Rachael Parnell
After discovering one shopper heard a discounter was launching a recent product collection that looked akin to items from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".
She hurried to her local store to buy the Lacura face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 cost of the high-end 50ml product.
The smooth blue container and gold cap of each products look strikingly similar. Although she has never tried the luxury cream, she says she's pleased by the product so far.
Rachael has been purchasing skincare dupes from mainstream retailers and supermarkets for some time, and she's not alone.
More than a fourth of UK buyers say they've bought a skincare or makeup alternative. This jumps to nearly half among 18-34 year olds, as per a February study.
Dupes are skincare products that copy established brands and provide cost-effective options to high-end products. These products often have comparable names and packaging, but sometimes the ingredients can vary substantially.
Victoria Woollaston
'Expensive Isn't Always Better'
Skincare professionals say certain substitutes to high-end brands are reasonable quality and assist make skincare less expensive.
"I don't think higher-priced is necessarily better," comments dermatology expert one expert. "Not all affordable product line is inferior - and not every luxury skincare product is the finest."
"A number of [dupes] are absolutely excellent," says a skincare commentator, who presents a podcast with celebrities.
Numerous of the items inspired by high-end labels "disappear so quickly, it's just crazy," he says.
Scott McGlynn
Skin specialist another professional argues dupes are fine to use for "basic skincare" like hydrators and face washes.
"These products will do the job," he comments. "They will do the fundamentals to a acceptable standard."
Another skin doctor, advises you can save money when searching for single-ingredient items like HA, Vitamin B3 and squalane.
"If you're purchasing a simple item then you're probably going to be alright in using a budget alternative or a product which is fairly inexpensive because there's very little that can cause issues," she explains.
'Don't Be Sold by the Packaging'
However the experts also suggest buyers investigate and say that more expensive products are at times worthy of the premium price.
With premium beauty products, you're not only funding the label and advertising - sometimes the increased price also comes from the formula and their standard, the concentration of the key component, the technology employed to develop the item, and studies into the item's performance, she notes.
Skin therapist Rhian Truman argues it's worth questioning how some alternatives can be priced so inexpensively.
In some cases, she says they may contain less effective components that lack as many advantages for the skin, or the materials might not be as well sourced.
"One key question mark is 'Why is it so cheap?'" she asks.
Podcast host Scott admits sometimes he's bought skincare items that look similar to a established label but the item has "little similarity to the premium version".
"Do not be sold by the container," he added.
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Regarding potent products or those with ingredients that can aggravate the skin if they're not created properly, such as retinols or vitamin C, the specialist advises selecting medical-grade companies.
The expert explains these will likely have been subjected to costly trials to assess how successful they are.
Skincare items must be assessed before they can be available in the UK, says expert Emma Wedgeworth.
If the label states about the effectiveness of the product, it needs evidence to verify it, "but the brand does not necessarily have to perform the trials" and can instead cite testing done by other companies, she says.
Examine the Back of the Pack
Are there any components that could suggest a product is low-quality?
Ingredients on the label of the tube are listed by quantity. "Potential irritants that you should be wary of… is your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, parfum, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up
