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Rachael Parnell

Upon hearing a consumer heard a supermarket was launching a recent beauty line that looked akin to products from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

She dashed to her nearest shop to purchase the store-brand face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 price tag of the high-end 50ml cream.

Its smooth blue packaging and gold lid of each items look remarkably similar. And though she has never tried the high-end cream, she says she's satisfied by the dupe so far.

She has been purchasing skincare dupes from popular shops and grocery stores for years, and she's not alone.

Over a quarter of UK buyers state they've purchased a beauty or cosmetic dupe. This increases to 44 percent among 18-34 year olds, based on a recently published poll.

Dupes are beauty items that imitate bigger name brands and offer affordable options to high-end items. They frequently have comparable names and packaging, but in some cases the ingredients can change considerably.

Victoria Woollaston

'High-Priced Is Not Necessarily Better'

Skincare specialists say certain substitutes to premium labels are good standard and aid make beauty routines cheaper.

"In my opinion costlier is necessarily more effective," states skin specialist one expert. "Not every budget beauty label is inferior - and not every luxury skincare product is the finest."

"Some [dupes] are absolutely amazing," adds a skincare commentator, who runs a show featuring celebrities.

A lot of of the items inspired by luxury brands "sell out so rapidly, it's just crazy," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert Ross Perry argues alternatives are acceptable to use for "basic skincare" like hydrators and cleansers.

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

Ketaki Bhate, thinks you can save money when searching for simple-formula items like HA, niacinamide and a moisturizing ingredient.

"If you're purchasing a single-ingredient item then you're probably going to be fine in using a budget alternative or a product which is very affordable because there's not much that can be problematic," she says.

'Don't Be Swayed by the Packaging'

However the specialists also recommend consumers check details and note that higher-priced products are sometimes worth the additional cost.

With luxury skincare, you're not just paying for the name and promotion - often the increased price tag also is due to the ingredients and their quality, the strength of the active ingredient, the science utilized to produce the product, and studies into the products' performance, Dr Belmo explains.

Facialist she argues it's valuable thinking about how certain alternatives can be priced so at a low cost.

In some cases, she says they might have bulking agents that lack as many positive effects for the skin, or the materials might not be as high-quality.

"The major question mark is 'Why is it so low-priced?'" she says.

Expert McGlynn notes on occasion he's purchased beauty products that appear similar to a established label but the product itself has "little similarity to the original".

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

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For advanced products or ones with ingredients that can aggravate the complexion if they're not made correctly, such as retinoids or vitamin C, Dr Bhate suggests using medical-grade brands.

The expert says these typically have been subjected to expensive studies to assess how effective they are.

Beauty products need to be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, says expert another professional.

If the company advertises about the efficacy of the item, it needs research to back it up, "however the manufacturer doesn't always have to perform the trials" and can instead cite testing conducted by other companies, she says.

Check the Ingredients List of the Container

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

Components on the list of the container are ordered by quantity. "The baddies that you should avoid… is your mineral oil, your SLS, parfum, benzel peroxide" being {high up