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Rachael Parnell

When a consumer heard a discounter was selling a fresh product collection that looked similar to products from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

She hurried to her local store to pick up the store-brand face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 price tag of the Augustinus Bader 50ml cream.

Its streamlined blue container and gold top of both items look noticeably similar. And though she has not tested the high-end cream, she states she's pleased by the product so far.

She has been buying lookalike products from mainstream retailers and supermarkets for a long time, and she's part of a trend.

Over a 25% of UK shoppers state they've purchased a skincare or makeup alternative. This rises to 44 percent among millennials and Gen Z, as per a February study.

Dupes are beauty items that mimic well-known labels and offer affordable alternatives to luxury items. These products often have comparable labels and design, but sometimes the ingredients can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Necessarily Better'

Skincare specialists contend certain alternatives to luxury brands are reasonable standard and assist make beauty routines more affordable.

"I don't think costlier is necessarily more effective," says skin specialist one expert. "Not all low-budget beauty label is bad - and not all luxury skincare product is the top."

"A number of [dupes] are really amazing," adds Scott McGlynn, who presents a program about famous people.

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

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor a doctor thinks alternatives are fine to use for "fundamental products" like moisturisers and face washes.

"These products will do the job," he explains. "These items will do the fundamentals to a reasonable degree."

A consultant dermatologist, suggests you can save money when you're looking for single-ingredient items like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're purchasing a simple product then you're likely going to be okay in opting for a dupe or a product which is fairly low cost because there's minimal that can cause issues," she says.

'Do Not Be Sold by the Container'

But the specialists also suggest buyers check details and say that costlier products are at times worthy of the extra money.

Regarding high-end skincare, you're not just covering the brand and advertising - at times the elevated price also is due to the components and their standard, the concentration of the active ingredient, the science employed to develop the product, and trials into the item's performance, the expert explains.

Facialist Rhian Truman suggests it's important questioning how certain alternatives can be sold so inexpensively.

Occasionally, she believes they might include filler ingredients that don't have as numerous positive effects for the skin, or the materials might not be as carefully selected.

"The key uncertainty is 'How is it so cheap?'" she remarks.

Podcast host Scott says sometimes he's purchased skincare items that look similar to a established label but the item has "no resemblance to the premium version".

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

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Regarding potent items or ones with ingredients that can inflame the skin if they're not created properly, such as retinoids or vitamin C, Dr Bhate advises using more specialised labels.

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

Beauty products are required to be tested before they can be available in the UK, says skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

If the label states about the performance of the item, it must have evidence to back it up, "but the brand doesn't necessarily have to do the trials" and can alternatively reference testing completed by other firms, she clarifies.

Read the Label of the Container

Are there any components that could signal a item is poor?

Ingredients on the back of the tube are listed by concentration. "The baddies that you want to be wary of… is your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up