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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing one shopper learned a discounter was offering a recent product collection that appeared akin to items from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

Rachael dashed to her nearest outlet to purchase the store-brand face cream for a low price for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 price tag of the high-end 50ml item.

Its streamlined blue tube and gold top of both products look remarkably alike. And though Rachael has not tested the high-end cream, she says she's satisfied by the product so far.

Rachael has been purchasing beauty alternatives from popular shops and grocery stores for years, and she's not alone.

More than a quarter of UK consumers say they've bought a skincare or makeup lookalike. This rises to 44 percent among younger adults, based on a recent survey.

Lookalikes are skincare products that mimic bigger name labels and present budget-friendly substitutes to high-end products. These products typically have alike branding and containers, but occasionally the components can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Isn't Always Better'

Beauty specialists contend some alternatives to luxury labels are decent quality and assist make beauty routines less expensive.

"It is not true that more expensive is necessarily superior," says skin specialist Sharon Belmo. "Not every affordable beauty label is poor - and not all premium skincare product is the finest."

"Certain [dupes] are really impressive," adds Scott McGlynn, who runs a podcast about celebrities.

Many of the products based on high-end brands "run out so quickly, it's just unbelievable," he says.

Scott McGlynn

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

"These products will serve a purpose," he comments. "They will do the basics to a reasonable degree."

A consultant dermatologist, suggests you can spend less when searching for single-ingredient items like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're purchasing a simple product then you're probably going to be fine in using a lookalike or a product which is fairly low cost because there's very little that can go wrong," she adds.

'Don't Be Sold by the Container'

However the specialists also suggest shoppers investigate and note that more expensive products are at times worthy of the premium price.

Regarding luxury beauty products, you're not just funding the name and promotion - sometimes the higher price also stems from the components and their grade, the potency of the active ingredient, the science employed to produce the product, and studies into the item's effectiveness, she explains.

Skin therapist she says it's valuable questioning how certain dupes can be offered so inexpensively.

Occasionally, she says they could have less effective components that don't have as numerous advantages for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as high-quality.

"One key question mark is 'Why is it so cheap?'" she asks.

Podcast host Scott notes sometimes he's purchased beauty products that appear comparable to a big-name brand but the product itself has "little similarity to the premium version".

"Don't be fooled by the outer appearance," he cautioned.

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Regarding potent products or those with components that can aggravate the skin if they're not made properly, such as retinols or vitamin C, she recommends using medical-grade brands.

She says these probably have been subjected to comprehensive tests to evaluate how effective they are.

Beauty items are required to be evaluated before they can be sold in the UK, explains skin doctor another professional.

If the company advertises about the effectiveness of the product, it requires data to support it, "but the manufacturer does not necessarily have to do the testing" and can instead use testing done by different companies, she adds.

Examine the Label of the Bottle

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

Components on the label of the bottle are ordered by amount. "Ingredients to avoid that you need to be wary of… is your mineral oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up