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Rachael Parnell

When Rachael Parnell learned a discounter was offering a recent skincare range that seemed comparable to offerings from high-end label Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

She hurried to her closest outlet to buy the supermarket face cream for a low price for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 of the luxury brand 50ml item.

The streamlined blue container and gold top of both items look strikingly alike. And though she has never tried the luxury cream, she says she's satisfied by the alternative so far.

She has been using lookalike products from high street stores and grocery stores for years, and she's not alone.

More than a 25% of UK consumers report they've purchased a skincare or makeup dupe. This rises to 44% among 18-34 year olds, based on a February poll.

Alternatives are beauty items that imitate bigger name brands and provide budget-friendly alternatives to high-end items. These products typically have similar names and packaging, but sometimes the formulas can vary considerably.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Isn't Necessarily Superior'

Skincare specialists say certain dupes to luxury brands are reasonable quality and assist make beauty routines more affordable.

"In my opinion more expensive is always superior," states skin specialist one expert. "Not all budget skincare brand is bad - and not all high-end skincare product is the top."

"A number of [dupes] are truly impressive," adds a podcast host, who runs a podcast featuring public figures.

Many of the products modeled on luxury labels "sell out so quickly, it's just crazy," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert a doctor thinks dupes are acceptable to use for "basic skincare" like hydrators and cleansers.

"Alternatives will be effective," he explains. "These items will perform the fundamentals to a satisfactory degree."

Ketaki Bhate, advises you can cut costs when you're looking for simple-formula products like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and a moisturizing ingredient.

"When you're purchasing a single-ingredient product then you're probably going to be okay in using a lookalike or something which is fairly inexpensive because there's very little that can go wrong," she adds.

'Do Not Be Influenced by the Box'

Yet the professionals also suggest consumers investigate and say that more expensive products are occasionally worthy of the additional cost.

With high-end skincare, you're not only covering the name and advertising - at times the elevated cost also is due to the ingredients and their quality, the potency of the effective element, the research employed to create the item, and trials into the item's performance, she says.

Beauty expert she suggests it's valuable thinking about how certain alternatives can be sold so cheaply.

In some cases, she believes they might have filler ingredients that don't have as significant benefits for the complexion, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

"One big uncertainty is 'How is it so low-priced?'" she says.

Podcast host Scott admits on occasion he's bought beauty products that look comparable to a big-name brand but the actual formula has "no connection to the premium version".

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

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Regarding potent products or ones with components that can irritate the complexion if they're not created properly, such as retinoids or vitamin C, the specialist suggests sticking to research-backed companies.

The expert says these probably have been subjected to expensive trials to assess how efficacious they are.

Skincare items are required to be assessed before they can be available in the UK, notes consultant dermatologist Emma Wedgeworth.

If the brand makes claims about the efficacy of the product, it requires research to verify it, "but the manufacturer doesn't always have to conduct the trials" and can instead use evidence completed by other companies, she says.

Check the Back of the Container

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

Components on the list of the bottle are ordered by amount. "The baddies that you should be wary of… is your mineral oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up