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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing one shopper heard a discounter was selling a fresh beauty line that looked comparable to offerings from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

She hurried to her closest store to pick up the Lacura face cream for a low price for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 of the high-end 50ml product.

The sleek blue tube and gold cap of each products look remarkably alike. Although Rachael has not tested the high-end cream, she says she's impressed by the alternative so far.

Rachael has been using skincare dupes from popular shops and supermarkets for a long time, and she's in good company.

Over a fourth of UK buyers report they've tried a beauty or cosmetic lookalike. This increases to nearly half among millennials and Gen Z, based on a February survey.

Dupes are beauty items that copy established brands and provide budget-friendly alternatives to luxury items. They frequently have comparable labels and design, but in some cases the components can vary substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Always Superior'

Skincare professionals contend certain substitutes to high-end brands are good quality and help make skincare less expensive.

"In my opinion costlier is necessarily more effective," comments dermatology expert one expert. "Not all low-budget beauty label is bad - and not every high-end beauty item is the best."

"A number of [dupes] are absolutely amazing," notes Scott McGlynn, who runs a show about celebrities.

A lot of of the items inspired by high-end labels "sell out so rapidly, it's just crazy," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist a doctor believes alternatives are fine to use for "simple routines" like moisturisers and face washes.

"Dupes will serve a purpose," he says. "They will do the essentials to a acceptable level."

Another skin doctor, suggests you can cut costs when seeking single-ingredient products like HA, Vitamin B3 and a moisturizing ingredient.

"When you're purchasing a simple product then you're probably going to be okay in using a dupe or something which is very inexpensive because there's minimal that can go wrong," she explains.

'Do Not Be Sold by the Packaging'

However the experts also advise shoppers check details and state that more expensive items are sometimes worthy of the additional cost.

Regarding luxury skincare, you're not only covering the name and promotion - often the increased cost also comes from the components and their grade, the potency of the key component, the research used to create the item, and trials into the products' efficacy, the expert notes.

Beauty expert another professional says it's valuable questioning how some alternatives can be sold so at a low cost.

Sometimes, she says they may have bulking agents that do not provide as many advantages for the complexion, or the components might not be as carefully selected.

"One big question mark is 'Why is it so inexpensive?'" she asks.

Expert McGlynn says sometimes he's purchased skincare items that look comparable to a established label but the product itself has "no resemblance to the luxury product".

"Do not be convinced by the outer appearance," he cautioned.

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For potent products or those with ingredients that can irritate the skin if they're not made correctly, such as retinols or vitamin C, she suggests sticking to medical-grade labels.

The expert states these typically have been subjected to costly studies to evaluate how efficacious they are.

Skincare products must be evaluated before they can be sold in the UK, says skin doctor another professional.

When the company states about the effectiveness of the item, it needs data to back it up, "however the brand doesn't always have to conduct the testing" and can instead cite studies done by other companies, she adds.

Read the Back of the Bottle

Is there any components that could suggest a item is low-quality?

Ingredients on the list of the container are ordered by amount. "Ingredients to avoid that you need to avoid… is your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up