Best Aldi beauty dupes: Our favourite skincare and make-up products

Best: For dry skin

Dupe for: Clinique moisture surge 100H auto-replenishing hydrator (£35.10, Boots.com)

This gel moisturiser that dupes Clinique’s moisture surge is the star of the show and we’re desperate to see it make a comeback. It’s instantly soothing, with a cooling effect too, and it’s very fast to absorb, which means it’s great if you’re short of time or want to apply make-up soon after. It’s also perfect for a short-term hydration boost. Leaving skin soft and plump, the gel formula is lightweight and infused with aloe vera and green tea extract.

A product we’ll re-purchase over and over again, if you have dry skin and need something to soothe flaky areas, or have oily skin and are looking for a weightless moisturiser that won’t leave skin feeling greasy, this is our best budget beauty find yet.

Best: For removing make-up

Dupe for: Emma Hardie moringa cleansing balm (£39.95, Boots.com)

This luxurious balm is brilliant at breaking down make-up and SPF in seconds. The moringa oil, shea butter and cocoa butter rich formula makes quick work of waterproof mascara, bright red, matte lipstick and even full coverage foundation. It’s a lovely soft balm that melts into a lightweight oil once massaged into dry skin. It’s easy to remove with the accompanying flannel too – which is also impressively good quality for such a bargain product. It’s a generous 90g pot which means it’ll last for ages and once rinsed off, our skin felt soft, silky smooth and refreshed. This is another winner from Aldi worth adding to your basket.

Best: Cleanser

Dupe for: Liz Earle cleanse and polish hot cloth cleanser (£13.17, Lookfantastic.com)

Eagle-eyed beauty fans will know that this cleanser from Lacura, Aldi’s in-house range, is similar to the popular hot cloth cleanser from Liz Earle. It has a creamy formula, rich in rosemary, camomile, white tea, cocoa butter and eucalyptus oil, that’s designed to be applied onto a dry face, massaged in and removed with the muslin cloth that comes in the box. While we’d recommend using a flannel instead for a more thorough job, it works well to break down a full face of products in seconds, with a gentle but not overpowering scent.

If you prefer wearing waterproof mascara, you’ll be best to use an eye-make-up remover beforehand. Besides that, it does a stellar job of leaving skin feeling refreshed, soft, smooth and, most importantly, clean. The 200ml tube feels generous too, with only a 10p-piece-sized blob needed for each application. After months out of stock, the cleanser is finally available to pre-order ahead of its official return on Sunday 6 March.

Best: Hair mask

Dupe for: Coco & Eve super nourishing coconut and fig hair masque (£26, Cultbeauty.co.uk)

This coconut and fig hair mask from Aldi is designed to revive, restore, repair, tame and deeply condition hair. It’s a formula that’s rich in coconut oil, shea butter and fig water which gives it a refreshing summery scent. We applied to damp hair after shampooing and left for five minutes. The results? Super soft locks that were much easier and pain-free to detangle once we’d rinsed it out. If you’re looking for a speedy way to reduce frizz, this is a great budget-friendly option and the 230ml tub means it’ll last you ages too.

Best: Eye cream

Dupe for: Clinique all about eyes (£30, Clinique.co.uk)

This little gem is ideal if you want a simple eye cream to hydrate and soothe dry without breaking the bank. Creamy but not thick, the formula contains caffeine and green tea and is perfect for applying before make-up for a smooth base and it quickly blends into skin when using sweeping motions to massage it in. While it’s technically a gel texture, it feels more akin to a lightweight cream, so dry and dehydrated skin types will get on well with this. Taking up hardly any room on our skincare shelf, it’s small but mighty and definitely worth giving a go if you can find one in store, as it’s currently sold out online.

Best: Micellar water pads

Dupe for: This Works in transit no traces (£14.40, Lookfantastic.com)

These pre-soaked pads come in a treat if you’re feeling too lazy to take your make-up off or don’t have access to water to rinse off a traditional cleanser, such as a balm or a milk. Simply swipe over skin to swiftly remove cream contour, colourful eyeshadow and foundation. They aren’t quite enough on their own to remove mascara, however, so you will need to use something stronger, such as a dedicated eye make-up remover.

