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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing a consumer learned Aldi was offering a recent skincare range that looked akin to items from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

Rachael rushed to her closest shop to pick up the supermarket face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 cost of the luxury brand 50ml product.

The sleek blue container and gold lid of the two creams look noticeably similar. Although Rachael has not tested the premium cream, she claims she's impressed by the dupe so far.

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

Over a quarter of UK shoppers report they've purchased a skincare or makeup alternative. This jumps to 44% among younger adults, according to a recent survey.

Alternatives are beauty items that copy established companies and offer cost-effective alternatives to luxury products. They typically have comparable names and packaging, but sometimes the formulas can vary substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Isn't Necessarily Better'

Skincare professionals argue certain dupes to high-end labels are good quality and help make skincare more affordable.

"I don't think higher-priced is always superior," states skin specialist one expert. "Not every low-budget beauty label is inferior - and not all luxury beauty item is the finest."

"Some [dupes] are truly excellent," says a skincare commentator, who runs a program about public figures.

Many of the products based on high-end brands "sell out so quickly, it's just unbelievable," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist a doctor believes alternatives are suitable to use for "fundamental products" like hydrators and face washes.

"Dupes will serve a purpose," he comments. "They will do the essentials to a reasonable level."

Ketaki Bhate, suggests you can spend less when seeking simple-formula products like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and a moisturizing ingredient.

"When you're purchasing a simple item then you're likely going to be fine in opting for a lookalike or a product which is very inexpensive because there's not much that can go wrong," she says.

'Do Not Be Sold by the Container'

Yet the professionals also recommend buyers do their research and state that more expensive products are occasionally worthy of the extra money.

With luxury skincare, you're not just funding the label and advertising - at times the elevated cost also is due to the ingredients and their standard, the strength of the effective element, the research utilized to produce the item, and trials into the products' efficacy, the expert notes.

Skin therapist Rhian Truman says it's important questioning how some dupes can be sold so inexpensively.

Sometimes, she states they might contain bulking agents that don't have as numerous positive effects for the complexion, or the materials might not be as high-quality.

"The big question mark is 'Why is it so cheap?'" she says.

Expert McGlynn admits in some cases he's purchased skincare items that look similar to a established label but the item has "no connection to the premium version".

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

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Regarding potent items or ones with components that can aggravate the complexion if they're not formulated accurately, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, she suggests using more specialised labels.

She states these typically have been through costly studies to determine how effective they are.

Skincare items are required to be assessed before they can be available in the UK, explains skin doctor another professional.

When the company states about the effectiveness of the item, it must have data to verify it, "however the manufacturer doesn't always have to do the trials" and can instead use evidence done by different brands, she says.

Check the Back of the Bottle

Is there any ingredients that could indicate a item is low-quality?

Components on the list of the bottle are ordered by amount. "Potential irritants that you need to look out for… is your petroleum-derived oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up