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Rachael Parnell

After discovering Rachael Parnell heard a discounter was selling a fresh skincare range that looked comparable to items from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

The shopper dashed to her nearest outlet to buy the Lacura face cream for a low price for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 price tag of the Augustinus Bader 50ml product.

Its sleek blue packaging and gold top of both products look noticeably alike. While she has not used the high-end cream, she says she's impressed by the alternative so far.

She has been purchasing skincare dupes from mainstream retailers and grocery stores for some time, and she's not alone.

Over a 25% of UK buyers say they've purchased a skincare or makeup lookalike. This increases to 44% among younger adults, based on a recently published survey.

Lookalikes are skincare products that copy established brands and offer cost-effective alternatives to high-end products. These products typically have alike branding and containers, but sometimes the components can differ significantly.

Victoria Woollaston

'High-Priced Is Not Always Superior'

Skincare specialists argue many alternatives to premium labels are decent standard and aid make skincare less expensive.

"I don't think more expensive is invariably superior," states dermatology expert one expert. "Not all affordable product line is poor - and not every premium skincare product is the top."

"A number of [dupes] are absolutely impressive," says Scott McGlynn, who presents a podcast with famous people.

A lot of of the products inspired by luxury brands "run out so rapidly, it's just insane," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist a doctor thinks alternatives are fine to use for "fundamental products" like hydrators and face washes.

"Dupes will be effective," he explains. "These items will handle the essentials to a acceptable degree."

Ketaki Bhate, advises you can save money when you're looking for simple-formula products like HA, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're buying a simple item then you're probably going to be alright in using a dupe or a product which is quite low cost because there's very little that can be problematic," she says.

'Do Not Be Sold by the Box'

But the experts also recommend buyers investigate and say that costlier items are sometimes worthy of the extra money.

With premium skincare, you're not only funding the label and advertising - at times the elevated cost also comes from the ingredients and their grade, the potency of the key component, the research used to create the item, and tests into the products' effectiveness, she explains.

Beauty expert she argues it's important thinking about how some alternatives can be offered so inexpensively.

Occasionally, she believes they may include bulking agents that don't have as numerous advantages for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as carefully selected.

"The major question mark is 'How is it so low-priced?'" she remarks.

Commentator McGlynn says sometimes he's purchased beauty products that appear similar to a big-name brand but the actual formula has "little similarity to the premium version".

"Don't be fooled by the outer appearance," he cautioned.

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For more complicated items or those with ingredients that can irritate the skin if they're not made accurately, such as retinols or vitamin C, Dr Bhate suggests sticking to medical-grade companies.

She states these will likely have been through comprehensive studies to determine how efficacious they are.

Beauty products must be tested before they can be marketed in the UK, explains skin doctor another professional.

If the brand makes claims about the effectiveness of the product, it must have research to support it, "but the seller doesn't necessarily have to perform the testing" and can instead cite testing completed by different brands, she clarifies.

Check the Back of the Container

Are there any components that could indicate a item is low-quality?

Ingredients on the label of the bottle are ordered by amount. "The baddies that you need to avoid… is your mineral oil, your SLS, parfum, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up