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Rachael Parnell

After discovering one shopper heard Aldi was selling a new product collection that looked similar to items from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

The shopper rushed to her local outlet to purchase the store-brand face cream for £8.49 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 of the high-end 50ml item.

The smooth blue packaging and gold lid of each products look noticeably similar. Although Rachael has not used the premium cream, she states she's pleased by the product so far.

She has been buying beauty alternatives from high street stores and grocery stores for years, and she's part of a trend.

More than a quarter of UK shoppers say they've bought a skincare or makeup dupe. This increases to nearly half among millennials and Gen Z, based on a recent poll.

Dupes are skincare products that mimic bigger name brands and provide affordable alternatives to premium products. They typically have alike branding and containers, but sometimes the formulas can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Isn't Necessarily Better'

Skincare specialists say many substitutes to premium brands are reasonable standard and aid make skincare less expensive.

"In my opinion more expensive is always superior," says dermatology expert a doctor. "Not every affordable product line is bad - and not every premium skincare product is the best."

"Certain [dupes] are really amazing," adds Scott McGlynn, who runs a show with famous people.

Numerous of the items modeled on high-end labels "sell out so rapidly, it's just insane," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor Ross Perry thinks dupes are fine to use for "basic skincare" like moisturisers and face washes.

"Alternatives will serve a purpose," he says. "They will do the basics to a acceptable level."

A consultant dermatologist, thinks you can spend less when you're looking for single-ingredient products like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're buying a single-ingredient product then you're probably going to be okay in opting for a lookalike or a product which is fairly low cost because there's minimal that can go wrong," she says.

'Don't Be Swayed by the Packaging'

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

Regarding premium beauty products, you're not just paying for the label and promotion - sometimes the higher cost also is due to the ingredients and their standard, the potency of the effective element, the science employed to create the item, and tests into the item's efficacy, Dr Belmo notes.

Beauty expert Rhian Truman argues it's worth thinking about how some dupes can be priced so at a low cost.

Occasionally, she says they might include bulking agents that don't have as many advantages for the complexion, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

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

Podcast host Scott admits in some cases he's bought skincare items that appear similar to a established label but the actual formula has "no connection to the premium version".

"Do not be convinced by the outer appearance," he added.

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For advanced products or those with components that can irritate the complexion if they're not formulated correctly, such as retinols or vitamin C serums, Dr Bhate recommends using research-backed companies.

The expert explains these will likely have been subjected to comprehensive tests to assess how successful they are.

Beauty products are required to be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, explains skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

If the label advertises about the performance of the item, it must have research to back it up, "however the manufacturer doesn't necessarily have to do the trials" and can instead reference evidence completed by other companies, she says.

Read the Label of the Bottle

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

Components on the back of the tube are arranged by amount. "Potential irritants that you should look out for… is your mineral oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up