MAKEUP DUPES UK: CHEAP ALTERNATIVES TO CHARLOTTE TILBURY, NARS, HUDA BEAUTY AND MORE THAT ARE JUST AS GOOD
When it comes to finding the perfect foundation, lipstick, or eyeshadow many of us assume we have to spend big but this isn’t always the case. Far from it, and this is where makeup dupes come in. We regularly find cheap makeup and skincare that outperforms its premium rivals, sometimes coming in at five times cheaper. You can read about these in our best cheap makeup guide, as well as in our countless Best Buys.
However, it’s one thing to uncover a hidden gem when you’re not searching for it. It’s quite another to find a cheap dupe that looks or performs as well as your favourite individual makeup items.
We’ve searched the web to find the best dupes for bestselling products from the likes of Charlotte Tilbury, Hourglass, NARS, and many come in better than half price.
mamabella tip: What you’ll likely find with buying cheaper makeup, as a rule, is that it doesn’t always have the staying power of more expensive makeup. The pigment or finish may be identical but you may find it wears off quicker. If this is the case, use some of the money you’re saving on cheaper makeup by investing in the best primer, or the best setting spray. This way, you don’t need to sacrifice a long-lasting finish for a cheaper price.
THE ICON: Glossier recently sent fans into a tizzy when it dropped a 50% discount code out of nowhere. Sadly, the code has since expired but if you’re looking for a way to get cheap Glossier, we have the next best thing. Glossier makeup dupes! When it comes to a foundation that looks effortless and natural – almost acting like a second skin, you can’t go wrong with the fantastic Glossier Perfecting Skin Tint (£20). It gives a flawless dewy look to the skin, giving a sheer, light coverage for even the most subtle of no-makeup days. This dewyness comes from diamond powder and it has a buildable formula if you’re looking for extra coverage for the blemishes.
THE DUPE: The Ordinary Serum Foundation (£5.50) is such an amazing Glossier dupe, we’d even go as far as to say that it’s better than the original. It gives an identical, buildable, light to medium coverage as the Skin Tint. It’s as lightweight and breathable as its more expensive alternative, and gives a natural finish. The reason we believe it’s better than Glossier’s version is that it’s available in 21 shades, verse Glossier’s rather poor 12, and it comes with SPF 15. It’s also one of the best foundations for mature skin we’ve ever seen. All for a little more than a fiver!
THE ICON: Charlotte Tilbury’s iconic Pillow Talk (£25) is so popular, one is sold every two minutes (according to the brand). This is because Pillow Talk is a matte nude-pink lipstick that is universal for all skin types. We do love Charlotte Tilbury at mamabella but the price range can be a little high.
THE DUPE: Revolution’s range of matte lipsticks includes a number of cheap alternatives to Charlotte Tilbury’s bestseller. Choose from the shades Heart Race (£4), Icon (£5), or Chauffeur (£6.45). These are the closest we’ve found that comes to the tone, texture and finish of Charlotte Tilbury’s Pillow Talk. Each one is highly pigmented, glides on smoothly and they last for hours – unless you’re tucking into a sandwich or similar, of course! We’ve included a couple of options because your skin tone or budget might suit one over the other, but they all are fantastic dupes for Pillow Talk. All while saving yourself up to a staggering £21 or 84%!
THE ICON: We love Glossier Boy Brow (£14) because it gives our brows an instant fluffy groomed brow look. It’s made of conditioning agents that give a flexible hold and it doesn’t flake. We love how Glossier also recently bought out an Auburn shade. The reason it’s so popular is that it picks up even the smallest of hairs to ensure a fuller looking brow, without making them look fake.
THE DUPE: e.l.f Cosmetics has a wide range of amazing makeup products, it’s why it’s one of the best cheap makeup brands around. Its Glossier Boy Brow dupe is called WOW Brow Gel (£4.50) and it has five shades to choose from. Just like Glossier’s version, it gives full, voluminous natural-looking brows. There are fibres infused in the brow gel to add some extra strands of hair to give that fuller look to your brows and we love how it actually gives a really good shade to our brows without looking too heavy.
THE ICON: Charlotte’s Magic Away Concealer (£24) gives incredible full coverage for the flawless look. Charlotte reportedly worked on the formula for this full-coverage concealer for five years and it shows. It reduces the appearance of dark circles, blemishes and redness. The finish is natural and radiant. We like how the concealer stretches and keeps the under-eye area smooth – our one complaint is that it’s quite thick so can take a bit of work to blend out. This isn’t ideal for mature skin.
