High-Street Skincare Lookalikes Can Save Consumers a Fortune. Yet, Do Affordable Beauty Items Really Work?

Rachael Parnell

When Rachael Parnell found out a supermarket was selling a fresh product collection that appeared comparable to offerings from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

Rachael hurried to her closest store to purchase the Lacura face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 of the high-end 50ml product.

Its streamlined blue tube and gold lid of each products look remarkably similar. Although she has not used the premium cream, she says she's impressed by the alternative so far.

She has been using beauty alternatives from high street stores and supermarkets for years, and she's in good company.

Over a quarter of UK buyers report they've tried a beauty or cosmetic alternative. This jumps to nearly half among millennials and Gen Z, based on a February study.

Alternatives are beauty items that imitate established companies and provide cost-effective substitutes to luxury products. They frequently have similar names and packaging, but in some cases the formulas can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Always Better'

Beauty experts argue many dupes to premium labels are good standard and help make skincare cheaper.

"It is not true that higher-priced is always better," states skin specialist Sharon Belmo. "Not all budget skincare brand is bad - and not every luxury beauty item is the finest."

"A number of [dupes] are really excellent," says Scott McGlynn, who hosts a podcast with celebrities.

A lot of of the items modeled on high-end brands "disappear so rapidly, it's just unbelievable," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist Ross Perry thinks alternatives are acceptable to use for "simple routines" like hydrators and face washes.

"Dupes will serve a purpose," he explains. "They will do the fundamentals to a satisfactory degree."

A consultant dermatologist, suggests you can cut costs when searching for single-ingredient items like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're purchasing a single-ingredient item then you're likely going to be alright in opting for a dupe or something which is very low cost because there's not much that can go wrong," she says.

'Don't Be Influenced by the Box'

Yet the specialists also advise consumers check details and state that higher-priced items are sometimes worth the extra money.

Regarding luxury beauty products, you're not only paying for the label and promotion - at times the elevated cost also stems from the ingredients and their grade, the potency of the active ingredient, the research employed to create the item, and studies into the products' effectiveness, Dr Belmo explains.

Facialist another professional suggests it's valuable thinking about how certain dupes can be sold so cheaply.

Sometimes, she states they might contain filler ingredients that do not provide as significant advantages for the complexion, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

"One key doubt is 'Why is it so inexpensive?'" she asks.

Expert McGlynn admits sometimes he's bought skincare items that look comparable to a established brand but the actual formula has "little similarity to the premium version".

"Do not be sold by the container," he warned.

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For advanced products or those with components that can irritate the complexion if they're not created accurately, such as retinols or vitamin C, the specialist suggests using medical-grade brands.

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

Beauty items are required to be assessed before they can be available in the UK, notes skin doctor another professional.

When the label advertises about the effectiveness of the item, it needs research to back it up, "but the seller does not necessarily have to conduct the testing" and can alternatively cite testing conducted by different firms, she says.

Check the Label of the Container

Are there any ingredients that could signal a item is low-quality?

Components on the back of the tube are listed by quantity. "The baddies that you need to look out for… is your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up