High-Street Skincare Alternatives Might Save Consumers Hundreds. However, Do Budget Beauty Items Really Work?
Rachael Parnell
Upon hearing a consumer learned a supermarket was selling a new beauty line that seemed similar to offerings from luxury brand Augustinus Bader, she was "super excited".
She hurried to her closest store to buy the Lacura face cream for under ÂŁ9 for 50ml - a fraction of the ÂŁ240 of the Augustinus Bader 50ml cream.
The streamlined blue packaging and gold cap of both products look strikingly similar. Although she has not tested the premium cream, she states she's satisfied by the alternative so far.
Rachael has been purchasing beauty alternatives from high street stores and supermarkets for a long time, and she's not alone.
More than a quarter of UK consumers state they've bought a beauty or cosmetic dupe. This jumps to nearly half among 18-34 year olds, as per a February study.
Lookalikes are beauty items that imitate bigger name brands and provide budget-friendly substitutes to luxury products. These products frequently have alike branding and containers, but sometimes the ingredients can differ significantly.
Victoria Woollaston
'Costly Isn't Always Superior'
Beauty experts say some substitutes to premium labels are good standard and help make skincare cheaper.
"I don't think costlier is necessarily more effective," comments skin specialist a doctor. "Not every affordable product line is inferior - and not all high-end beauty item is the finest."
"Certain [dupes] are truly impressive," says a skincare commentator, who presents a show about public figures.
Numerous of the products based on luxury labels "run out so rapidly, it's just crazy," he says.
Scott McGlynn
Skin specialist another professional argues dupes are acceptable to use for "simple routines" like moisturisers and face washes.
"These products will serve a purpose," he says. "They will handle the essentials to a reasonable level."
Another skin doctor, suggests you can cut costs when seeking simple-formula products like hyaluronic acid, Vitamin B3 and a moisturizing ingredient.
"If you're buying a single-ingredient item then you're likely going to be alright in opting for a lookalike or something which is fairly inexpensive because there's minimal that can cause issues," she adds.
'Don't Be Sold by the Container'
Yet the experts also advise shoppers check details and state that more expensive products are at times worth the extra money.
With high-end beauty products, you're not only paying for the name and marketing - at times the elevated price also is due to the components and their grade, the potency of the effective element, the research employed to produce the item, and tests into the item's performance, the expert notes.
Beauty expert Rhian Truman suggests it's valuable thinking about how certain alternatives can be priced so inexpensively.
In some cases, she believes they may contain less effective components that lack as many advantages for the complexion, or the materials might not be as carefully selected.
"The big question mark is 'How is it so cheap?'" she says.
Podcast host McGlynn notes on occasion he's bought beauty products that look similar to a well-known label but the actual formula has "little similarity to the luxury product".
"Don't be sold by the outer appearance," he warned.
SimpleImages/Getty Images
For advanced products or those with ingredients that can irritate the skin if they're not created properly, such as retinols or vitamin C, she suggests using research-backed brands.
She says these typically have been subjected to costly studies to evaluate how effective they are.
Skincare products are required to be evaluated before they can be marketed in the UK, says consultant dermatologist Emma Wedgeworth.
When the company makes claims about the performance of the product, it requires research to back it up, "but the brand does not necessarily have to perform the testing" and can alternatively reference evidence completed by other companies, she adds.
Read the Ingredients List of the Pack
Are there any ingredients that could suggest a product is poor?
Components on the list of the bottle are ordered by quantity. "Potential irritants that you should look out for… is your petroleum-derived oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, parfum, benzoyl peroxide" being {high up
