High-Street Beauty Lookalikes Could Save You a Fortune. However, Do Economical Beauty Items Really Work?

Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing one shopper learned a discounter was launching a fresh product collection that looked akin to products from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

The shopper hurried to her closest store to buy the supermarket face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 of the high-end 50ml product.

Its smooth blue tube and gold top of both products look noticeably alike. While Rachael has not used the high-end cream, she claims she's satisfied by the dupe so far.

Rachael has been using beauty alternatives from mainstream retailers and supermarkets for a long time, and she's part of a trend.

Over a 25% of UK buyers state they've purchased a beauty or cosmetic lookalike. This jumps to 44% among millennials and Gen Z, based on a recently published survey.

Lookalikes are skincare products that mimic bigger name labels and provide budget-friendly substitutes to high-end products. They frequently have comparable branding and containers, but in some cases the ingredients can differ significantly.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Is Not Necessarily Superior'

Skincare specialists argue certain substitutes to high-end labels are decent quality and assist make skincare more affordable.

"It is not true that higher-priced is necessarily better," states consultant dermatologist Sharon Belmo. "Not all low-budget beauty label is inferior - and not all premium skincare product is the best."

"Certain [dupes] are absolutely impressive," notes a podcast host, who presents a program about celebrities.

Numerous of the products inspired by luxury labels "disappear so rapidly, it's just crazy," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor another professional thinks dupes are suitable to use for "simple routines" like moisturisers and cleansers.

"These products will be effective," he comments. "These items will handle the fundamentals to a satisfactory degree."

A consultant dermatologist, advises you can cut costs when searching for single-ingredient products like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're buying a simple product then you're likely going to be okay in opting for a budget alternative or something which is fairly low cost because there's not much that can be problematic," she says.

'Do Not Be Swayed by the Box'

Yet the experts also suggest shoppers check details and say that more expensive items are sometimes worth the premium price.

With luxury skincare, you're not only paying for the name and marketing - sometimes the higher cost also stems from the formula and their standard, the concentration of the effective element, the technology used to create the product, and tests into the products' performance, the expert says.

Facialist she argues it's important thinking about how certain alternatives can be priced so at a low cost.

In some cases, she says they could contain filler ingredients that lack as significant positive effects for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as carefully selected.

"The big uncertainty is 'Why is it so low-priced?'" she asks.

Commentator Scott notes in some cases he's bought beauty products that appear comparable to a established label but the item has "little similarity to the luxury product".

"Do not be fooled by the container," he warned.

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For advanced products or ones with components that can irritate the complexion if they're not created properly, such as retinoids or vitamin C, she recommends using more specialised labels.

She explains these will likely have been subjected to comprehensive studies to assess how effective they are.

Beauty items are required to be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, explains expert Emma Wedgeworth.

If the company advertises about the efficacy of the product, it needs data to support it, "but the manufacturer doesn't always have to conduct the trials" and can instead cite testing completed by different brands, she adds.

Read the Ingredients List of the Container

Are there any components that could signal a item is poor?

Components on the list of the bottle are arranged by amount. "Potential irritants that you should be wary of… is your petroleum-derived oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up