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Rachael Parnell

After discovering Rachael Parnell found out a supermarket was launching a recent skincare range that looked similar to products from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

The shopper dashed to her local outlet to purchase the supermarket face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 cost of the Augustinus Bader 50ml cream.

Its smooth blue tube and gold top of each creams look remarkably similar. And though Rachael has not tested the luxury cream, she claims she's satisfied by the product so far.

She has been buying beauty alternatives from high street stores and supermarkets for a long time, and she's in good company.

Over a fourth of UK shoppers report they've bought a beauty or cosmetic alternative. This jumps to 44 percent among millennials and Gen Z, according to a recent poll.

Dupes are skincare products that imitate bigger name companies and offer affordable alternatives to premium items. They frequently have similar labels and design, but in some cases the components can differ considerably.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Is Not Necessarily Superior'

Beauty professionals say many dupes to high-end labels are good quality and help make skincare more affordable.

"In my opinion more expensive is always superior," comments consultant dermatologist one expert. "Not every low-budget product line is poor - and not all high-end beauty item is the finest."

"A number of [dupes] are absolutely impressive," adds Scott McGlynn, who runs a program about public figures.

A lot of of the items based on luxury labels "disappear so fast, it's just crazy," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor another professional believes alternatives are acceptable to use for "basic skincare" like moisturisers and face washes.

"Alternatives will serve a purpose," he comments. "They will do the fundamentals to a satisfactory degree."

Another skin doctor, advises you can save money when you're looking for single-ingredient items like HA, Vitamin B3 and a moisturizing ingredient.

"When you're buying a simple product then you're likely going to be alright in using a dupe or something which is fairly inexpensive because there's minimal that can cause issues," she adds.

'Don't Be Sold by the Container'

But the professionals also advise shoppers do their research and note that costlier products are occasionally worth the premium price.

With premium skincare, you're not only paying for the brand and advertising - at times the higher cost also stems from the components and their grade, the strength of the effective element, the research employed to develop the product, and trials into the products' effectiveness, she says.

Facialist another professional suggests it's worth questioning how some alternatives can be priced so inexpensively.

In some cases, she believes they might include bulking agents that lack as numerous positive effects for the skin, or the materials might not be as well sourced.

"One big question mark is 'Why is it so low-priced?'" she says.

Expert McGlynn says sometimes he's purchased beauty products that appear comparable to a well-known label but the product itself has "little similarity to the luxury product".

"Don't be sold by the packaging," he cautioned.

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For potent products or ones with ingredients that can aggravate the skin if they're not made correctly, such as retinols or vitamin C, she suggests using more specialised labels.

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

Skincare items must be tested before they can be available in the UK, explains expert Emma Wedgeworth.

If the company states about the performance of the item, it requires data to back it up, "however the manufacturer doesn't always have to perform the trials" and can alternatively use studies done by different companies, she clarifies.

Check the Label of the Container

Is there any components that could indicate a item is poor?

Ingredients on the list of the tube are listed by amount. "Ingredients to avoid that you need to look out for… is your mineral oil, your SLS, parfum, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up