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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing Rachael Parnell learned Aldi was offering a new skincare range that looked akin to offerings from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

She rushed to her closest store to buy the supermarket face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 cost of the high-end 50ml item.

Its smooth blue container and gold lid of each products look remarkably comparable. While she has never tried the premium cream, she says she's pleased by the dupe so far.

Rachael has been purchasing beauty alternatives from popular shops and grocery stores for years, and she's not alone.

Over a 25% of UK consumers state they've purchased a skincare or makeup dupe. This increases to 44% among millennials and Gen Z, based on a recently published study.

Dupes are beauty items that copy established brands and present cost-effective alternatives to luxury products. They frequently have alike branding and containers, but sometimes the ingredients can vary significantly.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Isn't Always Better'

Skincare specialists say certain substitutes to high-end brands are good standard and assist make skincare more affordable.

"I don't think more expensive is invariably more effective," comments skin specialist Sharon Belmo. "Not every low-budget product line is inferior - and not all premium beauty item is the top."

"Certain [dupes] are really impressive," notes Scott McGlynn, who hosts a show featuring public figures.

Many of the items based on high-end labels "disappear so quickly, it's just unbelievable," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor Ross Perry believes alternatives are suitable to use for "basic skincare" like hydrators and cleansers.

"Alternatives will do the job," he explains. "These items will do the fundamentals to a acceptable degree."

A consultant dermatologist, thinks you can spend less when seeking single-ingredient products like HA, niacinamide and squalane.

"When you're purchasing a single-ingredient product then you're likely going to be okay in opting for a dupe or something which is fairly low cost because there's minimal that can be problematic," she says.

'Don't Be Sold by the Box'

But the specialists also suggest buyers do their research and state that costlier items are sometimes worth the premium price.

With luxury skincare, you're not just funding the brand and marketing - at times the elevated price also comes from the components and their grade, the strength of the active ingredient, the research utilized to develop the item, and studies into the products' effectiveness, the expert notes.

Skin therapist another professional says it's valuable considering how certain dupes can be offered so inexpensively.

Sometimes, she believes they may include less effective components that lack as many advantages for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as carefully selected.

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

Commentator McGlynn notes sometimes he's bought skincare items that appear comparable to a big-name brand but the item has "little similarity to the original".

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

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For more complicated items or those with components that can aggravate the skin if they're not created correctly, such as retinols or vitamin C, Dr Bhate advises selecting more specialised labels.

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

Skincare items are required to be tested before they can be sold in the UK, notes expert another professional.

If the brand makes claims about the effectiveness of the item, it needs evidence to verify it, "however the brand does not always have to perform the trials" and can alternatively use testing completed by different brands, she adds.

Examine the Label of the Pack

Are there any components that could suggest a item is low-quality?

Components on the label of the tube are ordered by concentration. "The baddies that you want to avoid… is your mineral oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up