High-Street Skincare Lookalikes Can Save You a Bundle. But Do Budget Skincare Items Perform?

Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing a consumer learned a supermarket was launching a recent beauty line that seemed comparable to products from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

The shopper hurried to her closest shop to buy the store-brand face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 price tag of the Augustinus Bader 50ml item.

The sleek blue container and gold lid of each products look strikingly alike. And though Rachael has never tried the premium cream, she claims she's pleased by the alternative so far.

Rachael has been using beauty alternatives from popular shops and supermarkets for a long time, and she's not alone.

More than a fourth of UK shoppers state they've purchased a skincare or makeup alternative. This rises to 44 percent among 18-34 year olds, according to a recently published study.

Alternatives are beauty items that mimic bigger name companies and offer affordable substitutes to high-end items. These products often have similar labels and design, but occasionally the ingredients can differ substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'High-Priced Is Not Necessarily Better'

Skincare experts contend certain alternatives to premium labels are good quality and aid make skincare less expensive.

"It is not true that costlier is always more effective," comments skin specialist Sharon Belmo. "Not every budget beauty label is bad - and not all luxury beauty item is the finest."

"Some [dupes] are absolutely impressive," notes a skincare commentator, who presents a program with public figures.

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

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist a doctor argues alternatives are suitable to use for "simple routines" like moisturisers and face washes.

"These products will be effective," he says. "They will perform the essentials to a acceptable standard."

Another skin doctor, suggests you can spend less when seeking simple-formula products like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"When you're buying a single-ingredient product then you're likely going to be fine in using a dupe or something which is fairly inexpensive because there's not much that can be problematic," she explains.

'Do Not Be Influenced by the Container'

But the specialists also suggest consumers do their research and note that more expensive products are at times worthy of the premium price.

Regarding high-end skincare, you're not just covering the name and promotion - sometimes the increased price also is due to the components and their standard, the concentration of the key component, the technology utilized to develop the item, and studies into the item's efficacy, the expert notes.

Beauty expert another professional says it's valuable questioning how some dupes can be offered so at a low cost.

In some cases, she believes they may include bulking agents that lack as many positive effects for the complexion, or the ingredients might not be as carefully selected.

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

Expert Scott notes on occasion he's bought beauty products that appear comparable to a well-known label but the item has "little similarity to the luxury product".

"Do not be convinced by the container," he added.

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For more complicated items or those with components that can irritate the complexion if they're not formulated correctly, such as retinoids or vitamin C, she advises using more specialised labels.

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

Beauty items must be tested before they can be sold in the UK, explains skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

When the label states about the efficacy of the product, it needs data to verify it, "however the brand does not always have to do the trials" and can instead use evidence conducted by different firms, she adds.

Read the Label of the Bottle

Is there any ingredients that could signal a product is low-quality?

Ingredients on the label of the bottle are arranged by concentration. "Ingredients to avoid that you should avoid… is your mineral oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up