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Rachael Parnell

When a consumer heard a discounter was launching a new product collection that looked similar to products from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

The shopper rushed to her local outlet to purchase the supermarket face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 cost of the luxury brand 50ml cream.

Its streamlined blue packaging and gold top of each items look remarkably similar. While Rachael has not used the premium cream, she claims she's pleased by the alternative so far.

She has been using lookalike products from mainstream retailers and supermarkets for a long time, and she's part of a trend.

Over a quarter of UK buyers say they've tried a beauty or cosmetic dupe. This increases to 44 percent among younger adults, according to a recently published survey.

Alternatives are skincare products that imitate established companies and provide cost-effective alternatives to premium items. They often have similar branding and containers, but occasionally the formulas can vary considerably.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Necessarily Better'

Skincare specialists say some substitutes to high-end labels are reasonable quality and assist make skincare less expensive.

"It is not true that costlier is always better," states skin specialist one expert. "Not every low-budget beauty label is bad - and not every luxury beauty item is the finest."

"Some [dupes] are truly impressive," adds a skincare commentator, who presents a podcast featuring famous people.

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

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist another professional thinks dupes are acceptable to use for "fundamental products" like hydrators and face washes.

"Dupes will serve a purpose," he says. "They will do the basics to a satisfactory degree."

Another skin doctor, advises you can cut costs when you're looking for single-ingredient products like HA, Vitamin B3 and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're buying a simple product then you're likely going to be fine in opting for a lookalike or a product which is quite low cost because there's not much that can be problematic," she says.

'Do Not Be Influenced by the Container'

But the specialists also recommend consumers investigate and state that more expensive items are at times worthy of the additional cost.

Regarding premium skincare, you're not just covering the brand and marketing - at times the higher price also is due to the components and their standard, the concentration of the active ingredient, the research utilized to produce the product, and tests into the products' effectiveness, Dr Belmo explains.

Beauty expert Rhian Truman suggests it's important considering how certain alternatives can be sold so cheaply.

In some cases, she believes they might contain filler ingredients that lack as significant advantages for the complexion, or the components might not be as well sourced.

"One major question mark is 'Why is it so cheap?'" she asks.

Commentator McGlynn notes sometimes he's purchased beauty products that look similar to a big-name brand but the product itself has "little similarity to the original".

"Don't be sold by the outer appearance," he warned.

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For potent items or those with components that can irritate the complexion if they're not made correctly, such as retinols or vitamin C serums, she advises selecting more specialised brands.

She explains these will likely have been through expensive studies to assess how successful they are.

Skincare products need to be assessed before they can be available in the UK, explains expert another professional.

When the brand makes claims about the performance of the product, it requires data to verify it, "but the seller doesn't necessarily have to do the testing" and can alternatively cite evidence completed by different firms, she says.

Read the Ingredients List of the Bottle

Is there any components that could suggest a product is inferior?

Components on the label of the container are ordered by amount. "Ingredients to avoid that you want to be wary of… is your petroleum-derived oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up