🔗 Share this article

Rachael Parnell

After discovering one shopper heard Aldi was launching a new skincare range that looked comparable to products from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

She hurried to her local store to pick up the Lacura face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 of the Augustinus Bader 50ml product.

Its smooth blue container and gold lid of both items look remarkably similar. Although she has not used the luxury cream, she claims she's satisfied by the product so far.

She has been using skincare dupes from popular shops and grocery stores for some time, and she's in good company.

Over a quarter of UK consumers state they've bought a beauty or cosmetic lookalike. This jumps to 44% among 18-34 year olds, based on a recently published survey.

Dupes are skincare products that copy bigger name brands and offer cost-effective options to high-end products. These products frequently have similar names and packaging, but in some cases the components can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Is Not Always Superior'

Skincare specialists say some dupes to luxury labels are reasonable quality and help make skincare less expensive.

"It is not true that higher-priced is necessarily more effective," says dermatology expert Sharon Belmo. "Not all affordable skincare brand is inferior - and not all high-end skincare product is the finest."

"Some [dupes] are absolutely amazing," says a podcast host, who runs a show about celebrities.

Numerous of the items modeled on luxury brands "run out so fast, it's just crazy," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert a doctor thinks alternatives are acceptable to use for "simple routines" like hydrators and face washes.

"These products will be effective," he says. "These items will do the basics to a reasonable standard."

Ketaki Bhate, suggests you can save money when you're looking for single-ingredient items like HA, Vitamin B3 and a moisturizing ingredient.

"When you're buying a simple item then you're probably going to be okay in opting for a lookalike or something which is quite affordable because there's minimal that can go wrong," she explains.

'Don't Be Influenced by the Box'

But the experts also recommend buyers check details and note that costlier items are occasionally worthy of the premium price.

With premium beauty products, you're not only funding the brand and advertising - often the increased cost also comes from the ingredients and their quality, the concentration of the effective element, the research used to develop the product, and tests into the products' efficacy, the expert explains.

Facialist she says it's important thinking about how some alternatives can be sold so inexpensively.

Sometimes, she states they may contain less effective components that lack as many benefits for the complexion, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

"One major doubt is 'Why is it so cheap?'" she asks.

Expert Scott says sometimes he's purchased skincare items that appear comparable to a established brand but the actual formula has "little similarity to the luxury product".

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

SimpleImages/Getty Images

Regarding potent items or ones with components that can aggravate the skin if they're not made properly, such as retinols or vitamin C, the specialist recommends using medical-grade brands.

She states these typically have been through expensive tests to determine how effective they are.

Beauty items are required to be evaluated before they can be available in the UK, explains skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

When the label makes claims about the effectiveness of the product, it must have evidence to back it up, "however the manufacturer does not always have to conduct the testing" and can instead reference evidence conducted by other brands, she clarifies.

Read the Ingredients List of the Container

Are there any ingredients that could indicate a item is inferior?

Components on the list of the container are arranged by quantity. "Ingredients to avoid that you need to look out for… is your petroleum-derived oil, your SLS, parfum, benzel peroxide" being {high up