How do skincare dupes compare to luxury brands?

Rachael Parnell was “super excited” when she heard Aldi was selling a new skincare range similar to products from luxury brand Augustinus Bader.

She ran to the nearest store to buy the Lacura face cream, £8.49 for 50ml; this was a fraction of the £240 price tag of the Augustinus Bader 50ml product.

The stylish blue tube and gold cap of both products look quite similar. Although Rachael has never tried this high-end cream, she says she’s been impressed with the product so far.

The BBC reached out to Aldi about the similarity of the product packaging but had no comment.

Rachael has been buying skincare dupes from high street shops and supermarkets for years and she’s not alone.

More than a quarter of UK shoppers say they have purchased a dupe of skincare or make-up. This rate rises to 44% among those aged 18-34, according to a Barclays survey conducted in February.

Dupes are skincare products that mimic larger brands and offer budget-friendly alternatives to higher-end products. They often have similar names and packaging, but in some cases the ingredients can differ significantly.

Rachael, 34, from Warwickshire, says she is impressed by the low prices of budget alternatives and says the quality is generally good.

When asked about two cleansing balms she has purchased, one from a high-end brand and the other from a lower-priced equivalent, she says: “It’s the same for me, I can’t tell the difference.”

Skin care experts say some alternatives to high-end brands are good quality and help make skin care more affordable.

“I don’t think more expensive is necessarily better,” says consultant dermatologist Sharon Belmo. “Not every budget skincare brand is bad, and not every luxury skincare product is the best.”

“Some [dupes] they’re absolutely amazing,” says Scott McGlynn, who hosts a podcast in which he questions celebrities about their skin routines.

Many of the products inspired by luxury brands “sell so fast it’s just crazy,” he says.

Aesthetics and dermatology doctor Ross Perry thinks dupes are appropriate to use for “basic skin care” such as moisturizers and cleansers.

“Dupes will serve a purpose,” he says. “They will get the basics done to a reasonable level.”

Consultant dermatologist Ketaki Bhate thinks you can save money by looking for single-ingredient products such as hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and squalene.

“If you’re buying a single-ingredient product, then it’s probably OK to use a dupe or something fairly low-cost because there’s very little that can go wrong,” he says.

But professionals also advise consumers to do their research and say more expensive products are sometimes worth the extra money.

With luxury skincare, you don’t just pay for branding and marketing; Sometimes the higher price tag may also be due to the ingredients and their quality, the concentration of the active ingredient, the technology used to develop the product, and studies on the effectiveness of the products, he says.

Facialist Rhian Truman says it’s worth considering how some dupes can be sold so cheaply.

In some cases, she says, it may contain fillers that don’t have much benefit for the skin, or the ingredients may not be well-sourced.

“The biggest question mark is ‘How is it so cheap?'” he says.

Podcast host Scott says that on occasion, he has purchased skincare products that resemble a famous brand, but the product itself “bears no resemblance to the original.”

“Don’t be sold on packaging,” he added.

Dr Bhate recommends sticking to more specialized brands for products like retinol or vitamin C, which are more complex products or contain ingredients that can irritate the skin if they’re not formulated correctly.

He says these will likely undergo expensive trials to evaluate how effective they are.

Consultant dermatologist Emma Wedgeworth says skincare products should be tested before being sold in the UK.

If the brand makes claims about the product’s effectiveness, it needs data to back it up, “but the seller doesn’t necessarily have to do the testing,” he says, and can reference tests done by other brands instead.

Are there any ingredients that might indicate a product is low quality?

The ingredients on the back of the bottle are ordered by quantity. “The bad ones you want to watch out for…are your mineral oil, your sodium lauryl sulfate, your perfume, your benzel peroxide,” which is high on the ingredients list, Ms. Truman says.

The BBC published the ingredients list of two 2% BHA salicylic acid toners with similar packaging from Dr. He sent it to Bhate. One usually sells for six times the price of the other.

Dr Bhate says the active ingredient list in both products “looks pretty similar, there are no red flags” but notes that the products have different formulations, containing solvents and humectants that break down the ingredients and hydrate the skin respectively.

“This will likely lead to variation in performance between the two products,” he says.

Dr Bhate also looked at the ingredient lists of two similarly branded serums, one from a luxury skincare brand and the other from a supermarket.

Although they have “similar packaging,” he says the affordable product “doesn’t look very similar in terms of ingredients” and the high-end formula “seems more complex with barrier lipids and more marine extracts.”

But for many people, trying to analyze the ingredients list of a moisturizer, cleanser, or serum bottle can be overwhelming.

“Sometimes looking at the back of a skin-care product ingredient list feels like taking a chemistry class,” says pharmacist and aesthetic practitioner Riya Asher.

He recommends focusing on how high on the ingredient list the active ingredient that triggers the effect, such as retinol or vitamin C, is. If you’re not sure which active ingredient is, he recommends doing your research online.

And Dr Belmo says when scanning the backs of bottles, you should focus on your skincare concerns, like avoiding oils for acne-prone skin or staying fragrance-free for sensitive skin.

Victoria Woollaston posts reviews of skin care products on her website Mamabella.

He tried both the Augustinus Bader serum and the new product sold by Aldi, and told the BBC that the supermarket serum felt thinner, but because Augustinus Bader’s serum is stronger, it could cause irritation in some people.

Victoria thinks a “perfect storm” is brewing for skincare dupes to become popular, as the cost of living crisis pushes shoppers to look for value for money and people become more interested in the ingredients in skincare products.

She says these companies aren’t stealing customers from luxury beauty brands; in his view, most people who buy budget alternatives would never end up purchasing high-quality products in the first place.

“My testing over the years shows that value and effectiveness can 100% co-exist,” says Victoria.