You can lie in bed while scrolling through Instagram with one hand and removing your make-up with the other, making it the perfect solution for sleepovers, flights or bringing on holiday. Each pot comes with 60 pads that are all biodegradable and enriched with hyaluronic acid, vitamin E and aloe vera for a quick hydrating boost.

Best: For eczema

Dupe for: Elizabeth Arden eight-hour cream (£29, Johnlewis.com)

Another Aldi beauty buy that isn’t skirting around its similarities to a higher-end product, our reviewer swears that this is a dead ringer for Elizabeth Arden’s award-winning eight-hour cream. Designed to be the ultimate salve for everything from sunburn to chapped elbows, the £28 original has been lauded as a go-to all-rounder for years. But our tester, who suffers with eczema on her hands, found Aldi’s alternative to be just as effective. With the same emollient, gel-style formula and warm amber scent as Elizabeth Arden’s, Aldi’s also boasts ingredients similar to the higher-end bestseller, as both feature lanolin, salicylic acid and petroleum. It soothed our skin, healing cracks and softening rough, dry hands.

Best: For brighter skin

Dupe for: Pixi glow tonic (£18, Cultbeauty.co.uk)

Glycolic acid has long been regarded as one of the best ingredients for giving skin a healthy-looking glow by sloughing away dead skin cells to leave your complexion radiant and smooth. While Pixi is well known for its glow tonic featuring the ingredient, this Aldi one gives it a run for its money. It helps to keep blackheads at bay and excess oil under control, giving just a slight tingle on application. If you have combination skin, this is a fantastic top-up of the glow-giving ingredient if you’re running low on the cult-favourite original.

Do note, however, that this wouldn’t be as kind to more sensitive skin types because it contains less aloe vera, which is a soothing bonus in the Pixi version. Aldi’s version is available to pre-order now, but you’ll need to be quick if you want to get your hands on one. So what are you waiting for?

Best: For dry lips

Dupe for: Laneige lip glowy berry balm (£16, Selfridges.com)

Dry, chapped lips are no more with this moisturising lip balm that leaves a glossy finish and conditioned skin. It’s great on its own if you want to keep things simple, but we also found it worked well over lipsticks, especially matte finishes, to give a hydration boost. It’s not sticky or greasy and we love the high-shine finish. The blend of shea butter, coffee seed oil and aloe leaf extract comes in three fruity flavours – grapefruit, berry or pear. Simply pick your favourite and add to your handbag ASAP.

Best: Eyeshadow palette

Dupe for: Urban Decay naked heat eyeshadow palette (£46, Urbandecay.co.uk)

Practically identical to Urban Decay’s heat palette, the 12 shades here are warm toned, ranging from vanilla to terracotta to a glittery brown. With a mix of matte and shimmer finishes, they’re not quite as seamless to blend as the high-end option, but are great for a quick one-lid look, whether you want something more dramatic with a brown smokey eye or a simple, neutral look for every day. They stay in place impressively well, considering the price tag, and are versatile enough to be used as an eyeliner when applied with an angled brush.

Best: Primer for combination skin

Dupe for: Smashbox Cosmetics the original photo finish foundation primer (£29.50, Feelunique.com)

You’ll probably recognise the similarities between this and the Smashbox photo finish primer, and the texture and consistency are not too different either. It’s quite silicone-rich, so it absorbs fast and leaves a velvety finish that we found worked best on combination skin. We say that because while it leaves skin matte immediately after application, throughout the day, it does give a dewy-looking glow that oilier skin types may be keen to avoid. There’s a blurring effect on pores too, particularly on the nose, so it will give you a temporary flawless finish. The primer is finally back in stock on Sunday 6 March as part of Aldi’s Specialbuys range and is available to pre-order today.

Best: Lengthening mascara

Dupe for: Benefit they’re real! mascara (£21.15, Boots.com)

You’d be hard-pressed not to see the similarities between this budget wand and Benefit’s they’re real! lengthening mascara. While we do love the original, if you’re looking for the next best thing for a lot less, this is ideal. It fans out lashes, gripping each hair thanks to the evenly spaced bristles along the main body of the wand, while the ball shape on the end is designed for catching those illusive inner and outer hairs on the lower lash line. Adding slight volume but lots and lots of length, it’s perfect if you’re in need of a new mascara while picking up your groceries and is a fine effort from the supermarket.