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Rachael Parnell

When a consumer heard a supermarket was offering a new product collection that appeared comparable to items from premium company Augustinus Bader, she was "incredibly excited".

She hurried to her local shop to buy the Lacura face cream for under £9 for 50ml - a fraction of the £240 price tag of the high-end 50ml cream.

The smooth blue tube and gold lid of each items look noticeably alike. And though Rachael has not tested the luxury cream, she says she's pleased by the product so far.

Rachael has been purchasing beauty alternatives from popular shops and grocery stores for years, and she's part of a trend.

More than a fourth of UK shoppers report they've purchased a beauty or cosmetic alternative. This rises to 44 percent among 18-34 year olds, as per a February study.

Dupes are skincare products that copy well-known labels and provide budget-friendly substitutes to luxury items. They often have similar labels and design, but occasionally the formulas can vary significantly.

Victoria Woollaston

'Costly Isn't Always Better'

Beauty professionals say certain alternatives to high-end labels are good quality and help make skincare less expensive.

"I don't think more expensive is invariably superior," comments dermatology expert Sharon Belmo. "Not every affordable product line is bad - and not all high-end skincare product is the top."

"Some [dupes] are absolutely impressive," says Scott McGlynn, who presents a program about public figures.

Numerous of the items modeled on high-end labels "run out so quickly, it's just unbelievable," he says.

Scott McGlynn

Skin specialist Ross Perry thinks dupes are acceptable to use for "fundamental products" like moisturisers and cleansers.

"These products will be effective," he says. "They will perform the fundamentals to a reasonable level."

Ketaki Bhate, advises you can save money when you're looking for simple-formula items like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and squalane.

"When you're purchasing a simple item then you're probably going to be alright in using a budget alternative or a product which is quite inexpensive because there's very little that can cause issues," she says.

'Do Not Be Sold by the Packaging'

But the professionals also advise buyers investigate and state that more expensive products are at times worth the additional cost.

With premium beauty products, you're not only paying for the label and promotion - often the elevated price also stems from the ingredients and their standard, the strength of the key component, the technology utilized to produce the item, and tests into the products' performance, the expert notes.

Skin therapist another professional says it's worth considering how certain alternatives can be sold so at a low cost.

Sometimes, she states they may include less effective components that don't have as significant positive effects for the complexion, or the materials might not be as well sourced.

"One key question mark is 'Why is it so inexpensive?'" she says.

Expert Scott says in some cases he's bought skincare items that look comparable to a big-name label but the product itself has "little similarity to the premium version".

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

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For advanced items or ones with components that can irritate the skin if they're not made accurately, such as retinols or vitamin C, she suggests using more specialised brands.

She says these typically have been subjected to costly tests to assess how efficacious they are.

Beauty items need to be assessed before they can be sold in the UK, says consultant dermatologist another professional.

If the company makes claims about the efficacy of the product, it must have evidence to back it up, "but the manufacturer doesn't always have to do the trials" and can alternatively cite testing conducted by different brands, she clarifies.

Read the Back of the Bottle

Is there any ingredients that could suggest a item is low-quality?

Ingredients on the back of the container are listed by concentration. "The baddies that you want to avoid… is your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, fragrance, benzel peroxide" being {high up