellent," notes a skincare commentator, who runs a show featuring famous people.

Numerous of the products inspired by luxury brands "disappear so fast, it's just crazy," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist a doctor believes alternatives are suitable to use for "simple routines" like hydrators and cleansers.

"These products will serve a purpose," he says. "They will do the basics to a satisfactory level."

Ketaki Bhate, thinks you can save money when you're looking for single-ingredient items like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"When you're buying a single-ingredient item then you're probably going to be okay in opting for a budget alternative or something which is very affordable because there's minimal that can cause issues," she says.

'Do Not Be Swayed by the Packaging'

Yet the professionals also advise consumers check details and state that higher-priced items are sometimes worthy of the additional cost.

Regarding luxury beauty products, you're not only paying for the name and promotion - sometimes the higher price tag also is due to the components and their grade, the strength of the key component, the research used to produce the item, and studies into the item's efficacy, the expert says.

Skin therapist Rhian Truman argues it's worth considering how some alternatives can be sold so at a low cost.

Sometimes, she believes they may include less effective components that lack as significant advantages for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

"The major doubt is 'Why is it so inexpensive?'" she asks.

Podcast host Scott says in some cases he's bought beauty products that look similar to a big-name label but the product itself has "no resemblance to the original".

"Don't be convinced by the container," he added.

SimpleImages/Getty Images

Regarding advanced products or ones with components that can inflame the skin if they're not formulated accurately, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, Dr Bhate advises selecting more specialised brands.

She explains these probably have been subjected to expensive studies to evaluate how successful they are.

Skincare items need to be tested before they can be sold in the UK, explains consultant dermatologist Emma Wedgeworth.

When the company makes claims about the efficacy of the product, it needs evidence to support it, "but the brand doesn't always have to conduct the trials" and can instead cite testing done by other companies, she adds.

Check the Ingredients List of the Bottle

Is there any ingredients that could signal a product is low-quality?

Ingredients on the back of the tube are listed by quantity. "The baddies that you want to look out for… is your petroleum-derived oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up