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Rachael Parnell

When a consumer learned a supermarket was offering a new product collection that looked comparable to products from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

Rachael rushed to her local shop to buy the Lacura face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 cost of the luxury brand 50ml item.

The streamlined blue container and gold top of each creams look strikingly comparable. And though she has not tested the luxury cream, she states she's pleased by the dupe so far.

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

More than a fourth of UK shoppers say they've tried a skincare or makeup alternative. This jumps to nearly half among millennials and Gen Z, according to a February study.

Alternatives are beauty items that imitate well-known brands and offer affordable options to luxury items. They often have alike labels and design, but occasionally the components can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'High-Priced Is Not Necessarily Better'

Beauty professionals say some alternatives to high-end brands are good quality and assist make skincare cheaper.

"In my opinion higher-priced is necessarily better," states consultant dermatologist a doctor. "Not every affordable skincare brand is bad - and not every premium beauty item is the best."

"A number of [dupes] are truly amazing," says a podcast host, who hosts a program with public figures.

A lot of of the products inspired by high-end labels "disappear so rapidly, it's just insane," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist a doctor thinks dupes are acceptable to use for "simple routines" like hydrators and face washes.

"These products will serve a purpose," he says. "They will do the essentials to a acceptable degree."

Ketaki Bhate, suggests you can spend less when searching for single-ingredient products like HA, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're buying a single-ingredient product then you're likely going to be alright in opting for a lookalike or a product which is fairly inexpensive because there's minimal that can go wrong," she adds.

'Don't Be Sold by the Box'

However the specialists also recommend consumers do their research and note that more expensive products are occasionally worthy of the additional cost.

With premium skincare, you're not only covering the brand and marketing - sometimes the increased price also comes from the formula and their quality, the strength of the active ingredient, the technology used to produce the product, and trials into the products' efficacy, she says.

Skin therapist Rhian Truman says it's worth thinking about how some alternatives can be sold so cheaply.

Sometimes, she believes they may include filler ingredients that lack as significant positive effects for the skin, or the components might not be as well sourced.

"One big question mark is 'Why is it so cheap?'" she asks.

Expert McGlynn says in some cases he's purchased beauty products that look similar to a established label but the product itself has "no resemblance to the luxury product".

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

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Regarding potent products or ones with ingredients that can irritate the skin if they're not made correctly, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, she recommends selecting more specialised companies.

She says these typically have been subjected to costly trials to determine how successful they are.

Beauty products must be tested before they can be marketed in the UK, says consultant dermatologist Emma Wedgeworth.

When the brand states about the performance of the item, it must have research to verify it, "but the brand doesn't always have to perform the testing" and can instead cite evidence completed by other companies, she says.

Check the Ingredients List of the Pack

Is there any components that could signal a product is poor?

Components on the list of the tube are listed by amount. "The baddies that you need to be wary of… is your petroleum-derived oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up