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Rachael Parnell

After discovering one shopper heard a discounter was selling a recent skincare range that seemed comparable to products from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

Rachael dashed to her nearest store to pick up the Lacura face cream for a low price for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 price tag of the Augustinus Bader 50ml product.

The sleek blue tube and gold cap of each items look strikingly similar. While Rachael has not tested the high-end cream, she says she's pleased by the dupe so far.

She has been using beauty alternatives from mainstream retailers and supermarkets for years, and she's in good company.

More than a fourth of UK shoppers say they've purchased a skincare or makeup lookalike. This rises to 44 percent among millennials and Gen Z, based on a recent poll.

Alternatives are skincare products that copy established labels and offer affordable alternatives to luxury products. These products typically have alike labels and design, but in some cases the ingredients can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Always Better'

Beauty professionals say some alternatives to premium brands are reasonable quality and aid make skincare cheaper.

"In my opinion higher-priced is invariably more effective," comments dermatology expert one expert. "Not all budget beauty label is poor - and not all premium skincare product is the finest."

"A number of [dupes] are really impressive," notes Scott McGlynn, who runs a podcast featuring famous people.

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

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist another professional believes dupes are fine to use for "basic skincare" like moisturisers and cleansers.

"These products will be effective," he says. "They will do the fundamentals to a satisfactory standard."

Ketaki Bhate, suggests you can save money when searching for single-ingredient products like HA, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"If you're purchasing a single-ingredient item then you're probably going to be fine in using a dupe or something which is fairly inexpensive because there's not much that can cause issues," she says.

'Do Not Be Influenced by the Box'

But the experts also advise shoppers check details and state that costlier items are sometimes worthy of the additional cost.

With high-end beauty products, you're not just funding the name and marketing - sometimes the higher price tag also is due to the ingredients and their standard, the concentration of the active ingredient, the science employed to develop the product, and studies into the item's performance, Dr Belmo explains.

Beauty expert another professional says it's worth considering how certain alternatives can be sold so at a low cost.

Sometimes, she says they might contain bulking agents that do not provide as many advantages for the skin, or the components might not be as high-quality.

"One big doubt is 'Why is it so cheap?'" she asks.

Commentator McGlynn notes sometimes he's purchased beauty products that look similar to a established brand but the item has "no resemblance to the premium version".

"Do not be fooled by the outer appearance," he cautioned.

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For advanced products or those with components that can inflame the complexion if they're not formulated properly, such as retinols or vitamin C serums, she recommends using medical-grade labels.

The expert says these will likely have been through expensive tests to determine how successful they are.

Beauty products need to be evaluated before they can be available in the UK, notes skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

If the label states about the effectiveness of the item, it needs evidence to back it up, "however the brand does not always have to perform the testing" and can alternatively cite studies conducted by other brands, she adds.

Examine the Back of the Bottle

Are there any ingredients that could suggest a item is poor?

Ingredients on the list of the tube are listed by amount. "The baddies that you want to look out for… is your petroleum-derived oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, parfum, benzel peroxide" being {high up