Are beauty dupes the same? 15 famous dupes, ingredient by ingredient
The 15 dupes the beauty press names most share a median 22% of the original's ingredient names, read 23 October 2026. La Mer's list holds 14 of NIVEA Creme's 16; 7 of 13 dupes list none of the original's hero ingredients.
Read on 23 October 2026, the ingredient lists of 15 famous luxury beauty products and the dupes the press paired them with shared a median 22% of their ingredient names; 3 of 15 pairs shared 30% or more, and 7 of 13 dupes listed none of the original's named hero ingredients.
Rarely on paper, and the label tells you less than it seems:
The typical pair shares 22% of its ingredient names. Only 3 of 15 reach 30%: Summer Fridays vs Trader Joe's (58%), Flawless Filter vs Halo Glow (32%), La Mer vs NIVEA Creme (31%).
The first five matter most, and 5 of 15 pairs share three or more of them. Labels list ingredients above 1% largest first; the rest can sit in any order.
Seven of 13 dupes list none of the original's hero ingredients, the ones the luxury brand names on its own page.
Cheaper per tube is not always cheaper per gram. The e.l.f. Holy Hydration! Lip Mask works out at $1.82/g, LANEIGE's Lip Sleeping Mask at $1.20/g.
None of this measures performance. A shared list says what is in both, not how much below 1%, nor how either wears. Use the five checks before you buy.
How much of the ingredient list does a dupe share with the original?
A median of 22%, counting every ingredient name on either list once. The closest pair is Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm (Vanilla) and Trader Joe's Lip Butter Balm (Vanilla Mint): 14 shared names, 58% overlap, and 3 of the first five in common. The least alike is Drunk Elephant Protini Polypeptide Cream against Bubble Slam Dunk Hydrating Moisturizer: 5 shared names out of 78, and the shared ones are water, glycerin, arginine, phenoxyethanol, tocopherol. Each pair below was named a dupe by at least one press article (linked in the table), and colour pigments are left out because they change with the shade.
Overlap is shared names divided by all names on either list. Long lists drag it down: Drunk Elephant Protini lists 58 names, so even if all 25 of Bubble's were on it, overlap could not pass 43%.
Why do the first five ingredients matter most?
Because they are the only part of the list ordered by amount you can lean on. US rules require a cosmetic's ingredients "in descending order of predominance" (21 CFR 701.3(a)), and paragraph (f) lets a brand list everything above 1% in that order, then everything at 1% or less "without respect to order of predominance", then colour additives. The EU rule in Regulation 1223/2009, Article 19(1)(g), says the same in fewer words: descending order of weight, and "Ingredients in concentrations of less than 1 % may be listed in any order" (text of the article, read 23 October 2026). No label says where the 1% line falls, so the first five is a cautious stand-in for what a formula is mostly made of, not a measurement.
The rule, on one real pairCharlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter vs e.l.f. Halo Glow, read 23 October 2026
3 of the first five match: Aqua/Water/Eau, Hydrogenated Didecene, Glycerin. In all, 12 of Charlotte Tilbury's 18 names (67%) appear on e.l.f.'s list. Charlotte Tilbury's own hero, porcelain flower (Hoya Lacunosa Flower Extract), is not on the e.l.f. list.
5 of 15 pairs share three or more of the first five, and 3 share one or none: LANEIGE vs Holy Hydration! (1), Bum Bum Cream vs Palmer's Coco (1), Lip Glow Oil vs Fat Oil (0). For the sunscreen pair the UV filters sit apart, as declared percentages under "Active ingredients", so the first five there are the inactive ingredients.
Do dupes contain the original's hero ingredients?
In 6 of 13 pairs at least one, and in 7 none. We took the ingredients each luxury brand names on its own product page, mapped them to their label names (porcelain flower is Hoya Lacunosa Flower Extract, "Matrixyl 3000" is palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7 plus palmitoyl tripeptide-1), and looked for them on the dupe's list. 13 of the 15 luxury pages name a hero that can be checked this way; La Mer's Miracle Broth and Rare Beauty's unnamed "botanical blend" cannot.
