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Rachael Parnell

After discovering a consumer heard a supermarket was launching a fresh skincare range that looked akin to items from high-end label Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

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

The streamlined blue container and gold top of the two products look remarkably comparable. And though she has not tested the high-end cream, she claims she's satisfied by the dupe so far.

She has been using beauty alternatives from popular shops and supermarkets for years, and she's part of a trend.

More than a 25% of UK consumers report they've bought a skincare or makeup lookalike. This jumps to 44 percent among younger adults, as per a recently published poll.

Lookalikes are beauty items that copy established labels and offer affordable alternatives to high-end items. These products frequently have comparable labels and design, but sometimes the formulas can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'High-Priced Isn't Necessarily Better'

Beauty experts argue some substitutes to high-end labels are decent quality and help make skincare less expensive.

"I don't think higher-priced is always more effective," says dermatology expert one expert. "Not every budget beauty label is bad - and not all premium skincare product is the best."

"Certain [dupes] are truly excellent," says a skincare commentator, who presents a program about celebrities.

Many of the items inspired by luxury brands "disappear so quickly, it's just unbelievable," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor another professional thinks dupes are fine to use for "basic skincare" like hydrators and face washes.

"These products will serve a purpose," he explains. "These items will handle the fundamentals to a reasonable standard."

Ketaki Bhate, thinks you can cut costs when you're looking for simple-formula items like HA, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're purchasing a single-ingredient product then you're likely going to be okay in using a lookalike or something which is quite low cost because there's very little that can be problematic," she explains.

'Don't Be Influenced by the Box'

However the experts also advise consumers investigate and note that more expensive products are at times worth the extra money.

Regarding luxury beauty products, you're not just covering the brand and promotion - at times the elevated price tag also stems from the ingredients and their grade, the potency of the effective element, the science used to produce the product, and tests into the products' effectiveness, she says.

Beauty expert Rhian Truman suggests it's valuable questioning how some dupes can be offered so cheaply.

Occasionally, she states they could have filler ingredients that don't have as many benefits for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as carefully selected.

"The big question mark is 'Why is it so low-priced?'" she remarks.

Commentator McGlynn admits sometimes he's bought beauty products that appear comparable to a established brand but the item has "no resemblance to the original".

"Do not be fooled by the container," he added.

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For advanced products or those with components that can aggravate the complexion if they're not formulated correctly, such as retinols or vitamin C serums, Dr Bhate recommends using more specialised labels.

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

Beauty items are required to be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, explains expert Emma Wedgeworth.

If the company states about the performance of the item, it needs data to verify it, "however the brand doesn't necessarily have to conduct the trials" and can instead use studies completed by different brands, she says.

Read the Label of the Pack

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

Components on the list of the container are ordered by quantity. "The baddies that you want to be wary of… is your mineral oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up