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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing a consumer heard a discounter was launching a fresh skincare range that seemed akin to products from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

The shopper hurried to her nearest store to pick up the store-brand face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 price tag of the high-end 50ml product.

The smooth blue tube and gold top of both items look strikingly similar. While Rachael has not tested the luxury cream, she says she's satisfied by the product so far.

She has been using lookalike products from mainstream retailers and grocery stores for years, and she's not alone.

More than a quarter of UK buyers state they've purchased a skincare or makeup lookalike. This increases to 44% among 18-34 year olds, as per a recently published survey.

Lookalikes are beauty items that copy established brands and offer affordable alternatives to premium items. They typically have comparable labels and design, but occasionally the components can vary substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'High-Priced Is Not Necessarily Superior'

Beauty professionals argue many dupes to high-end labels are reasonable standard and assist make skincare more affordable.

"It is not true that costlier is always superior," states skin specialist one expert. "Not all budget skincare brand is poor - and not all premium skincare product is the finest."

"A number of [dupes] are really amazing," says Scott McGlynn, who hosts a program with famous people.

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

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert Ross Perry believes alternatives are suitable to use for "simple routines" like moisturisers and face washes.

"Dupes will do the job," he explains. "These items will do the basics to a acceptable standard."

Another skin doctor, suggests you can spend less when searching for single-ingredient items like HA, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're buying a simple product then you're probably going to be fine in using a dupe or something which is quite low cost because there's not much that can go wrong," she explains.

'Do Not Be Swayed by the Packaging'

But the experts also recommend buyers do their research and note that more expensive items are sometimes worth the additional cost.

With premium beauty products, you're not just covering the label and marketing - sometimes the higher price also stems from the ingredients and their standard, the strength of the effective element, the research utilized to develop the product, and trials into the item's efficacy, the expert says.

Facialist she says it's valuable considering how certain dupes can be priced so inexpensively.

Occasionally, she believes they could contain bulking agents that don't have as many benefits for the complexion, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

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

Expert McGlynn says sometimes he's bought beauty products that appear similar to a big-name label but the item has "no resemblance to the original".

"Do not be convinced by the outer appearance," he added.

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Regarding advanced items or those with components that can irritate the skin if they're not formulated properly, such as retinols or vitamin C, Dr Bhate suggests sticking to research-backed companies.

The expert says these probably have been through costly trials to assess how successful they are.

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

When the company makes claims about the performance of the product, it must have research to back it up, "but the brand doesn't necessarily have to do the testing" and can alternatively reference studies completed by other brands, she clarifies.

Read the Ingredients List of the Pack

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

Components on the list of the tube are listed by amount. "Potential irritants that you need to look out for… is your petroleum-derived oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up