It seems like common sense: the pricier a skincare product is, the more effective it must be. And it’s true that luxury eye creams and costly lipsticks do tend to feature high-quality ingredients. Beauty brands like Clinique, Mac, Lancome, Benefits and Dermalogica are regularly coming up with new and cutting-edge formulas.
But there’s another reason why these brands are so popular. When TikTok influencer Rocio Soria worked as a beauty advisor at Ulta, she was trained to take people to these luxury options first. “This is why you would end up leaving with that $60 eye cream,” she explained in this post. “These prestige skincare brands have daily and weekly sales goals to meet.”
Is it really necessary to spend over $50 on a tub of wrinkle cream? Soria doesn’t think so, and she shows her followers which skincare products they can buy for much less at stores like Walmart. “Drugstore skincare is not what it was five years ago,” she said in the TikTok video. “Nowadays, it’s actually competing with the prestige brands.”
In fact, social media is brimming with savvy shoppers who are trying cheaper versions of exorbitantly-priced makeup and skincare. Here are six products from Walmart that might serve you just as well as their luxury counterparts—for less than half the price.
6 Best Walmart Beauty/Skincare Dupes
L’Oreal Revitalift Filler Precision Eye Cream
Dupe for: Clinique Smart Clinical Repair Wrinkle Correcting Eye Cream: $65 at Ulta
Clinique’s eye cream is known for its ability to moisturize, brighten and enhance skin texture. But its cheaper counterpart from L’Oreal also tackles these issues. The two products have 17 ingredients in common, including hyaluronic acid, peptides, Vitamin C and Vitamin E. And like Clinique’s eye cream, L’Oreal’s version is free from oils, harsh chemicals and fragrances.
As an added bonus, the less expensive dupe from L’Oreal contains exfoliators which can slough away dead skin cells. Take that, Clinique!
$29.50 at Walmart
e.l.f. SKIN Suntouchable Whoa Glow SPF 30
Dupe for: Drunk Elephant Umbra 100% Mineral Cream SPF 30/PA+++ Tinted Face Sunscreen: $36 at Sephora
It makes sense to pay a little extra for sunscreen. For one thing, you definitely want to make sure it has a high enough SPF to protect your skin. And you should always look for a skincare product that’s free from allergens, parabens and sulfates. Perhaps you’d like your sunscreen to include exfoliants, or you’ve decided to buy only cruelty-free products. You may want to be able to choose from three different skin tints.
But even with all of these requirements, the pricey Drunk Elephant sunscreen isn’t the only product on the market that can meet your needs. The e.l.f. sunscreen checks all these boxes, too. So you may as well go with the cheaper one you can buy at Walmart!
$14 at Walmart
Bubble Skincare Deep Dive AHA + PHA Exfoliating Mask
Dupe for: Benefit Cosmetics The POREfessional Tight ‘N Toned Pore-Refining AHA+PHA Toning Foam: $34 at Macy’s
Chemical exfoliants use different types of acids to help shed old, dead skin cells, which creates a brighter complexion. The most common ones are AHAs (alpha hydroxy acids), BHAs (beta hydroxy acids) and PHAs (poly hydroxy acids). The Benefits Cosmetics toning foam offers you the combined benefits of two of them, AHA and PHA. But you can also get this acidic duo with the Bubble Exfoliating Mask—for half the price.
In a TikTok post, a Los Angeles-based esthetician named Emily called the Bubble exfoliating mask a hidden gem at Walmart. She described it as “a little bit stronger than you would normally get at the drugstore” and called it “a great option for those who are trying to refine texture on their skin or to just unclog pores.”
$16.98 at Walmart
Hard Candy Sheer Envy Hydrating Primer
Dupe for: MAC Cosmetics Studio Radiance Moisturizing + Illuminating Silky Primer: $36 at Dillard’s
If you want your makeup to have a fighting chance at staying put, you probably use a primer. It preps your skin for foundation, bronzer and the rest, helping them last longer and evening out your skin tone.
This MAC primer features two main ingredients to get that job done: hyaluronic acid and niacinamide. And the Hard Candy primer? Yep, it works with the same two ingredients. Neither primer contains any harsh chemicals, and if you’re prone to acne, the less expensive Hard Candy version also offers the benefit of being oil-free.
$6.96 at Walmart
Max Factor Miracle Second Skin Foundation
Dupe for: Charlotte Tilbury Beautiful Skin Foundation: $49 at Bloomingdales
Foundation is important. It can even out your complexion, cover flaws and give your face a uniform glow. Often there’s an added moisturizer to nourish and protect your skin, too. But do you have to pay $50 to ensure these advantages?
Not if you switch to Max Factor. The brand’s Miracle Second Skin foundation has 17 ingredients in common with Charlotte Tilbury’s, including hyaluronic acid (a humectant that holds water in) and Vitamin E (whose antioxidants protect the skin). And the texture, hydration and finish of the two foundations are very similar. Plus, the less expensive Max Factor version includes retinoid, which has anti-aging properties.
A TikTok user named Amy used the Max Factor Miracle Second Skin Foundation on one side of her face and not on the other to show how well this foundation works.
$13.53 at Walmart
Maybelline Lifter Gloss with Hyaluronic Acid
Dupe for: Dior Addict Lip Maximizer Gloss: $40 at Ulta
Your lips aren’t the place for potentially harmful substances like allergens, sulfates or parabens—and Dior’s gloss is thankfully free of them. But so is Maybelline’s version. And both glosses contain hydrating hyaluronic acid and nourishing Vitamin E.
A reviewer at SheFinds recently discovered that both glosses have a hydrating and lip-plumping effect, though the Maybelline version pulled this off in a more natural-looking way. And she found that she needed to reapply each gloss at about the same rate. Ultimately, the biggest difference is the price, which is pretty significant. The Dior gloss costs four times as much!
$8.98 at Walmart
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