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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing Rachael Parnell found out a discounter was launching a fresh beauty line that appeared similar to items from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

Rachael dashed to her local outlet to pick up the Lacura face cream for a low price for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 cost of the Augustinus Bader 50ml product.

Its smooth blue container and gold top of the two creams look strikingly alike. While she has not used the high-end cream, she says she's pleased by the dupe so far.

She has been using skincare dupes from high street stores and grocery stores for years, and she's part of a trend.

More than a 25% of UK shoppers say they've purchased a skincare or makeup alternative. This jumps to nearly half among millennials and Gen Z, as per a recently published poll.

Lookalikes are skincare products that copy well-known brands and offer cost-effective options to luxury products. These products often have alike labels and design, but in some cases the formulas can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Isn't Always Superior'

Beauty professionals argue some dupes to high-end brands are reasonable standard and help make skincare more affordable.

"In my opinion costlier is necessarily better," states dermatology expert one expert. "Not every affordable beauty label is bad - and not all high-end beauty item is the best."

"Some [dupes] are truly excellent," says a skincare commentator, who runs a podcast about public figures.

Numerous of the items modeled on luxury brands "sell out so rapidly, it's just unbelievable," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist a doctor believes dupes are fine to use for "fundamental products" like moisturisers and cleansers.

"These products will serve a purpose," he comments. "These items will handle the basics to a acceptable degree."

Ketaki Bhate, suggests you can cut costs when seeking simple-formula items like HA, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're buying a single-ingredient item then you're likely going to be alright in opting for a lookalike or a product which is quite inexpensive because there's very little that can cause issues," she adds.

'Do Not Be Influenced by the Box'

But the specialists also recommend consumers investigate and say that costlier products are sometimes worth the premium price.

With high-end skincare, you're not just funding the brand and advertising - often the higher price also is due to the ingredients and their quality, the concentration of the key component, the science used to create the item, and trials into the item's effectiveness, Dr Belmo notes.

Beauty expert another professional says it's valuable thinking about how some dupes can be priced so cheaply.

Sometimes, she believes they could contain less effective components that lack as many benefits for the skin, or the materials might not be as high-quality.

"One big question mark is 'How is it so low-priced?'" she remarks.

Expert Scott notes on occasion he's purchased skincare items that appear similar to a well-known brand but the actual formula has "no resemblance to the luxury product".

"Do not be fooled by the outer appearance," he warned.

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Regarding potent items or those with components that can inflame the complexion if they're not created accurately, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, Dr Bhate suggests sticking to medical-grade labels.

The expert explains these will likely have been through comprehensive tests to evaluate how successful they are.

Skincare products are required to be tested before they can be sold in the UK, notes expert Emma Wedgeworth.

When the label states about the performance of the item, it must have evidence to verify it, "but the seller does not always have to conduct the trials" and can instead reference evidence completed by other firms, she clarifies.

Read the Ingredients List of the Container

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

Ingredients on the list of the bottle are ordered by amount. "Ingredients to avoid that you want to look out for… is your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up