by Try to copy Charlotte Tilbury and you’ll be met with an error message – and hilarious social media banter.
In TikTok last month the brand posted a bottle of the brand’s Hollywood Flawless Filter wedded into a photocopier, and then the machine ripped out papers with messages like “Error! Cannot be copied,” and “Legends cannot be copied.”
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However, the comments from TikTok users tell a different story. “I have [E.l.f. Cosmetics] because Charlotte Tilbury is over my budget,” read one comment.
“[MCoBeauty Flawless Glow] best,” read another liked by 319 people. The reel itself had more than 57,000 likes and 200 comments.
In fact, Charlotte Tilbury is one of a handful of brands dealing with dupe culture – the TikTok-based phenomenon where consumers look for inexpensive imitations of industry hero products. Last year, Olaplex launched a campaign denying that its many patents could be legally duplicated in cheaper formulas. Regardless, this trend is now cross-category, with both brands and retailers taking notice.
“It’s always been around, but momentum has picked up in the last few years, since TikTok became popular during the pandemic,” said Emilie Hood, an analyst at Euromonitor, who attributes the rise of dupes to two main factors.
“No matter where you are in the world, everyone’s budgets are affected by COVID, inflation and geopolitical issues. There is also gambling where consumers enjoy trying to find dupes,” she said. “It’s tough on the brands that are being pushed because they’re investing in innovation and new ideas, there’s so much funding. But dupes are good for the democratization of beauty.”
At the same time, the stigma around dupes has spread, which has helped their rise.
“About eight years ago, there was a dupe culture emerging from YouTube creators publicizing cheaper alternatives to high-end beauty products,” said Alex Rawitz, director of research and insights, CreatorIQ. “It’s now a viable concept. The main change is that it’s not just the creators who are propagating the concept – the brands themselves have now followed suit. It is a legitimate concept through which a brand can express itself in the market.”
According to CreatorIQ data, the top beauty brands doubling in earned media value are Charlotte Tilbury, Rare Beauty and Sol de Janeiro; Others mentioned with the word “dupe” include Elf Cosmetics, L’Oréal Paris, MCoBeauty, Maybelline New York, Bath & Body Works and Milani.
“In the case of a brand that’s being duped, or if you’re trying to get other brands to put out dupe versions of your own products, it’s wise to lean in,” Rawitz said. “As we see from our market research, the dupe phenomenon is on the rise, and as a brand, you don’t want to stay away from any popular conversation on social media. It is not a controversy that your brand is being duplicated. It shows a sense of desirability that people want this product and not necessarily be able to afford it.”
MCoBeauty, which is from Australia, arrived Stateside less than a year ago. “We’re still a baby in the US, but we’re way ahead of our growth curve. We are growing very quickly,” said Meridith Rojas, MCoBeauty chief marketing officer. “We’re starting to break into the scene through the same recipe that worked in Australia, and that’s leading to a dupe culture. It’s not all of us, but it’s a big part of who we are.”
Tapping into a TikTok post in which Bethenny Frankel called the brand the “Steve Madden of beauty,” Rojas said the brand knows more about consumer habits than anything else. “We are the first to adopt [duping] to a place and really say what people want. They want the formula, they want the 360-degree luxury experience in addition to a luxury product. That’s where we’re achieving cult status.”
A quick scroll through the MCoBeauty bestsellers page on their website shows their Flawless Glow Limestone Skin Filter, with a beveled cap like Charlotte Tilbury’s; its Miracle Anti-Ageing Repair Serum, in a square brown apothecary bottle that resembles Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex, and rectangular bottles of Super Glow Bronzing Drops and Blush Drops that share similar shapes to the format given by Drunk Elephant in .
“First of all, we’re very careful and making sure we can do everything we do,” Rojas said. “The speed at which we can think or comment in a product is really fast when it comes to industry standards. I often say that accessibility is the new innovation.”
In some cases, Hood reasoned, dupe culture could move the needle for the industry in ways beyond sales. “L’Oréal makes many partnerships with ingredient companies to develop more sustainable ingredients. If that technology becomes more widespread and enters the wider industry, that’s brilliant,” she said. “But there is a risk that the industry will become a bit stale.”
“We haven’t had a major chemical breakthrough in a long time,” agreed Susan Scafidi, founder of the Fashion Law Institute. “It’s about reformulation and innovation at the edge rather than a big paradigm shift, and the extent to which those things can be copied and diluted.”
In the United States specifically, dupe culture doesn’t necessarily have a negative impact on the brands being imitated, according to industry experts.
“The item being duped doesn’t necessarily lose sales,” said Larissa Jensen, senior vice president of beauty and industry at Circana. “The consumer who can afford the original will continue to buy. The consumer who cannot afford it will buy the cheapest item. It’s two different consumers.”
But globally, the picture is murkier.
“When the original brands lose out that price is high enough that it’s not going to be accessible,” Hood said. “It has to be much better to demand a high price, and it has to speak to that premium level. And there must be an added benefit to consumers sticking to it.”
Legally, in the US “we’re dealing in the area of trademarks,” Scafidi said. “It is if the dupes are imitating the original product in such a way that consumers are confused. Dupes that are one step further away, the beauty equivalent of looking smaller, are annoying brands because it encourages consumers to trade down. But if the consumer isn’t confused about what they’re getting, it’s not really illegal.”
Scafidi admitted that dupe culture exists on a spectrum with one being “completely fake” so that brands make comparisons and reinterpret packaging in more subtle ways. “In a dupe culture, we’ve evolved the illegals to free-ride on the brand in a way that’s technically legal.”
That even includes naming duped products in packaging and marketing, which is legal if only used for comparison purposes, Scafidi said. “It’s nominal fair use,” she said. “If you’re using the name and you’re using it for comparison purposes, technically, that’s legal.”
Such examples include a perfume brand’s profile, which mentions the juices that inspired its product range on its website. “Inspired by [Maison Francis Kurkdjian]’s Baccarat Rouge 540,” says the description of the brand’s Ambery Saffron. The brand’s website says the Woody Sandalwood scent is “inspired by Le Labo’s Santal 33.”
Skincare Generics products, for example, have “Compared to: La Mer Crème de La Mer” on one moisturizer; and “Comparison to: Augustinus Bader The Rich Cream” on another. As for Walgreens’ new Premium Skin Care range that debuted in September, its Moisture Face Cream says “Compare to: Kiehl’s Ultra-Face Cream.”
“We know there is a demand for advanced skin care solutions that don’t break the bank,” said Heather Hughes, group vice president and general manager of health and beauty products, Walgreens, of the brand’s origin. “Compared to the current price of similar premium skin care products, Walgreens Premium Skin Care products are at least 50 percent cheaper.”
Wendy Liebmann, founder and chief executive of WSL Strategic Retail, noted that the phenomenon is not new, and also does not see it as taboo. “In the beauty industry, it brings more eyes and more sales,” she said. “The more people who have the opportunity to engage in beauty at any price point, the better for the industry as a whole.”
The challenges for retailers quickly come down to the bottom line. “It’s a bit of a nightmare,” Hood said. “Apart from dupes specifically, the difficulty is the trend cycle that accelerates so much. Planning and decision making throughout is difficult.”
Liebmann agreed that the issue was more than dupe products for retailers. “It’s not a dupe discussion – it’s an Instagram and TikTok discussion. We now have media that is controlled by the consumer, and the challenge for retailers in general is the ability to see what’s hot. You need to have a supply chain and marketing operation that says ‘this is hot.’ And you have to have a space designated and ready to go, rather than waiting 12 months to find out what can be put on the shelf.”
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