🔗 Share this article

Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing a consumer found out a discounter was selling a fresh product collection that seemed akin to items from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

The shopper hurried to her nearest outlet to pick up the store-brand face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 price tag of the luxury brand 50ml item.

Its smooth blue tube and gold top of each creams look noticeably similar. While she has never tried the luxury cream, she claims she's satisfied by the dupe so far.

She has been buying lookalike products from mainstream retailers and grocery stores for a long time, and she's in good company.

More than a fourth of UK shoppers state they've purchased a beauty or cosmetic lookalike. This increases to nearly half among millennials and Gen Z, according to a recent survey.

Alternatives are beauty items that imitate bigger name companies and offer affordable options to premium items. They typically have comparable branding and containers, but occasionally the components can differ substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Isn't Necessarily Superior'

Skincare experts say some substitutes to premium brands are good quality and help make beauty routines less expensive.

"It is not true that more expensive is always better," states skin specialist a doctor. "Not all budget product line is poor - and not every high-end skincare product is the finest."

"Certain [dupes] are truly amazing," adds a skincare commentator, who runs a podcast with public figures.

Numerous of the items modeled on high-end brands "run out so rapidly, it's just insane," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist Ross Perry argues alternatives are fine to use for "simple routines" like hydrators and face washes.

"Dupes will be effective," he explains. "They will perform the fundamentals to a reasonable standard."

A consultant dermatologist, advises you can cut costs when you're looking for single-ingredient items like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and squalane.

"If you're buying a single-ingredient product then you're probably going to be fine in opting for a budget alternative or something which is very affordable because there's minimal that can go wrong," she adds.

'Do Not Be Swayed by the Container'

Yet the specialists also suggest shoppers investigate and state that higher-priced items are occasionally worth the premium price.

Regarding luxury beauty products, you're not just covering the brand and promotion - at times the increased cost also stems from the components and their standard, the concentration of the effective element, the research employed to create the item, and tests into the products' performance, the expert explains.

Skin therapist she says it's valuable thinking about how certain dupes can be sold so cheaply.

In some cases, she says they might contain filler ingredients that don't have as significant benefits for the complexion, or the materials might not be as well sourced.

"One major doubt is 'Why is it so inexpensive?'" she says.

Podcast host McGlynn says on occasion he's bought skincare items that look comparable to a well-known brand but the product itself has "no connection to the luxury product".

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

SimpleImages/Getty Images

Regarding advanced products or ones with ingredients that can aggravate the skin if they're not formulated accurately, such as retinols or vitamin C serums, she recommends selecting research-backed labels.

She states these will likely have been through costly trials to assess how efficacious they are.

Skincare products need to be tested before they can be marketed in the UK, notes skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

When the label states about the efficacy of the product, it needs evidence to verify it, "however the brand does not necessarily have to perform the trials" and can instead cite evidence conducted by different companies, she clarifies.

Read the Back of the Bottle

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

Components on the list of the bottle are listed by concentration. "The baddies that you should be wary of… is your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up