Supermarket Skincare Alternatives Can Save Shoppers a Bundle. But Do Affordable Beauty Items Really Work?

Rachael Parnell

When Rachael Parnell found out a supermarket was offering a new product collection that looked akin to products from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".

She rushed to her closest store to buy the supermarket face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 cost of the luxury brand 50ml product.

Its sleek blue tube and gold cap of each products look noticeably comparable. Although Rachael has not used the premium cream, she claims she's pleased by the alternative so far.

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

Over a quarter of UK consumers report they've tried a beauty or cosmetic lookalike. This jumps to 44 percent among younger adults, as per a February study.

Lookalikes are skincare products that imitate established brands and present affordable substitutes to luxury products. These products typically have similar branding and containers, but occasionally the components can vary considerably.

Victoria Woollaston

'High-Priced Is Not Necessarily Superior'

Skincare professionals argue some dupes to premium labels are good quality and aid make beauty routines cheaper.

"In my opinion more expensive is invariably better," states skin specialist one expert. "Not every affordable beauty label is inferior - and not every high-end skincare product is the finest."

"A number of [dupes] are truly amazing," adds a podcast host, who hosts a podcast with celebrities.

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

Scott McGlynn

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

"Alternatives will be effective," he says. "These items will do the essentials to a satisfactory degree."

Ketaki Bhate, advises you can save money when you're looking for simple-formula products like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and a moisturizing ingredient.

"When you're buying a single-ingredient product then you're probably going to be alright in opting for a budget alternative or something which is quite low cost because there's not much that can go wrong," she says.

'Do Not Be Swayed by the Box'

However the specialists also suggest consumers do their research and say that costlier items are occasionally worthy of the premium price.

Regarding high-end skincare, you're not just funding the brand and promotion - often the elevated price also comes from the formula and their grade, the potency of the effective element, the science utilized to develop the item, and tests into the products' effectiveness, the expert explains.

Facialist another professional argues it's important thinking about how certain alternatives can be priced so cheaply.

Occasionally, she states they could contain filler ingredients that don't have as many advantages for the complexion, or the components might not be as well sourced.

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

Podcast host McGlynn admits on occasion he's bought beauty products that appear similar to a big-name brand but the actual formula has "no connection to the original".

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

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For more complicated products or those with ingredients that can inflame the complexion if they're not made accurately, such as retinoids or vitamin C serums, Dr Bhate suggests using research-backed brands.

She states these probably have been subjected to expensive tests to assess how efficacious they are.

Skincare items need to be assessed before they can be marketed in the UK, says skin doctor another professional.

If the company states about the performance of the product, it requires research to verify it, "but the brand does not always have to perform the testing" and can alternatively cite testing completed by different firms, she clarifies.

Read the Ingredients List of the Container

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

Components on the label of the bottle are ordered by amount. "Ingredients to avoid that you should avoid… is your petroleum-derived oil, your SLS, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up