THE DUPE: Revolution has done it again! Its new Makeup Revolution Eye Bright Illuminating Under Eye Concealer (£8), which launched in the UK on 27 January 2021, has already upset the apple cart when it comes to Charlotte Tilbury’s Magic Away Concealer. This eye-brightening concealer comes in 15 shades and is specifically targeted for under eye dark circles. We love that this concealer contains Vitamin C, so it helps treat the eye area and brighten in naturally while giving you medium coverage. The texture is more creamy than Charlotte Tilbury’s thicker version and blends more easily. It’s also £16 cheaper!
THE ICON: This dupe is so good, we can’t get over how much money you can save for an almost identical item! Huda Beauty’s New Nude eyeshadow palette (£56) is our absolute favourite palette – and was the most popular product on Black Friday according to Cosmetify data – for good reason. It’s incredibly versatile, has shades to suit all skin tones, contains a mix of creams, mattes and shimmers and applies with very little fall.
THE DUPE: The Wilko Body Collection range is a superb vegan makeup range full of foundations, eyeshadow palettes, lipsticks and more, all coming in at around a tenner or less. Its large eyeshadow palette in the shade Glamour (£6) is near-on identical to Huda Beauty’s New Nude palette, even down to the location of matching shades within the palette itself. It has a remarkably similar selection of tones and shades, as well as formulas. It’s a little less pigmented, and tends to fall a little more than the more expensive original but lasts a long time, and is a staggering £50 cheaper.
THE ICON: A remastered take on the original Rose Gold Palette (£56) from Huda Beauty is an absolute classic. It contains 18 highly versatile shades in a mix of rich mattes and pigmented shimmers ranging from brown nudes all the way up to deep berry reds. There’s even a black – which is unusual for an eyeshadow palette.
THE DUPE: We have to admit, it was a somewhat a tricky task to find a suitable Huda Beauty Rose Gold dupe but we think this palette from Revolution Pro Regeneration Palette Revelation (£8.99) comes the closest in matching the range of 18 shades found on the original. It has warm golds, nude and pink shades, and it similarly features a mix of mattes and shimmers that closely resemble the tones and shades seen on Huda Beauty’s version. Even black.
THE ICON: NARS iconic Orgasm range is full of matching and complementary lipsticks, lip glosses, highlighters, eyeshadows and lip balms. This NARS blusher (£25) is red/pink with a golden shimmer and we love it. It gives a flush of colour to your cheeks; the kind you get after sex. Hence the name!
THE DUPE: This NARS Orgasm X blusher dupe from Sleep MakeUP (£4.99) is uncanny, right down to the light shimmer of gold running through its red/pink. Sleek MakeUP is one of the best cheap makeup brands around because, despite being affordable, you don’t need to sacrifice too much on quality. This blusher glides on well and is highly pigmented, just like the NARS original.
THE ICON: Hourglass’ Veil Primer (£53) is one of the most luxurious primers out there. It has countless reviews of how perfect it is at priming the skin before makeup. It’s even good enough to wear on its own. Among its many benefits is that it’s oil-free, waterproof and it feels so light on your face. What’s more, it contains SPF 15, minimises pores and reduces fine lines.
THE DUPE: It’s hard to believe we have a dupe for the famous Hourglass Veil Primer, but NYX Angel Veil (£13) has very similar ingredients – sharing at least five including Cyclopentasiloxane, Isododecane, Alumina, Stearic Acid and Titanium Dioxide – that perform almost as well, for a staggering £40 less.
It feels as light on the skin as the Hourglass version and creates a great base for makeup. It’s also pretty decent at controlling oily areas of the skin.
The one downside, and is part of the reason why it’s so much cheaper, is that the NYX version contains Palmitic Acid which is found in palm oil.
THE ICON: Benefit is an OG when it comes to eyebrow products and its eyebrow pencil is one of the best in the range, and on the market. It’s no surprise that it’s a Benefit bestseller. The Benefit Precisely My Eyebrow Pencil (£22.50) comes in a good range of shades, creates natural-looking hair strokes and is smudge-proof for 12 hours.
THE DUPE: The NYX Micro Brow Pencil (£9) may not offer as many shades as Benefit but it performs just as well. It helps create full, thick-looking brows with just as much ease as the original. It also has an ultra-fine tip that recreates Benefit’s natural-looking strokes.
