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Rachael Parnell

When a consumer heard a supermarket was launching a recent product collection that appeared comparable to offerings from high-end label Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

Rachael dashed to her local outlet to buy the Lacura face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 price tag of the Augustinus Bader 50ml product.

The streamlined blue container and gold cap of both items look strikingly similar. And though she has never tried the high-end cream, she states she's satisfied by the dupe so far.

She has been buying beauty alternatives from high street stores and grocery stores for some time, and she's part of a trend.

Over a 25% of UK buyers say they've tried a beauty or cosmetic lookalike. This increases to 44% among millennials and Gen Z, as per a February poll.

Alternatives are beauty items that imitate well-known labels and offer budget-friendly alternatives to luxury items. They often have comparable branding and containers, but occasionally the formulas can differ substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Isn't Necessarily Better'

Beauty experts say certain dupes to high-end brands are decent quality and aid make beauty routines less expensive.

"It is not true that costlier is always better," states dermatology expert a doctor. "Not every affordable product line is poor - and not all premium skincare product is the finest."

"A number of [dupes] are truly amazing," adds Scott McGlynn, who presents a show about celebrities.

Many of the products based on high-end brands "disappear so fast, it's just unbelievable," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor Ross Perry believes dupes are suitable to use for "simple routines" like moisturisers and cleansers.

"Dupes will do the job," he explains. "These items will perform the fundamentals to a satisfactory standard."

Another skin doctor, suggests you can save money when you're looking for single-ingredient products like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"If you're purchasing a simple product then you're probably going to be okay in using a lookalike or something which is fairly inexpensive because there's minimal that can cause issues," she says.

'Do Not Be Influenced by the Container'

However the professionals also suggest consumers investigate and note that costlier products are at times worthy of the extra money.

Regarding high-end skincare, you're not only paying for the brand and advertising - at times the higher price tag also comes from the components and their standard, the concentration of the active ingredient, the science utilized to create the item, and trials into the products' effectiveness, she notes.

Beauty expert she argues it's important questioning how some alternatives can be priced so inexpensively.

Sometimes, she states they might contain bulking agents that don't have as numerous advantages for the complexion, or the components might not be as carefully selected.

"The key question mark is 'How is it so cheap?'" she asks.

Expert Scott says on occasion he's bought beauty products that appear comparable to a established label but the item has "little similarity to the luxury product".

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

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Regarding advanced products or those with ingredients that can aggravate the skin if they're not created accurately, such as retinols or vitamin C, Dr Bhate suggests sticking to research-backed labels.

The expert says these probably have been through expensive trials to evaluate how efficacious they are.

Skincare items are required to be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, notes consultant dermatologist Emma Wedgeworth.

If the company states about the efficacy of the product, it needs research to back it up, "but the brand doesn't necessarily have to perform the testing" and can alternatively cite studies completed by other firms, she says.

Read the Ingredients List of the Container

Is there any ingredients that could suggest a product is inferior?

Components on the back of the bottle are ordered by amount. "Potential irritants that you need to look out for… is your mineral oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up