A FACE cream costing €3.99 and containing the same anti-ageing properties as another retailed at €570 has just hit the shelves in branches of Lidl in Spain, after selling out in the UK, Germany and Portugal.
Cellular Beauty is described as a 'clone' of La Prairie's Cellular Radiance, which sells at 142.5 times the price.
Its main active ingredient is Myramaze, an extract from a shrub known as the 'plant of resurrection', which is able to survive extreme conditions of dehydration.
Used in skin cream, it helps protect lipids from oxidation and retains moisture, meaning the skin is constantly repairing itself, even during the day – despite the fact most skin regeneration happens at night, during sleep.
Lidl's version contains sun protection factor (SPF) 15, helping to filter out UV rays which cause ageing.
Both the Lidl version and La Prairie's version promise firm, moisturised skin and to improve the appearance of lines and wrinkles.
Despite this, British dermatologist Dr Andy Millward warns against comparing two types of face cream purely on the basis of their main active ingredient, since these do not work in isolation – their true power is in the complete formula and how all the ingredients work together, plus the percentage of each.
Also, packaging is important – the better the packaging, the better the cream retains its properties.
Luxury brands invest more money and time in research, development, marketing and packaging, because they have a much larger budget to do so – meaning consumers are not merely paying for the name, says Dr Millward.
But cheaper ones, such as supermarket own brands, are created off the back of this expensive research and development, meaning they do not have to plough the same immense resources into creating the product – they merely clone the original, or at least, follow broadly the same recipe.
This said, Dr Millward does believe La Prairie's €570 price tag for its Cellular Radiance is 'over the top'.
Lidl has made a success of doing just that: Its Cien Q10 creams, selling at €2.99, were found by Spanish consumer authorities to be at least as effective, if not more so, than others retailing at 50 times the price, causing queues at branches of Lidl across the country and leading to their running out of stock within minutes of opening.
Since then, Lidl has launched three other strains of the Cien Q10 – a night cream, an eye contour mousse and a skin serum – as well as the Cien Crema de Noche Antiedad Granada (pomegranate anti-ageing night cream), a copy of Weleda's night cream, and also a cherry hand cream which is similar to one sold by L'Occitane en Provence.
Also, Lidl's own-brand perfumes, known as 'Suddenly', have caused a furore because they smell exactly the same as Cacharel's Amor Amor, Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle, and Armani's She – although consumer groups warn that low-priced imitations of the real thing tend to have a scent that does not last very long at all.
Mercadona, additionally, hit the headlines when it was revealed that its €5 cream, Sisbela, was made by the same manufacturers as a cream by Alain selling at between €60 and €85, and that the only difference between the two was that the Mercadona version was unscented.
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