The Skin Nerd: Products with star power, without the Hollywood price tag
The phrase “dupe”, short for duplicate, is used in online beauty communities to signify that a product is similar to a more expensive counterpart.
In some walks of the beauty industry, this led to a “dupe culture”, where products are created specifically to be a more affordable alternative to a specific pricier counterpart.
This is both a great thing for those who want high-quality products to take care of their skin within their own budget, and a not-so-great-thing for the company who created the original formulation – formulating ain’t easy, you know!
When we glean information on many celebrity skincare routines, we end up seeing more zeroes on the end of product pricing than we would like to, and sometimes, these prices are justified for the quality of the product and ingredients within. There are certainly dupes out there that we can opt for to save some precious moola and yet have healthy, bright, clear, hydrated skin.
Let’s begin with something you may have been seeing a lot of in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar skincare routine videos (I know many out there must keep up with them as diligently as I) - Vintner’s Daughter Active Botanical Serum (€200, spacenk.com).
Beloved by Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts and many more, Vintner’s Daughter is an active botanical serum (it’s in the name) and is unique in that it’s a 100% botanical concentration with genuine anti-ageing benefits, made of extracts from conscious growers.
Certainly a worthy cause. The serum itself works to nourish, regenerate, soothe the skin and protect it with antioxidants – in the Nerd world, this is essentially what we expect from the majority of serums.
I speak about this product a lot (and have mentioned in this column before), but I believe in terms of ethics and what the product is, the Nunaïa Nourishing Radiance Serum (€79, nunaia.com) carries out the same purposes.
Like Vintner’s Daughter, it has avocado oil, evening primrose seed extract, rosehip seed extract and sunflower seed oil, all of which are vitamin and fatty acid rich to nourish, soothe and hydrate the skin.
Nunaïa’s serum also contains maracuja seed oil to brighten, chia seed to reduce the appearance of inflammation and sacha inchi, to maintain natural skin cell regeneration.
Acid exfoliants are something that I firmly believe have a place in any good skincare routine, alongside other vital skin nutrients such as vitamins, good fats and hydrators, and the Dr Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Universal Daily Peel (€102, 30 pads, cultbeauty.com) are lauded by Naomi Campbell, Selena Gomez and Constance Wu as their go-to exfoliator.
The first step in this 2-step daily treatment contains a blend of salicylic acid, lactic acid, mandelic acid and malic acid, so your oil-soluble BHA plus water-soluble AHAs for a boost of exfoliation. Your second step contains retinol and tonnes of potent antioxidants including vitamin C and resveratrol.
In this, you’re not going to find a close dupe in one product – personally, I think Dr Dennis Gross products are spectacular.
But for a similar effect at a lower price point that will last a bit longer, the Murad Replenishing Multi-Acid Peel (€55, murad.co.uk) contains a blend of glycolic acid, lactic acid and malic acid, with salicylic acid and tranexamic acid (a potent brightener).
I personally do not believe in this level of exfoliation every single day for most people, with the exception of those who have slightly more photodamaged skin, so use products like these once or twice a week.
The Nerdie Pick
In creating Skin Veg, we were careful not to create a dupe of anything available on the market.
If we’re honest, hyaluronic acid serums are nothing new but my goal was to create an anti-ageing hyaluronic acid serum that simultaneously soothes skin and protects it from environmental stressors while helping products that follow to penetrate. A tall ask, yet Skin Veg certainly answers.
Skin Veg is a boost of hydration and protection that I feel all could benefit from having in their routine, AM & PM, and is tested for use around the eye area so that it can double as your eye gel.
Skingredients Skin Veg Pre-Serum (€42, skingredients.com and selected online stockists) In creating Skin Veg, we were careful not to create a dupe of anything available on the market.
If we’re honest, hyaluronic acid serums are nothing new but my goal was to create an anti-ageing hyaluronic acid serum that simultaneously soothes skin and protects it from environmental stressors while helping products that follow to penetrate.
A tall ask, yet Skin Veg certainly answers.
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