THE ICON: The NARS Climax mascara (£22) gets rave reviews – which includes us – for its innovative brush. Not only does it curve and dip in the middle, but its ribbed bristles pick up a perfect amount of product each time, giving an intense black colour with plenty of volume.
THE DUPE: If you saw the wand of the NARS Climax mascara next to that of Maybelline’s The Falsies Instant Lash Lift mascara (£10), you’d be forgiven for not being able to instantly tell the difference. It gives a very similar lift and volume. The only sacrifice you make is that it can take an extra coat to achieve the intense black colour you get from the original, but this is a minor inconvenience for the sake of saving £12 in our opinion.
THE ICON: Regular readers of mamabella will know that we love the IT Cosmetics CC+ Cream (£32). It leaves skin looking like, well, skin while providing full coverage along with sun protection of SPF 50. This CC Cream conceals dark spots, reduces the appearance of your pores and leaves the skin looking dewy and fresh. It also has built-in skin-boosting properties. It can feasibly replace at least four products in one, but £32 is still a bit steep, especially if you’re on a budget.
THE DUPE: We love that a high-street brand can hold its own against the likes of IT Cosmetics and that’s exactly what Maybelline achieves with its Dream Urban Cover (£10.99). It offers 20 shades, leaves skin looking natural, yet fully covered, and is buildable. Even the tubes are similar, and for such an affordable product we’re astounded that the Dream Urban Cover also comes with SPF 50. A true IT Cosmetics CC+ cream dupe.
THE ICON: Charlotte Tilbury sells 17 different versions of her £40 Luxury Palettes, each one offering a quadrant of shades designed to help you create an entire eyeshadow look with complementary colours and tones. Many of these are particularly suited for certain eye colours and this makes it easier to match and make a statement. One of our favourites, and one of the newest additions to the range, is the Walk Of No Shame palette (£40). It contains three semi shimmer and one shimmer shade, with a lovely mix of peach, champagne, sunset pink and berry blush crimson, which is like a rose gold sparkle.
THE DUPE: We can hardly believe just how well the e.l.f Bite-Size eyeshadows mirror the shades offered by the Charlotte Tilbury’s range. Especially when you consider that each four-pan palette costs just £3. The one that is most similar to Charlotte Tilbury’s Walk of No Shame palette is the Berry Bad (£3). What’s more, if you’re unsure if the range will suit you, e.l.f Cosmetics has its own Virtual Try-On for these eyeshadow palettes.
THE ICON: The famous Estée Lauder Double Wear foundation (£34) is a firm favourite for oily/combination skin types. Not only does it come in a fantastic 60 shades, each one promises 24-hour staying power. Double Wear leaves the skin with a matte finish, and the foundation is oil-free while keep shine, sweat and humidity to a minimum. It gives medium-to-full coverage and we rate it very highly. It’s why it appears on our best foundation, and best foundation for oily skin lists.
THE DUPE: Another great high-street brand that can match a premium brand is L’Oreal with its Infallible Pro Matte Foundation (£10.99). Like the Estée Lauder original, L’Oreal’s £10 version similarly gives 24-hour staying power, creates a matte finish and offers medium-to-full coverage. The formula gives a blurring effect while still giving a natural look to the skin. Infallible Pro Matte Foundation is also sweat-proof, heat-proof and transfer-proof. An absolute bargain and a great Double Wear dupe.
THE ICON: NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer gives great coverage as well giving a radiant finish, it’s a medium coverage concealer that is buildable. It gives a softer smoother complexion while covering dark circles and signs of fatigue. It’s a favourite for many makeup lovers.
THE DUPE: The NYX Professional Makeup HD Photogenic Concealer is just as creamy as the NARS original, it gives a medium to full coverage with a natural-looking finish. This concealer is perfect for building to full coverage without looking cakey, it helps blur out blemishes and pigmentation.
THE ICON: Becca has bought us 13 highlighters that complement all skin tone, and the universal shade of Champagne Pop (C Pop) (£30) is the bestselling of the bunch. Soft gold with pinky peach undertone, this highlighter is gorgeous and adds such a striking, yet natural, glow.
THE DUPE: Maybelline has four Face Studio Chrome Extreme Highlighters (£8.99) that give a metallic finish akin to that created by Becca’s original. The Molten Gold version is the closest to Champagne Pop and, thanks to Maybelline’s pearl pigments, it leaves a reflective finish for brilliant glowing skin.
