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Rachael Parnell

After discovering one shopper found out a supermarket was selling a recent product collection that looked similar to items from high-end label Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

Rachael dashed to her nearest store to buy the store-brand face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 cost of the Augustinus Bader 50ml cream.

The streamlined blue container and gold top of each creams look noticeably comparable. While she has never tried the high-end cream, she says she's satisfied by the product so far.

Rachael has been using skincare dupes from high street stores and supermarkets for some time, and she's part of a trend.

More than a quarter of UK buyers report they've tried a skincare or makeup lookalike. This rises to nearly half among millennials and Gen Z, as per a February survey.

Alternatives are skincare products that copy well-known companies and present affordable alternatives to luxury items. These products typically have comparable names and packaging, but occasionally the ingredients can differ significantly.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Isn't Necessarily Better'

Beauty experts argue many alternatives to luxury labels are decent quality and help make beauty routines cheaper.

"In my opinion more expensive is always better," states skin specialist a doctor. "Not every low-budget product line is poor - and not all premium beauty item is the finest."

"Certain [dupes] are truly impressive," notes a podcast host, who hosts a podcast featuring famous people.

Many of the items based on luxury brands "disappear so fast, it's just insane," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert Ross Perry thinks dupes are acceptable to use for "simple routines" like hydrators and face washes.

"Dupes will be effective," he comments. "These items will do the fundamentals to a acceptable degree."

A consultant dermatologist, suggests you can save money when you're looking for simple-formula products like HA, Vitamin B3 and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're buying a simple product then you're likely going to be alright in using a budget alternative or a product which is fairly low cost because there's not much that can go wrong," she explains.

'Do Not Be Swayed by the Box'

Yet the specialists also recommend buyers investigate and say that costlier products are sometimes worth the additional cost.

Regarding luxury skincare, you're not just funding the brand and advertising - at times the elevated price also is due to the formula and their standard, the concentration of the active ingredient, the technology employed to develop the product, and tests into the products' efficacy, she notes.

Skin therapist Rhian Truman suggests it's worth considering how certain alternatives can be priced so cheaply.

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

"The major question mark is 'How is it so cheap?'" she says.

Expert Scott notes in some cases he's bought beauty products that appear similar to a well-known brand but the actual formula has "no connection to the original".

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

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For potent items or ones with components that can inflame the skin if they're not formulated accurately, such as retinols or vitamin C, Dr Bhate recommends selecting more specialised companies.

She states these will likely have been through costly studies to assess how efficacious they are.

Skincare products need to be tested before they can be sold in the UK, explains expert another professional.

If the brand makes claims about the efficacy of the product, it requires evidence to support it, "but the manufacturer does not necessarily have to do the trials" and can instead use evidence conducted by other companies, she says.

Check the Back of the Bottle

Is there any ingredients that could suggest a item is low-quality?

Components on the list of the tube are listed by amount. "Ingredients to avoid that you want to be wary of… is your petroleum-derived oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up