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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing Rachael Parnell learned a supermarket was offering a new beauty line that appeared similar to items from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

She dashed to her closest store to pick up the supermarket face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 price tag of the luxury brand 50ml product.

Its sleek blue tube and gold cap of both items look strikingly comparable. And though Rachael has never tried the premium cream, she states she's pleased by the product so far.

She has been using skincare dupes from high street stores and grocery stores for years, and she's not alone.

Over a 25% of UK consumers state they've tried a skincare or makeup lookalike. This jumps to nearly half among millennials and Gen Z, as per a recently published survey.

Dupes are skincare products that copy well-known brands and offer cost-effective options to luxury items. They typically have comparable branding and containers, but in some cases the formulas can change significantly.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Is Not Always Better'

Beauty specialists say some dupes to luxury labels are reasonable quality and assist make skincare more affordable.

"In my opinion more expensive is necessarily better," comments consultant dermatologist Sharon Belmo. "Not every low-budget product line is bad - and not all luxury beauty item is the best."

"A number of [dupes] are really excellent," adds Scott McGlynn, who runs a show featuring famous people.

Numerous of the items inspired by high-end brands "sell out so fast, it's just crazy," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert another professional thinks dupes are suitable to use for "fundamental products" like moisturisers and cleansers.

"Dupes will be effective," he comments. "They will perform the basics to a reasonable degree."

Another skin doctor, thinks you can cut costs when searching for single-ingredient products like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're buying a simple item then you're likely going to be alright in using a lookalike or something which is fairly low cost because there's not much that can go wrong," she explains.

'Do Not Be Influenced by the Box'

However the experts also suggest shoppers investigate and note that more expensive items are at times worth the premium price.

Regarding luxury beauty products, you're not just paying for the brand and promotion - sometimes the increased cost also stems from the formula and their standard, the potency of the key component, the technology used to develop the product, and trials into the products' effectiveness, Dr Belmo says.

Skin therapist Rhian Truman suggests it's valuable considering how certain dupes can be priced so at a low cost.

Occasionally, she says they might contain less effective components that do not provide as numerous benefits for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as carefully selected.

"The major question mark is 'How is it so low-priced?'" she remarks.

Podcast host Scott admits in some cases he's purchased beauty products that look comparable to a well-known label but the actual formula has "little similarity to the luxury product".

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

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For advanced products or those with components that can irritate the skin if they're not formulated correctly, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, the specialist recommends selecting research-backed companies.

The expert states these probably have been subjected to expensive studies to evaluate how efficacious they are.

Skincare products must be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, says consultant dermatologist another professional.

When the label makes claims about the efficacy of the product, it needs evidence to support it, "however the brand does not necessarily have to perform the trials" and can instead use testing conducted by other firms, she adds.

Read the Label of the Container

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

Components on the label of the bottle are arranged by amount. "Ingredients to avoid that you want to avoid… is your petroleum-derived oil, your SLS, parfum, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up