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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing one shopper learned a supermarket was launching a fresh skincare range that looked akin to offerings from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

Rachael hurried to her local store to buy the store-brand face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 price tag of the Augustinus Bader 50ml product.

Its smooth blue container and gold lid of both items look noticeably similar. While Rachael has not used the premium cream, she states she's impressed by the alternative so far.

She has been buying beauty alternatives from mainstream retailers and grocery stores for a long time, and she's in good company.

More than a 25% of UK buyers say they've bought a beauty or cosmetic alternative. This jumps to 44 percent among millennials and Gen Z, as per a recent study.

Alternatives are beauty items that imitate established companies and provide budget-friendly options to high-end products. They frequently have similar names and packaging, but in some cases the formulas can differ substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Always Better'

Skincare specialists contend some substitutes to high-end brands are good standard and aid make skincare less expensive.

"It is not true that costlier is necessarily better," states skin specialist one expert. "Not all low-budget product line is inferior - and not every high-end beauty item is the finest."

"Certain [dupes] are absolutely excellent," adds Scott McGlynn, who hosts a program featuring public figures.

Many of the items based on high-end brands "run out so fast, it's just insane," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist Ross Perry argues alternatives are suitable to use for "fundamental products" like moisturisers and cleansers.

"These products will do the job," he comments. "They will do the basics to a acceptable standard."

Ketaki Bhate, thinks you can spend less when seeking single-ingredient products like HA, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"When you're buying a single-ingredient product then you're probably going to be alright in opting for a lookalike or something which is fairly inexpensive because there's not much that can be problematic," she says.

'Don't Be Swayed by the Box'

But the specialists also recommend consumers check details and state that more expensive products are occasionally worth the premium price.

Regarding premium beauty products, you're not only funding the label and marketing - at times the higher cost also is due to the formula and their grade, the concentration of the active ingredient, the research used to create the product, and trials into the products' performance, the expert says.

Facialist she suggests it's worth questioning how some dupes can be offered so cheaply.

Sometimes, she says they might include less effective components that lack as significant positive effects for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

"The big doubt is 'Why is it so cheap?'" she asks.

Podcast host Scott notes on occasion he's bought beauty products that look similar to a well-known label but the actual formula has "little similarity to the premium version".

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

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For more complicated products or ones with ingredients that can irritate the complexion if they're not made accurately, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, she suggests using medical-grade labels.

She explains these will likely have been through expensive studies to determine how efficacious they are.

Beauty products need to be assessed before they can be marketed in the UK, says expert another professional.

If the company makes claims about the performance of the item, it requires data to support it, "however the brand does not necessarily have to do the testing" and can alternatively use studies completed by other firms, she clarifies.

Read the Ingredients List of the Container

Are there any ingredients that could indicate a product is low-quality?

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