The hero check13 pairs, heroes as named on each luxury page, read 23 October 2026
on the dupe's list
not on it
no label name to check
No hero found: Flawless Filter vs Halo Glow, Protini vs Slam Dunk, LANEIGE vs Holy Hydration!, Lip Glow Oil vs Fat Oil, Better Than Sex vs Lash Paradise, Olaplex N°.3PLUS vs Plex 3, D-Bronzi vs e.l.f. Bronzing Drops. All found: Hydro Grip vs Power Grip, Summer Fridays vs Trader Joe's, Unseen SPF 50 vs Suntouchable!.
The bond-building treatment is the clearest case. Olaplex's patented builder, bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate, is the fourth name on the N°.3PLUS list and does not appear on Revolution's Plex 3 list. The sunscreen pair is the opposite: both list the same four UV filters, at the same declared strengths except octocrylene (9% on Supergoop!, 8% on e.l.f.), and the two are labelled SPF 50 and SPF 35. One luxury page disagrees with itself: Drunk Elephant's D-Bronzi page names palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7 and palmitoyl tripeptide-1 in its copy, but neither is in the ingredient list on the same page, which lists acetyl tetrapeptide-17.
Is a dupe always cheaper per ml or gram?
Usually, not always. Price per unit can be worked out from brand pages alone for 6 pairs, where the original costs a median 3.0x the dupe per ml or gram; allowing a size read at Sephora or Ulta adds 4 more. The exception is the lip mask: LANEIGE charges $24.00 for 20 g ($1.20/g) and e.l.f. $8.00 for 4.4 g ($1.82/g), so gram for gram the dupe costs 52% more, and it shares 4 ingredient names with the original. LANEIGE's mask is also one of the 20 products in our study of whether ingredient apps agree.
What the saving buys10 pairs with a price per unit, read 23 October 2026
price and size from brand pages
a size from Sephora or Ulta (R)
There is no pattern to buy on: the biggest saving (Protini / Slam Dunk, 4.5x) comes with 6% overlap, and the pair closest to the same price (Fenty / Lifter, 1.0x) is a retailer-size estimate that assumes Ulta's "0.18 oz" means fluid ounces (*). Promotions, minis and subscriptions are ignored.
For 5 pairs no ratio is possible: Trader Joe's, Bliss and Revolution do not list these products on their US sites, Palmer's page shows a price ($15.99) but no size, and NIVEA's US page lists no price. If you want to compare stores rather than brands, see Sephora vs Ulta on price.
Is NIVEA Creme really the same as Creme de la Mer?
NIVEA's list is almost inside La Mer's: 14 of NIVEA Creme's 16 ingredient names (88%) also appear on the Creme de la Mer list, which runs to 43. The two not on La Mer's list are aluminum stearates and sodium anisate (La Mer lists aluminum distearate). The first five overlap on mineral oil, petrolatum, glycerin. But La Mer's first ingredient is "Algae Extract", its Miracle Broth, and it adds 29 names NIVEA does not have, from lime peel to sesame seed oil and five gluconates. NewBeauty covered the comparison on 1 February 2024. La Mer's page prices the 2 oz jar at $390.00; NIVEA's US page shows no price, so we print no ratio.
Which originals have changed since they were called dupes?
At least two. Dior reformulated Addict Lip Glow Oil: on the current list read on dior.com, none of the first five names match the list uploaded to INKEEDecoder on 24 February 2021, and the Cosmopolitan piece naming NYX Fat Oil Lip Drip as its dupe ran on 4 July 2023. Against the current list the pair shares 8% and none of the first five; against the 2021 list, 17% and 2 of the first five. Olaplex No.3 Hair Perfector now redirects to N°.3PLUS on olaplex.com, so the Revolution comparison Refinery29 ran on 29 September 2021 was made against an earlier Olaplex. Drunk Elephant's D-Bronzi changed little for this purpose: 25% overlap with e.l.f. on the current list, 27% on the one uploaded 13 December 2022.
All 15 pairs, with every source
All 15 pairs, sorted by overlap. Lists, prices and sizes read 23 October 2026; brand pages unless marked. R = size from Sephora or Ulta.
* Pair estimated on Ulta's "0.18 oz", assumed to mean fluid ounces against Fenty's 9 ml. Palmer's press name is "Brazilian Coco Cream"; the brand's current title is "Brazilian Coco Whipped Bum, Bust & Body Cream", treated as the same product.
