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Rachael Parnell

After discovering one shopper found out a supermarket was selling a new skincare range that looked akin to products from high-end label Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

The shopper rushed to her closest store to buy the Lacura face cream for a low price for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 cost of the high-end 50ml cream.

Its sleek blue packaging and gold lid of each items look strikingly alike. While Rachael has never tried the luxury cream, she says she's pleased by the alternative so far.

She has been using skincare dupes from mainstream retailers and supermarkets for a long time, and she's not alone.

More than a 25% of UK consumers say they've tried a beauty or cosmetic dupe. This jumps to nearly half among 18-34 year olds, as per a recently published study.

Lookalikes are beauty items that imitate bigger name labels and offer cost-effective alternatives to luxury products. They frequently have alike branding and containers, but in some cases the ingredients can differ substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Necessarily Better'

Beauty experts contend many alternatives to high-end labels are reasonable standard and help make beauty routines less expensive.

"I don't think higher-priced is invariably more effective," comments dermatology expert one expert. "Not every affordable product line is poor - and not every high-end beauty item is the best."

"A number of [dupes] are truly excellent," adds Scott McGlynn, who presents a show featuring celebrities.

A lot of of the items modeled on luxury brands "sell out so fast, it's just unbelievable," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert another professional believes dupes are acceptable to use for "simple routines" like moisturisers and face washes.

"Dupes will do the job," he says. "These items will do the fundamentals to a acceptable level."

Another skin doctor, suggests you can cut costs when you're looking for simple-formula items like HA, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're buying a single-ingredient item then you're likely going to be okay in opting for a budget alternative or a product which is very inexpensive because there's minimal that can go wrong," she explains.

'Don't Be Influenced by the Container'

Yet the experts also recommend consumers investigate and note that higher-priced products are at times worthy of the extra money.

With luxury skincare, you're not just covering the label and promotion - sometimes the increased price tag also is due to the components and their standard, the strength of the key component, the research used to develop the item, and tests into the products' performance, she says.

Beauty expert another professional says it's valuable questioning how certain alternatives can be sold so cheaply.

In some cases, she believes they might include bulking agents that lack as significant advantages for the skin, or the components might not be as high-quality.

"The key doubt is 'Why is it so cheap?'" she says.

Commentator McGlynn notes sometimes he's purchased skincare items that appear similar to a well-known brand but the product itself has "no resemblance to the original".

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

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Regarding more complicated items or ones with components that can inflame the skin if they're not formulated accurately, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, the specialist recommends using medical-grade labels.

The expert states these probably have been subjected to costly tests to determine how efficacious they are.

Skincare items must be evaluated before they can be sold in the UK, notes skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

When the company advertises about the effectiveness of the item, it requires evidence to back it up, "but the brand doesn't always have to conduct the testing" and can instead cite testing done by different brands, she adds.

Read the Label of the Container

Are there any ingredients that could indicate a product is poor?

Ingredients on the back of the bottle are listed by amount. "Potential irritants that you want to look out for… is your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up