🔗 Share this article

Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing Rachael Parnell found out a supermarket was launching a fresh product collection that looked comparable to offerings from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

Rachael dashed to her local store to pick up the Lacura face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 price tag of the high-end 50ml cream.

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

She has been purchasing beauty alternatives from mainstream retailers and supermarkets for years, and she's in good company.

More than a fourth of UK buyers state they've tried a skincare or makeup lookalike. This jumps to 44% among younger adults, based on a February poll.

Lookalikes are beauty items that copy established brands and offer cost-effective substitutes to premium items. These products typically have similar names and packaging, but occasionally the components can vary significantly.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Always Superior'

Beauty experts contend many substitutes to high-end labels are good quality and aid make skincare less expensive.

"I don't think costlier is invariably more effective," comments consultant dermatologist Sharon Belmo. "Not all budget beauty label is inferior - and not all luxury skincare product is the finest."

"A number of [dupes] are really impressive," adds a podcast host, who runs a program with public figures.

A lot of of the products based on high-end brands "disappear so quickly, it's just insane," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert Ross Perry believes alternatives are fine to use for "fundamental products" like moisturisers and cleansers.

"Alternatives will do the job," he explains. "They will perform the essentials to a acceptable level."

Another skin doctor, advises you can cut costs when seeking simple-formula items like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and squalane.

"If you're purchasing a simple product then you're probably going to be okay in using a dupe or something which is quite low cost because there's minimal that can cause issues," she explains.

'Do Not Be Influenced by the Packaging'

But the experts also advise shoppers do their research and say that more expensive products are sometimes worthy of the additional cost.

With high-end skincare, you're not only covering the brand and advertising - sometimes the elevated cost also is due to the components and their quality, the potency of the key component, the science employed to develop the product, and tests into the item's effectiveness, she notes.

Skin therapist she says it's valuable questioning how certain dupes can be priced so at a low cost.

Occasionally, she states they may include less effective components that lack as numerous positive effects for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as carefully selected.

"One big uncertainty is 'Why is it so low-priced?'" she asks.

Expert Scott admits in some cases he's bought beauty products that look similar to a big-name brand but the actual formula has "no connection to the premium version".

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

SimpleImages/Getty Images

For more complicated products or ones with ingredients that can aggravate the skin if they're not formulated correctly, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, Dr Bhate advises using medical-grade brands.

She states these typically have been through expensive trials to determine how effective they are.

Skincare items need to be assessed before they can be sold in the UK, says skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

If the company advertises about the efficacy of the product, it requires data to back it up, "however the manufacturer doesn't always have to conduct the testing" and can alternatively reference testing completed by other companies, she says.

Examine the Label of the Container

Is there any ingredients that could signal a item is inferior?

Components on the list of the tube are arranged by amount. "The baddies that you need to be wary of… is your petroleum-derived oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, parfum, benzel peroxide" being {high up