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Rachael Parnell

When one shopper learned Aldi was offering a fresh skincare range that looked similar to offerings from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "extremely excited".

Rachael rushed to her nearest outlet to buy the Lacura face cream for a low price for 50ml - a small portion of the £240 price tag of the high-end 50ml cream.

The sleek blue packaging and gold cap of each creams look strikingly similar. Although she has not tested the high-end cream, she claims she's satisfied by the alternative 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 buyers report they've tried a skincare or makeup alternative. This increases to 44% among younger adults, based on a recently published survey.

Alternatives are skincare products that imitate established companies and provide affordable options to premium items. These products often have comparable branding and containers, but occasionally the ingredients can change substantially.

Victoria Woollaston

'High-Priced Is Not Necessarily Better'

Skincare experts say some substitutes to luxury brands are good standard and assist make skincare more affordable.

"It is not true that costlier is always more effective," says skin specialist Sharon Belmo. "Not all budget product line is poor - and not every high-end skincare product is the top."

"A number of [dupes] are truly amazing," says Scott McGlynn, who presents a show featuring famous people.

A lot of of the items modeled on high-end labels "sell out so fast, it's just crazy," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist Ross Perry believes alternatives are suitable to use for "simple routines" like moisturisers and cleansers.

"Dupes will be effective," he comments. "These items will handle the fundamentals to a reasonable degree."

A consultant dermatologist, thinks you can spend less when searching for simple-formula products like HA, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're buying a single-ingredient product then you're likely going to be okay in opting for a budget alternative or something which is very inexpensive because there's very little that can be problematic," she adds.

'Don't Be Swayed by the Container'

But the experts also recommend shoppers check details and say that more expensive products are sometimes worthy of the additional cost.

Regarding luxury beauty products, you're not only paying for the name and marketing - at times the higher cost also is due to the formula and their standard, the concentration of the active ingredient, the research employed to produce the item, and studies into the products' efficacy, she says.

Facialist she says it's important questioning how certain dupes can be priced so inexpensively.

Sometimes, she states they may have less effective components that don't have as many positive effects for the skin, or the materials might not be as carefully selected.

"The major doubt is 'Why is it so inexpensive?'" she says.

Podcast host McGlynn admits sometimes he's bought skincare items that look comparable to a well-known label but the product itself has "no connection to the premium version".

"Do not be sold by the container," he warned.

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For advanced products or those with ingredients that can irritate the complexion if they're not made accurately, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, the specialist suggests selecting research-backed labels.

She says these typically have been subjected to expensive studies to determine how successful they are.

Beauty products are required to be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, explains consultant dermatologist another professional.

If the label advertises about the performance of the product, it must have data to support it, "however the manufacturer doesn't necessarily have to do the testing" and can instead reference testing done by other companies, she clarifies.

Read the Label of the Container

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

Ingredients on the list of the container are listed by quantity. "The baddies that you need to be wary of… is your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, parfum, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up