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Rachael Parnell

After discovering one shopper found out a supermarket was launching a new skincare range that appeared akin to offerings from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

The shopper dashed to her closest store to buy the store-brand face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a tiny percentage of the £240 price tag of the luxury brand 50ml item.

The smooth blue packaging and gold cap of each products look remarkably similar. And though she has never tried the premium cream, she claims she's pleased by the dupe so far.

She has been buying lookalike products from popular shops and supermarkets for years, and she's in good company.

Over a 25% of UK consumers say they've bought a skincare or makeup lookalike. This increases to 44 percent among millennials and Gen Z, based on a recent study.

Alternatives are skincare products that imitate well-known companies and present budget-friendly substitutes to luxury items. They typically have alike labels and design, but in some cases the ingredients can vary considerably.

Victoria Woollaston

'Expensive Is Not Necessarily Better'

Skincare professionals contend many alternatives to premium labels are good standard and help make skincare less expensive.

"I don't think costlier is invariably superior," states skin specialist one expert. "Not every budget skincare brand is inferior - and not all high-end skincare product is the top."

"Some [dupes] are truly excellent," says Scott McGlynn, who hosts a program with famous people.

Many of the products modeled on luxury brands "sell out so rapidly, it's just insane," he remarks.

Scott McGlynn

Medical expert Ross Perry believes dupes are suitable to use for "basic skincare" like moisturisers and face washes.

"These products will serve a purpose," he comments. "These items will handle the basics to a acceptable level."

A consultant dermatologist, advises you can spend less when searching for single-ingredient items like HA, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're purchasing a simple product then you're probably going to be alright in using a dupe or something which is very inexpensive because there's minimal that can be problematic," she says.

'Don't Be Influenced by the Container'

However the experts also recommend consumers do their research and state that higher-priced products are occasionally worth the extra money.

With high-end skincare, you're not only covering the name and promotion - sometimes the elevated cost also is due to the components and their quality, the potency of the active ingredient, the technology utilized to develop the item, and trials into the item's effectiveness, she says.

Skin therapist another professional suggests it's important questioning how certain alternatives can be sold so inexpensively.

Occasionally, she states they might contain bulking agents that lack as numerous benefits for the skin, or the ingredients might not be as well sourced.

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

Commentator Scott admits on occasion he's purchased beauty products that look comparable to a big-name brand but the item has "no resemblance to the original".

"Don't be fooled by the outer appearance," he warned.

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For more complicated products or those with ingredients that can aggravate the skin if they're not formulated correctly, such as retinols or vitamin C serums, she suggests using research-backed companies.

The expert states these will likely have been subjected to costly trials to evaluate how successful they are.

Beauty products must be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, notes expert another professional.

When the company advertises about the performance of the item, it needs data to support it, "however the manufacturer doesn't necessarily have to do the trials" and can alternatively use studies conducted by other firms, she says.

Read the Ingredients List of the Bottle

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

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