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Rachael Parnell

When Rachael Parnell learned a supermarket was offering a recent beauty line that appeared similar to offerings from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

Rachael dashed to her local store to pick up the Lacura face cream for a low price for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 of the high-end 50ml item.

The streamlined blue tube and gold cap of the two items look strikingly similar. While Rachael has not used the luxury cream, she says she's pleased by the product so far.

She has been using skincare dupes from popular shops and grocery stores for some time, and she's not alone.

Over a 25% of UK consumers state they've purchased a beauty or cosmetic dupe. This jumps to nearly half among younger adults, based on a recently published study.

Lookalikes are skincare products that imitate well-known companies and provide cost-effective alternatives to premium items. These products frequently have alike names and packaging, but occasionally the ingredients can differ substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Isn't Always Superior'

Beauty experts say many dupes to premium brands are good standard and aid make skincare less expensive.

"In my opinion higher-priced is invariably superior," says dermatology expert Sharon Belmo. "Not every low-budget product line is poor - and not every luxury beauty item is the best."

"Some [dupes] are truly impressive," adds Scott McGlynn, who runs a podcast with public figures.

Many of the products modeled on high-end labels "disappear so quickly, it's just unbelievable," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor Ross Perry argues dupes are suitable to use for "fundamental products" like hydrators and cleansers.

"Alternatives will do the job," he says. "They will do the essentials to a reasonable standard."

Ketaki Bhate, suggests you can spend less when you're looking for simple-formula items like HA, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're purchasing a simple item then you're likely going to be fine in opting for a lookalike or a product which is quite affordable because there's very little that can go wrong," she adds.

'Don't Be Sold by the Box'

However the experts also advise consumers investigate and note that costlier items are at times worthy of the additional cost.

With premium beauty products, you're not only paying for the name and promotion - at times the increased cost also stems from the components and their quality, the concentration of the active ingredient, the technology utilized to create the item, and trials into the products' efficacy, she notes.

Facialist Rhian Truman suggests it's valuable considering how some alternatives can be offered so inexpensively.

In some cases, she believes they could contain bulking agents that lack as many benefits for the complexion, or the materials might not be as carefully selected.

"The major question mark is 'Why is it so low-priced?'" she says.

Podcast host McGlynn notes sometimes he's bought skincare items that appear similar to a big-name label but the item has "no connection to the original".

"Don't be sold by the packaging," he warned.

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Regarding more complicated products or those with ingredients that can irritate the skin if they're not formulated accurately, such as retinols or vitamin C, she suggests sticking to medical-grade brands.

The expert states these probably have been subjected to costly studies to determine how effective they are.

Skincare items need to be evaluated before they can be available in the UK, explains skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

If the brand advertises about the effectiveness of the product, it needs research to verify it, "however the brand does not always have to conduct the testing" and can instead use studies done by other brands, she adds.

Check the Label of the Pack

Is there any components that could suggest a product is low-quality?

Components on the list of the bottle are listed by quantity. "Ingredients to avoid that you should avoid… is your mineral oil, your SLS, parfum, benzel peroxide" being {high up