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Rachael Parnell

When Rachael Parnell heard a discounter was launching a fresh product collection that appeared comparable to products from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

Rachael dashed to her closest store to buy the store-brand face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 of the high-end 50ml cream.

Its streamlined blue packaging and gold cap of both items look strikingly comparable. And though Rachael has never tried the premium cream, she says she's satisfied by the dupe so far.

Rachael has been using skincare dupes from high street stores and supermarkets for a long time, and she's part of a trend.

Over a fourth of UK buyers report they've purchased a beauty or cosmetic alternative. This increases to 44% among younger adults, based on a recent survey.

Lookalikes are beauty items that mimic established brands and provide budget-friendly alternatives to luxury items. They typically have alike branding and containers, but occasionally the components can vary substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Always Superior'

Skincare experts say some substitutes to high-end brands are decent standard and aid make beauty routines more affordable.

"In my opinion more expensive is necessarily better," comments dermatology expert a doctor. "Not all affordable beauty label is poor - and not all premium beauty item is the finest."

"Certain [dupes] are absolutely amazing," notes Scott McGlynn, who runs a podcast with famous people.

Many of the products based on luxury labels "disappear so fast, it's just unbelievable," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist a doctor believes dupes are acceptable to use for "fundamental products" like moisturisers and face washes.

"Alternatives will be effective," he explains. "These items will do the fundamentals to a reasonable standard."

Another skin doctor, suggests you can cut costs when you're looking for single-ingredient items like HA, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're purchasing a single-ingredient product then you're probably going to be fine in opting for a lookalike or a product which is very low cost because there's not much that can go wrong," she says.

'Don't Be Influenced by the Container'

But the professionals also suggest buyers investigate and note that higher-priced products are sometimes worth the premium price.

With high-end skincare, you're not just funding the name and promotion - sometimes the increased price also stems from the components and their standard, the concentration of the key component, the technology utilized to develop the item, and studies into the products' effectiveness, Dr Belmo says.

Skin therapist she suggests it's valuable considering how some alternatives can be priced so inexpensively.

Occasionally, she states they may contain less effective components that don't have as many benefits for the skin, or the components might not be as high-quality.

"The big uncertainty is 'Why is it so inexpensive?'" she says.

Commentator Scott admits in some cases he's bought skincare items that look comparable to a established brand but the actual formula has "little similarity to the luxury product".

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

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For advanced items or ones with ingredients that can inflame the skin if they're not formulated properly, such as retinols or vitamin C serums, she suggests selecting more specialised brands.

She says these typically have been subjected to costly tests to assess how effective they are.

Beauty items must be assessed before they can be available in the UK, says consultant dermatologist another professional.

If the company makes claims about the performance of the product, it must have data to back it up, "but the manufacturer does not always have to do the trials" and can instead reference studies completed by different firms, she adds.

Read the Label of the Container

Is there any ingredients that could suggest a product is low-quality?

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