Five checks before you buy a dupe
1. Compare the first five ingredients, not the
whole list. Below 1% the order means nothing.
2. Find the heroes the original names on its own
page. Are they on the dupe's list at all?
3. Work out price per ml or gram, not per tube.
Small sizes can make a dupe dearer.
4. Check the list's date. Formulas change; a dupe
named in 2021 may face a different original now.
5. A shared list is not a shared result. Texture,
wear and shade only show up on your skin.
Which check matters for you?
If you want the same activesCheck the hero listSeven of 13 dupes here list none of the heroes the original names; look for the label name, not the marketing one.
If price per gram mattersCompute itDivide price by ml or g. The e.l.f. lip mask is cheaper per tube and 52% dearer per gram than LANEIGE.
If you want the closest formula on paperMatch the first five5 of 15 pairs share three or more; Summer Fridays vs Trader Joe's shares 58% of all names.
If it is a sunscreenRead the active ingredientsUV filters are declared with percentages, so the comparison is exact; the labels print SPF 50 and SPF 35.
If you compare with an appCheck the list's dateDatabases hold the list they were given; see the ingredient checker apps compared.
How we compared the lists
Method
Pairs were kept only if a press page names the two products as a dupe or alternative; 15 survived. Ingredient lists came from the brand's own US product page, read 23 October 2026; where a brand shows no list or no longer sells the product, from INKEEDecoder (formerly INCIDecoder), whose lists are user uploads with the date shown. Names were normalised (Water, Aqua and Eau are one name; parenthesised common names dropped; spacing and hyphens ignored) and colour pigments left out. Overlap is shared names divided by all names on either list. "First five" counts how many of the luxury product's first five are among the dupe's first five. Price per unit is the brand page's price over its stated size, fluid ounces at 29.5735 ml; where the size was only on Sephora or Ulta it is marked R. Shade: the one each brand page shows by default. Every number on this page is computed from those lists, and the build stops if one does not reproduce.
What this cannot tell you: how much of each ingredient is in either product below the 1% line, raw-material grades, texture, wear or results. It compares names on labels; it is not a performance test, and we make no claim that any dupe works like its original or does not.
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FAQ
Are beauty dupes the same as the originals?
Rarely, on the label. Across 15 famous pairs read on 23 October 2026, a dupe shared a median 22% of the original's ingredient names, and only 3 pairs reached 30%. Overlap compares names, not how a product performs.
Why do the first five ingredients matter?
US (21 CFR 701.3) and EU (Regulation 1223/2009, Article 19) rules order ingredients above 1% from most to least; ingredients at or below 1% may follow in any order. The first five are the safest guide to what a formula is mostly made of.
Is NIVEA Creme a dupe for Creme de la Mer?
On paper NIVEA is close to a subset: 14 of its 16 ingredient names are on La Mer's 43-name list. La Mer adds 29 more, starting with algae extract, its Miracle Broth. The lists say nothing about amounts below 1% or about results.
Is e.l.f. Halo Glow the same as Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter?
Not the same, but one of the closer pairs: 12 shared names, 32% overlap and 3 of the first five in common. Charlotte Tilbury's named hero, porcelain flower extract, is not on the e.l.f. list. Per ml, the original costs 3.5x as much.
Are dupes always cheaper?
Per tube, yes, in every pair here with both prices; per gram, not always. LANEIGE Lip Sleeping Mask works out at $1.20/g and the e.l.f. Holy Hydration! Lip Mask at $1.82/g. Across 6 pairs priced from brand pages, the original cost a median 3.0x the dupe per unit.
Does a similar ingredient list mean a dupe works the same?
No. An ingredient list shows what is in a product, not how much below the 1% line, which raw materials were used or how it was made. Overlap is not efficacy; texture, wear and results can only be judged on skin.
Bottom line
The famous dupes here share a median 22% of the original's ingredient names, and 7 of the 13 with a checkable hero ingredient leave it out. A few, like the lip balms and the La Mer and NIVEA creams, are close on paper. Compare the first five, look for the hero by its label name, work out the price per gram, and treat the list as a shopping aid, not a promise.