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Rachael Parnell

After discovering Rachael Parnell learned Aldi was offering a recent product collection that looked comparable to products from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

She rushed to her local store to buy the Lacura face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 of the Augustinus Bader 50ml item.

Its streamlined blue packaging and gold top of the two creams look strikingly similar. And though Rachael has never tried the luxury cream, she says she's pleased by the product so far.

Rachael has been buying lookalike products from mainstream retailers and grocery stores for years, and she's part of a trend.

Over a fourth of UK consumers say they've purchased a beauty or cosmetic dupe. This increases to nearly half among millennials and Gen Z, according to a February poll.

Dupes are skincare products that mimic established labels and present cost-effective alternatives to luxury products. These products often have comparable branding and containers, but in some cases the formulas can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Necessarily Better'

Skincare experts argue many dupes to premium labels are reasonable quality and help make beauty routines cheaper.

"It is not true that costlier is always more effective," states consultant dermatologist a doctor. "Not all budget product line is inferior - and not all luxury skincare product is the top."

"Some [dupes] are really excellent," says a podcast host, who runs a program about celebrities.

Numerous of the products based on high-end labels "run out so rapidly, it's just insane," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor another professional believes alternatives are acceptable to use for "simple routines" like hydrators and cleansers.

"These products will do the job," he explains. "They will do the fundamentals to a satisfactory standard."

Another skin doctor, advises you can cut costs when seeking simple-formula items like HA, niacinamide and squalane.

"When you're buying a single-ingredient item then you're likely going to be fine in using a budget alternative or a product which is very inexpensive because there's not much that can go wrong," she adds.

'Don't Be Sold by the Box'

Yet the specialists also suggest buyers check details and say that higher-priced items are sometimes worth the additional cost.

Regarding premium skincare, you're not only funding the name and marketing - at times the higher price also is due to the ingredients and their quality, the concentration of the effective element, the technology employed to create the item, and studies into the products' performance, the expert says.

Facialist she suggests it's important considering how certain alternatives can be priced so inexpensively.

In some cases, she believes they may contain less effective components that don't have as significant advantages for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

"One major uncertainty is 'How is it so cheap?'" she asks.

Podcast host McGlynn admits sometimes he's bought skincare items that look comparable to a big-name label but the product itself has "no resemblance to the luxury product".

"Do not be sold by the outer appearance," he warned.

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Regarding potent items or ones with ingredients that can aggravate the skin if they're not made correctly, such as retinols or vitamin C, the specialist recommends selecting medical-grade labels.

The expert states these will likely have been subjected to comprehensive tests to evaluate how effective they are.

Skincare products are required to be evaluated before they can be sold in the UK, says skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

When the label states about the effectiveness of the item, it needs research to support it, "but the manufacturer does not necessarily have to do the trials" and can instead use studies done by different firms, she adds.

Check the Ingredients List of the Pack

Are there any components that could signal a product is low-quality?

Ingredients on the back of the container are arranged by quantity. "The baddies that you should be wary of… is your mineral oil, your SLS, parfum, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up