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Rachael Parnell

When Rachael Parnell heard a discounter was selling a new product collection that seemed similar to offerings from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

Rachael dashed to her local outlet to pick up the supermarket face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 price tag of the luxury brand 50ml cream.

Its sleek blue tube and gold cap of each products look remarkably similar. And though Rachael has not used the premium cream, she states she's pleased by the dupe so far.

She has been using lookalike products from mainstream retailers and grocery stores for a long time, and she's not alone.

Over a fourth of UK consumers say they've purchased a skincare or makeup dupe. This increases to 44 percent among millennials and Gen Z, based on a recently published poll.

Dupes are skincare products that mimic well-known labels and provide cost-effective alternatives to premium items. These products frequently have comparable branding and containers, but sometimes the components can differ considerably.

Victoria Woollaston

'High-Priced Is Not Always Better'

Beauty specialists contend many dupes to premium labels are good quality and help make skincare less expensive.

"It is not true that costlier is necessarily more effective," states skin specialist Sharon Belmo. "Not every budget product line is poor - and not all luxury skincare product is the top."

"A number of [dupes] are really excellent," adds a podcast host, who presents a program featuring celebrities.

Numerous of the items inspired by luxury brands "disappear so rapidly, it's just insane," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor another professional argues dupes are fine to use for "fundamental products" like hydrators and face washes.

"Dupes will be effective," he says. "They will do the fundamentals to a acceptable level."

Ketaki Bhate, thinks you can spend less when you're looking for simple-formula items like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and squalane.

"When you're purchasing a simple item then you're probably going to be okay in using a dupe or something which is fairly inexpensive because there's not much that can be problematic," she adds.

'Don't Be Sold by the Box'

Yet the specialists also advise buyers investigate and note that more expensive products are sometimes worthy of the premium price.

With luxury skincare, you're not only paying for the name and advertising - sometimes the elevated price also comes from the formula and their quality, the strength of the key component, the science utilized to develop the item, and tests into the products' effectiveness, Dr Belmo says.

Skin therapist another professional says it's valuable thinking about how certain dupes can be offered so inexpensively.

In some cases, she says they may include filler ingredients that do not provide as many positive effects for the skin, or the components might not be as high-quality.

"The big uncertainty is 'Why is it so inexpensive?'" she says.

Expert Scott admits in some cases he's bought skincare items that appear similar to a established brand but the actual formula has "little similarity to the luxury product".

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

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For more complicated items or those with components that can inflame the skin if they're not created accurately, such as retinols or vitamin C serums, Dr Bhate recommends selecting research-backed companies.

The expert explains these will likely have been subjected to comprehensive trials to assess how effective they are.

Beauty items are required to be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, explains consultant dermatologist another professional.

If the brand advertises about the performance of the product, it requires research to back it up, "but the brand does not always have to do the trials" and can alternatively use testing completed by different firms, she clarifies.

Check the Ingredients List of the Container

Is there any components that could signal a product is inferior?

Components on the back of the tube are ordered by concentration. "The baddies that you need to avoid… is your mineral oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up