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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing Rachael Parnell heard Aldi was offering a recent product collection that appeared similar to items from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

She dashed to her closest shop to buy the Lacura face cream for a low price for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 of the luxury brand 50ml product.

Its sleek blue packaging and gold top of both products look strikingly similar. And though Rachael has never tried the luxury cream, she says she's satisfied by the alternative so far.

She has been buying skincare dupes from popular shops and grocery stores for years, and she's not alone.

More than a 25% of UK consumers say they've purchased a skincare or makeup alternative. This increases to 44% among younger adults, according to a February poll.

Alternatives are beauty items that copy established brands and provide budget-friendly substitutes to premium products. These products frequently have comparable branding and containers, but sometimes the ingredients can change significantly.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Is Not Always Superior'

Beauty experts argue many substitutes to high-end labels are reasonable standard and help make beauty routines less expensive.

"In my opinion more expensive is invariably superior," comments dermatology expert one expert. "Not all affordable skincare brand is bad - and not every premium beauty item is the best."

"Some [dupes] are absolutely impressive," adds a skincare commentator, who presents a show with famous people.

Numerous of the products modeled on high-end brands "disappear so rapidly, it's just unbelievable," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor Ross Perry thinks alternatives are acceptable to use for "basic skincare" like hydrators and face washes.

"Alternatives will be effective," he says. "These items will do the fundamentals to a reasonable degree."

A consultant dermatologist, thinks you can spend less when you're looking for single-ingredient items like HA, niacinamide and squalane.

"If you're purchasing a single-ingredient product then you're likely going to be fine in using a lookalike or something which is quite affordable because there's minimal that can cause issues," she adds.

'Do Not Be Swayed by the Box'

Yet the experts also recommend consumers investigate and note that costlier items are occasionally worth the additional cost.

Regarding premium skincare, you're not just paying for the brand and marketing - at times the elevated cost also is due to the ingredients and their grade, the concentration of the active ingredient, the research utilized to develop the item, and tests into the products' efficacy, she explains.

Skin therapist she suggests it's important questioning how some alternatives can be priced so cheaply.

Sometimes, she states they may have filler ingredients that lack as many advantages for the skin, or the components might not be as high-quality.

"The key doubt is 'How is it so inexpensive?'" she asks.

Podcast host Scott says in some cases he's bought beauty products that appear similar to a big-name brand but the item has "little similarity to the original".

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

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For advanced items or those with components that can inflame the skin if they're not formulated correctly, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, she advises using medical-grade labels.

The expert states these will likely have been through expensive tests to assess how successful they are.

Beauty products are required to be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, says expert another professional.

If the brand makes claims about the efficacy of the product, it needs data to back it up, "but the seller doesn't always have to conduct the testing" and can instead reference evidence completed by other companies, she adds.

Read the Ingredients List of the Container

Is there any ingredients that could signal a item is poor?

Ingredients on the back of the tube are ordered by quantity. "The baddies that you need to be wary of… is your mineral oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up