One of the biggest fallacies in beauty is that any product available with ingredients similar to the more expensive option (aka “cheating”) provides the same benefits for half the price.

However, it is much more complicated than just looking at the back of the bottle. “I really think formulation matters, and sometimes dupes can have similar ingredients but not nearly the same quality,” says Bhanusali.

He adds, “Ingredient quality can vary from supplier to supplier, as can the percentages used in the recipe.” So, even if an expensive serum contains many of the same ingredients as an affordable serum, that doesn’t automatically mean the quality is as comparable.

This is all to say, if cheating offers the same benefits as the more expensive option, why not save money? But if you No You like the cheaper version, it may be due to the quality inside the bottle and how your skin reacts to different formulations.

So, if you’ve tried a silly alternative to your favorite moisturizer and found it wasn’t quite as effective, you might want to settle for a higher-quality formula.