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Rachael Parnell

When Rachael Parnell heard a discounter was selling a new product collection that seemed akin to items from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

The shopper dashed to her nearest store to buy the Lacura face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 cost of the luxury brand 50ml cream.

The sleek blue tube and gold cap of each creams look remarkably similar. And though Rachael has not tested the luxury cream, she states she's impressed by the product so far.

She has been purchasing beauty alternatives from popular shops and supermarkets for a long time, and she's not alone.

More than a quarter of UK shoppers say they've tried a skincare or makeup lookalike. This jumps to 44 percent among younger adults, as per a recently published poll.

Lookalikes are beauty items that imitate established brands and present cost-effective alternatives to premium products. They frequently have alike branding and containers, but sometimes the formulas can vary significantly.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Is Not Necessarily Superior'

Skincare experts contend some dupes to premium labels are decent quality and help make beauty routines cheaper.

"In my opinion costlier is invariably better," says skin specialist a doctor. "Not every budget beauty label is poor - and not every luxury skincare product is the finest."

"Certain [dupes] are really amazing," notes a podcast host, who hosts a show featuring famous people.

Numerous of the items modeled on high-end labels "disappear so rapidly, it's just insane," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist another professional thinks dupes are suitable to use for "basic skincare" like moisturisers and face washes.

"Dupes will do the job," he says. "These items will perform the fundamentals to a satisfactory degree."

Ketaki Bhate, suggests you can cut costs when you're looking for simple-formula items like HA, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're buying a simple product then you're likely going to be okay in opting for a dupe or something which is very affordable because there's not much that can be problematic," she explains.

'Don't Be Swayed by the Box'

But the experts also advise consumers check details and note that higher-priced products are occasionally worth the premium price.

With luxury skincare, you're not only covering the brand and advertising - often the elevated price tag also is due to the formula and their grade, the potency of the effective element, the research employed to produce the product, and tests into the products' efficacy, the expert explains.

Beauty expert Rhian Truman says it's worth thinking about how certain alternatives can be sold so at a low cost.

Sometimes, she states they may contain less effective components that don't have as numerous advantages for the complexion, or the materials might not be as well sourced.

"The major uncertainty is 'How is it so inexpensive?'" she says.

Expert Scott admits in some cases he's bought beauty products that look similar to a established brand but the actual formula has "no connection to the premium version".

"Don't be sold by the container," he warned.

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For potent items or ones with ingredients that can aggravate the complexion if they're not formulated accurately, such as retinols or vitamin C serums, the specialist suggests using more specialised companies.

The expert explains these will likely have been through costly studies to evaluate how effective they are.

Beauty products must be evaluated before they can be sold in the UK, notes skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

If the label makes claims about the efficacy of the product, it requires data to verify it, "but the manufacturer does not necessarily have to perform the testing" and can alternatively use studies done by other companies, she clarifies.

Examine the Ingredients List of the Pack

Are there any ingredients that could signal a product is inferior?

Components on the list of the bottle are arranged by amount. "Ingredients to avoid that you should look out for… is your mineral oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up