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Rachael Parnell

When Rachael Parnell found out Aldi was offering a fresh beauty line that seemed akin to offerings from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

The shopper hurried to her closest store to purchase the supermarket face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 price tag of the Augustinus Bader 50ml cream.

The streamlined blue container and gold cap of the two products look strikingly similar. While she has never tried the premium cream, she states she's satisfied by the alternative so far.

Rachael has been purchasing lookalike products from mainstream retailers and supermarkets for some time, and she's part of a trend.

More than a 25% of UK consumers state they've bought a beauty or cosmetic lookalike. This rises to 44 percent among millennials and Gen Z, as per a February survey.

Lookalikes are skincare products that mimic established labels and present affordable alternatives to premium products. They often have alike branding and containers, but occasionally the formulas can vary substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'High-Priced Is Not Necessarily Superior'

Beauty professionals contend many alternatives to high-end brands are good quality and aid make skincare more affordable.

"I don't think costlier is always better," states dermatology expert Sharon Belmo. "Not all affordable beauty label is bad - and not every premium beauty item is the best."

"A number of [dupes] are absolutely excellent," adds a podcast host, who presents a show with famous people.

Numerous of the products modeled on high-end brands "disappear so quickly, it's just unbelievable," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert a doctor believes dupes are suitable to use for "basic skincare" like moisturisers and cleansers.

"Dupes will do the job," he explains. "These items will do the basics to a reasonable level."

Another skin doctor, advises you can save money when searching for simple-formula items like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and squalane.

"When you're purchasing a simple product then you're probably going to be alright in using a budget alternative or something which is very inexpensive because there's very little that can cause issues," she explains.

'Don't Be Sold by the Box'

Yet the specialists also recommend shoppers check details and state that costlier items are sometimes worth the extra money.

Regarding luxury skincare, you're not just covering the label and promotion - at times the higher cost also comes from the ingredients and their grade, the potency of the active ingredient, the research employed to produce the product, and trials into the products' performance, the expert explains.

Skin therapist Rhian Truman suggests it's worth questioning how certain alternatives can be priced so at a low cost.

Sometimes, she states they may have bulking agents that do not provide as significant advantages for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

"The key question mark is 'Why is it so low-priced?'" she asks.

Commentator Scott says sometimes he's purchased beauty products that look comparable to a big-name label but the item has "little similarity to the original".

"Don't be convinced by the container," he cautioned.

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For potent items or ones with components that can irritate the skin if they're not formulated accurately, such as retinols or vitamin C, Dr Bhate recommends selecting research-backed labels.

The expert says these probably have been through expensive trials to determine how successful they are.

Beauty products need to be evaluated before they can be available in the UK, notes consultant dermatologist another professional.

If the brand makes claims about the performance of the product, it requires evidence to support it, "however the manufacturer does not always have to conduct the testing" and can alternatively reference evidence completed by other brands, she says.

Read the Back of the Bottle

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

Components on the back of the bottle are listed by amount. "The baddies that you need to look out for… is your mineral oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up