🔗 Share this article

Rachael Parnell

After discovering a consumer heard a discounter was selling a new skincare range that looked similar to offerings from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

She rushed to her local store to purchase the Lacura face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 of the high-end 50ml cream.

The smooth blue packaging and gold lid of each creams look remarkably similar. And though she has never tried the high-end cream, she states she's pleased by the product so far.

Rachael has been buying lookalike products from high street stores and supermarkets for a long time, and she's part of a trend.

More than a fourth of UK consumers say they've purchased a skincare or makeup lookalike. This jumps to nearly half among millennials and Gen Z, based on a recently published survey.

Lookalikes are skincare products that imitate established labels and provide cost-effective substitutes to premium products. These products typically have similar labels and design, but sometimes the formulas can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Is Not Necessarily Superior'

Skincare specialists contend some substitutes to premium labels are good standard and aid make skincare less expensive.

"In my opinion costlier is necessarily superior," states consultant dermatologist one expert. "Not every budget beauty label is inferior - and not every high-end beauty item is the best."

"Certain [dupes] are really excellent," says a skincare commentator, who hosts a program with celebrities.

Many of the products based on luxury labels "run out so rapidly, it's just crazy," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert a doctor argues alternatives are acceptable to use for "basic skincare" like hydrators and cleansers.

"These products will do the job," he comments. "These items will handle the fundamentals to a satisfactory degree."

Another skin doctor, suggests you can spend less when you're looking for single-ingredient products like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and squalane.

"When you're purchasing a single-ingredient product then you're likely going to be alright in opting for a budget alternative or something which is fairly inexpensive because there's not much that can be problematic," she explains.

'Do Not Be Sold by the Container'

But the specialists also suggest shoppers investigate and state that costlier items are sometimes worth the additional cost.

With high-end beauty products, you're not just funding the brand and promotion - at times the increased price also is due to the components and their quality, the potency of the key component, the research utilized to create the product, and trials into the item's performance, she says.

Skin therapist another professional suggests it's valuable questioning how certain alternatives can be priced so cheaply.

In some cases, she says they may contain filler ingredients that don't have as numerous benefits for the complexion, or the ingredients might not be as carefully selected.

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

Expert McGlynn says sometimes he's bought beauty products that appear comparable to a established label but the actual formula has "no resemblance to the original".

"Do not be sold by the outer appearance," he cautioned.

SimpleImages/Getty Images

Regarding potent items or ones with components that can aggravate the complexion if they're not formulated accurately, such as retinoids or vitamin C, Dr Bhate suggests using medical-grade labels.

She states these probably have been subjected to comprehensive tests to evaluate how efficacious they are.

Skincare products need to be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, explains skin doctor another professional.

When the brand advertises about the efficacy of the product, it must have data to back it up, "however the seller doesn't always have to do the trials" and can instead reference testing completed by different brands, she adds.

Check the Back of the Pack

Is there any ingredients that could signal a product is low-quality?

Ingredients on the list of the bottle are arranged by concentration. "Potential irritants that you need to avoid… is your mineral oil, your SLS, parfum, benzel peroxide" being {high up