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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing Rachael Parnell heard Aldi was launching a recent beauty line that seemed similar to items from high-end label Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

She rushed to her local store to purchase the supermarket face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 price tag of the high-end 50ml item.

Its smooth blue container and gold top of the two items look noticeably alike. And though she has not used the premium cream, she claims she's satisfied by the product so far.

Rachael has been purchasing skincare dupes from popular shops and supermarkets for some time, and she's part of a trend.

More than a fourth of UK shoppers report they've bought a skincare or makeup dupe. This jumps to 44 percent among younger adults, according to a February study.

Dupes are beauty items that mimic bigger name companies and provide budget-friendly substitutes to premium items. These products frequently have comparable labels and design, but occasionally the formulas can vary significantly.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Is Not Necessarily Superior'

Skincare experts contend some substitutes to high-end brands are good standard and aid make skincare cheaper.

"I don't think more expensive is necessarily more effective," comments skin specialist Sharon Belmo. "Not all affordable product line is poor - and not all high-end skincare product is the finest."

"A number of [dupes] are truly impressive," adds a skincare commentator, who runs a show about public figures.

Numerous of the items modeled on high-end brands "disappear so rapidly, it's just crazy," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist a doctor thinks dupes are fine to use for "basic skincare" like hydrators and face washes.

"Dupes will serve a purpose," he explains. "These items will perform the fundamentals to a acceptable degree."

Another skin doctor, thinks you can save money when you're looking for single-ingredient items like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're purchasing a simple item then you're probably going to be okay in using a dupe or a product which is fairly affordable because there's very little that can go wrong," she says.

'Don't Be Influenced by the Container'

Yet the specialists also advise consumers do their research and state that costlier items are at times worth the premium price.

With high-end beauty products, you're not just funding the label and advertising - sometimes the higher cost also comes from the formula and their quality, the potency of the key component, the science employed to create the item, and tests into the products' effectiveness, she notes.

Facialist another professional suggests it's valuable considering how certain dupes can be offered so inexpensively.

In some cases, she believes they could have less effective components that lack as significant benefits for the complexion, or the ingredients might not be as carefully selected.

"One major question mark is 'Why is it so inexpensive?'" she asks.

Podcast host McGlynn admits sometimes he's purchased skincare items that look similar to a well-known label but the actual formula has "little similarity to the premium version".

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

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For more complicated products or ones with ingredients that can aggravate the complexion if they're not made properly, such as retinols or vitamin C serums, the specialist recommends selecting research-backed companies.

The expert says these probably have been through expensive studies to assess how efficacious they are.

Skincare products must be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, notes skin doctor Emma Wedgeworth.

When the company states about the effectiveness of the item, it requires evidence to verify it, "but the brand does not always have to perform the testing" and can alternatively reference testing conducted by other brands, she adds.

Examine the Ingredients List of the Container

Is there any ingredients that could signal a item is inferior?

Ingredients on the label of the container are arranged by concentration. "The baddies that you want to look out for… is your petroleum-derived oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up