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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing one shopper heard a discounter was offering a fresh beauty line that appeared similar to offerings from high-end label Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

The shopper hurried to her closest store to purchase the Lacura face cream for a low price for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 price tag of the Augustinus Bader 50ml product.

Its smooth blue packaging and gold lid of the two products look strikingly alike. While Rachael has not tested the high-end cream, she says she's pleased by the alternative so far.

Rachael has been using beauty alternatives from mainstream retailers and supermarkets for years, and she's part of a trend.

More than a fourth of UK consumers state they've bought a beauty or cosmetic lookalike. This jumps to 44% among younger adults, as per a recently published poll.

Lookalikes are beauty items that imitate bigger name companies and provide cost-effective options to luxury items. These products often have similar branding and containers, but occasionally the formulas can differ considerably.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Isn't Necessarily Better'

Beauty specialists argue certain dupes to luxury brands are good quality and aid make beauty routines cheaper.

"In my opinion higher-priced is necessarily superior," states skin specialist one expert. "Not all low-budget product line is inferior - and not every high-end beauty item is the best."

"Some [dupes] are absolutely excellent," says Scott McGlynn, who runs a podcast featuring famous people.

Numerous of the items inspired by high-end brands "disappear so rapidly, it's just insane," he observes.

Scott McGlynn

Aesthetic and dermatology doctor a doctor believes alternatives are acceptable to use for "fundamental products" like moisturisers and face washes.

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

Ketaki Bhate, advises you can save money when you're looking for single-ingredient items like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're buying a simple product then you're probably going to be alright in opting for a dupe or a product which is fairly low cost because there's very little that can go wrong," she says.

'Don't Be Swayed by the Packaging'

But the professionals also advise consumers investigate and say that more expensive items are at times worthy of the premium price.

Regarding luxury beauty products, you're not only funding the brand and marketing - sometimes the elevated cost also stems from the ingredients and their grade, the strength of the effective element, the technology employed to develop the item, and trials into the products' efficacy, the expert explains.

Beauty expert she says it's important thinking about how some dupes can be offered so at a low cost.

Occasionally, she states they could contain bulking agents that don't have as significant benefits for the complexion, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

"One key question mark is 'How is it so cheap?'" she says.

Expert McGlynn says in some cases he's bought skincare items that look similar to a established brand but the actual formula has "little similarity to the luxury product".

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

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Regarding advanced products or ones with ingredients that can inflame the complexion if they're not made correctly, such as retinols or vitamin C, Dr Bhate advises using more specialised companies.

The expert explains these will likely have been subjected to costly trials to assess how efficacious they are.

Skincare products are required to be tested before they can be sold in the UK, explains expert another professional.

When the brand makes claims about the efficacy of the product, it requires evidence to verify it, "however the brand does not always have to conduct the testing" and can instead use testing done by different firms, she adds.

Examine the Label of the Pack

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

Ingredients on the back of the bottle are ordered by concentration. "Potential irritants that you want to be wary of… is your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, parfum, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up