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Rachael Parnell

After discovering one shopper found out a supermarket was offering a fresh skincare range that seemed akin to offerings from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

The shopper rushed to her closest store to pick up the supermarket face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 of the luxury brand 50ml cream.

The streamlined blue container and gold top of the two products look remarkably comparable. And though she has not used the luxury cream, she says she's impressed by the product so far.

She has been purchasing beauty alternatives from high street stores and grocery stores for years, and she's not alone.

Over a fourth of UK buyers state they've bought a beauty or cosmetic lookalike. This rises to 44% among younger adults, according to a recent study.

Lookalikes are skincare products that mimic established labels and offer budget-friendly alternatives to premium items. These products often have alike branding and containers, but occasionally the ingredients can differ considerably.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Always Superior'

Skincare experts say certain substitutes to luxury labels are decent quality and assist make skincare cheaper.

"It is not true that higher-priced is necessarily superior," says consultant dermatologist one expert. "Not every budget beauty label is inferior - and not every premium skincare product is the best."

"Some [dupes] are truly impressive," notes Scott McGlynn, who presents a show featuring celebrities.

Numerous of the items inspired by high-end labels "sell out so quickly, it's just crazy," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor a doctor thinks dupes are suitable to use for "fundamental products" like moisturisers and face washes.

"Dupes will serve a purpose," he explains. "They will perform the fundamentals to a satisfactory level."

A consultant dermatologist, advises you can save money when you're looking for single-ingredient products like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and squalane.

"When you're purchasing a simple product then you're likely going to be fine in opting for a dupe or something which is fairly inexpensive because there's very little that can go wrong," she says.

'Do Not Be Sold by the Box'

But the professionals also advise shoppers do their research and note that higher-priced products are at times worthy of the premium price.

With high-end skincare, you're not only funding the label and marketing - sometimes the higher price also comes from the ingredients and their standard, the concentration of the active ingredient, the science employed to produce the item, and trials into the products' effectiveness, the expert says.

Facialist another professional says it's worth questioning how some alternatives can be offered so inexpensively.

Sometimes, she believes they might contain bulking agents that don't have as numerous benefits for the complexion, or the ingredients might not be as high-quality.

"The big uncertainty is 'How is it so inexpensive?'" she asks.

Expert Scott admits sometimes he's purchased skincare items that look similar to a well-known brand but the item has "no resemblance to the original".

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

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Regarding potent items or ones with components that can irritate the skin if they're not made properly, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, she advises selecting more specialised companies.

She states these probably have been through expensive studies to evaluate how successful they are.

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

If the label makes claims about the performance of the product, it requires research to verify it, "however the brand doesn't necessarily have to do the trials" and can instead reference testing done by different brands, she clarifies.

Read the Ingredients List of the Container

Is there any components that could indicate a product is low-quality?

Ingredients on the list of the tube are ordered by concentration. "Ingredients to avoid that you need to avoid… is your petroleum-derived oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up