From a young age many of us will have been taught to take good care of our skin, stocking up on beauty products, creams and serums in a bid to keep it at its best.
But it turns out you may not need to spend a fortune on skincare, as a number of supermarkets are offering budget 'dupes' of iconic items.
Lidl recently impressed us with their £1.49 take on Charlotte Tilbury's Magic Cream and now Aldi has also thrown their hat into the ring with dupes of popular Bobbi Brown items.
The company has added a new primer to its Lacura range, inspired by Bobbi Brown's Vitamin Enriched Eye Base - and they're bringing back their sell-out dupe for the Vitamin Enriched Face Base too.
Eager to see how the cheap skincare items held up against the pricier products, I put them to the test and I have to say I was left gobsmacked by the results.
I've always been a Bobbi Brown fan, having used their shimmer bricks religiously in my early 20s, but as I've gotten older and become savvier with money, I've been put off by the prices.
A 50ml pot of Bobbi Brown's Face Base will set you back around £40 (depending on where you purchase it from), while a 15ml pot of their Eye Base has prices starting from £30 to £38.
The Lacura dupes of these are both £4.99 each, which is instantly much more comforting to my wallet - but are they actually worth buying?
The packaging might not be as fancy as the branded versions, but it's what's inside that counts and both the Lacura Vitabase primers look and smell great.
They have the consistency and appearance of whipped butter and they melt into the skin so easily, absorbing quickly, and leaving my face and under eyes feeling hydrated and fresh.
As someone with oily skin, it can be a real challenge to find a moisturiser or primer that doesn't make me shinier/cause breakouts, but the Aldi products worked well for me, over the seven days of testing.
The Bobbi Brown Face Base in comparison was much creamier and took longer to sink into the skin, which might make some people look nice and glowy, but for me was simply extra shine I didn't want or need.
I also found that the Bobbi Brown products smelled a little more like sun cream, whereas Aldi's ones were almost citrusy in scent, which was another big tick in their column.
For £4.99 I was very impressed with Aldi's Lacura Vitabase primers (face and eye) and think they make really good dupes of the higher-end products. They're by no means identical, but if you can't afford Bobbi Brown, this is certainly the one to buy instead.
If you want to give it a go for yourself, the primers will be back in store from May 18 - but you'll need to be quick, as the Face Primer sold out in mere days when it first launched last year and I can see it happening again this time around.
A few other popular items are also returning to the Lacura range soon, including two Glowing Base CC Serums (£4.99) and a Collagen Lip Oil (£3.49).
The serums are intended to give a glowy look to the skin while also providing hydration and colour correction. They come in two shares, Tulip (a soft pink colour) and Peach (a golden shimmer).
While the serums look beautiful in their bottles, I found them quite underwhelming to use. The peach colour didn't give me the sun-kissed glow I'd hoped for and was barely noticeable on my skin.
The tulip one was a bit better for my complexion, but still only provided a subtle pink/silvery shimmer. I think in future I'll stick with my trusty Rare Beauty liquid highlighter.
The lip oil, however, was by far my favourite product of them all.
It smells good thanks to the Shea Butter and it has a fun roller-ball applicator which helps it glide onto the lips - and as an added bonus, the roller-ball always feels cold, as if it's just come out of the fridge, which is a nice treat.
Would you swap your Bobbi Brown products for Aldi ones? Let us know in the comments below.
