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Rachael Parnell

After discovering a consumer found out a discounter was offering a recent skincare range that looked comparable to offerings from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

The shopper dashed to her local store to pick up the supermarket face cream for a low price for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 cost of the high-end 50ml product.

The smooth blue container and gold top of the two items look strikingly similar. Although she has not used the high-end cream, she claims she's satisfied by the product so far.

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

More than a quarter of UK buyers state they've tried a skincare or makeup dupe. This increases to 44% among younger adults, as per a recent survey.

Dupes are skincare products that mimic established brands and provide budget-friendly options to premium items. They frequently have alike names and packaging, but sometimes the ingredients can differ substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'High-Priced Is Not Always Better'

Skincare professionals contend many dupes to high-end brands are reasonable quality and assist make skincare less expensive.

"It is not true that more expensive is necessarily more effective," comments consultant dermatologist Sharon Belmo. "Not all affordable product line is poor - and not all high-end skincare product is the best."

"A number of [dupes] are absolutely excellent," says a skincare commentator, who hosts a podcast featuring famous people.

A lot of of the products inspired by high-end brands "run out so fast, it's just insane," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert another professional argues alternatives are suitable to use for "fundamental products" like moisturisers and face washes.

"Dupes will serve a purpose," he says. "They will handle the fundamentals to a acceptable level."

Another skin doctor, suggests you can spend less when seeking single-ingredient items like HA, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're buying a single-ingredient item then you're probably going to be okay in opting for a dupe or a product which is very inexpensive because there's very little that can go wrong," she explains.

'Do Not Be Swayed by the Box'

However the experts also advise consumers investigate and note that higher-priced items are sometimes worthy of the extra money.

Regarding premium skincare, you're not just covering the name and promotion - often the higher price tag also stems from the formula and their quality, the potency of the effective element, the science utilized to create the item, and tests into the products' effectiveness, the expert notes.

Skin therapist she suggests it's valuable questioning how certain alternatives can be sold so cheaply.

Occasionally, she believes they may include bulking agents that do not provide as significant positive effects for the complexion, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

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

Expert McGlynn says sometimes he's bought beauty products that look similar to a well-known brand but the item has "no connection to the original".

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

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For potent items or ones with ingredients that can aggravate the skin if they're not formulated accurately, such as retinols or vitamin C, Dr Bhate recommends using medical-grade brands.

She says these probably have been through costly trials to assess how successful they are.

Skincare items must be assessed before they can be available in the UK, notes expert another professional.

When the brand makes claims about the efficacy of the item, it requires data to verify it, "however the seller does not always have to perform the testing" and can alternatively reference studies conducted by other firms, she says.

Check the Ingredients List of the Container

Is there any ingredients that could suggest a product is low-quality?

Ingredients on the back of the container are listed by quantity. "The baddies that you need to avoid… is your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up