7 Private Label Personal Care Packaging Dupes
Over the last few years, private label retailer brands have evolved to become a key segment of the personal care ecosystem. In 2023, private labels or “store brands” was a $3.9bn beauty category, growing a whopping 10.5%. While a rare few store brands have evolved to in some cases to develop a cult following (we see you Kirkland), one of our favorite things about private label brands are the dupes. Yes the dupes. The low cost look-alikes. The retail steals. You know the ones. This article is for the dupes, and more importantly, their packaging. Here are our seven favorite personal care dupes, ranked by how well their packaging matches up against the OG!
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Amazon Basics Triple Replenishing Night Moisturizer Cream
Dupe Rating: 🔥
We’re starting out with arguably the king of dupes, Amazon Basics. The Amazon Basics’ Triple Replenishing Night Moisturizer Cream is a dupe of the Neutrogena Triple Age Repair Night Moisturizer, which normally retails between $20-$30. We tip our hat to amazon for correctly duping the double walled jar and metalized threaded closure to maintain the premium feel of the product (the jar color is even pretty close!). However, this dupe receives only one 🔥for the decoration. Amazon went with a stick on label instead of a direct application deco method like silk screen print- while this likely saves a couple cents, the label is a bit of a visual departure from the original, especially with a new light purple color block.
Not bad, Amazon!
Up & Up Advanced Repair Body Lotions
Dupe Rating: 🔥
A bit of a tough original to dupe, but we give Target credit for trying. Up and Up’s body lotion functions as an alternative to many of the top lotion brands, with this sku in particular duping Vaseline’s range of 20oz body lotions. However, this dupe is more of a cautionary tale. While we think Target has done a pretty good job in replicating the vaseline bottle, the dupe falls short when comparing the artwork. Vaseline’s latest rebrand visually redefined the brand and makes us wonder if the Target dupe also needs a refresh. We’re also not sure what to think of the closure- Duping a custom pump was always going to be a tall order.
Give us a call Target, we’ve got some opinions.
Parabella Marvelous Moisturizing Shampoo & Conditioner
Dupe Rating: 🔥🔥
Did you know Dollar Tree had a private label personal care brand that is taking shots at Aussie!? We didn’t either, but we’re pretty impressed with the packaging. Parabella has nailed the purple custom color to help force an immediate comparison to Aussie. While not as crisp, even the colors and graphics of the deco are close. Parabella retails at roughly half of the cost at roughly $0.10 per oz, or $3.00 a bottle. At this price point, we can sympathize with finding a cost effective exact bottle match, but the shapes are notably different. This said, Dollar Tree does not stock Aussie, meaning consumers are not looking at a side by side comparison in stores.
Parabella has a pretty extensive range of dupes including Garnier and Pantene look-alikes. The real question is… who’s next?
Equate Beauty Gentle Lotion, Dry Sensitive Skin Treatment
Dupe Rating: 🔥🔥
Walmart’s Equate Beauty Gentle Lotion makes the list as the best of many Cetaphil dupes. Cetaphil’s moisturizer and cleanser look-alikes are everywhere- Target, Walmart, Cvs, Walgreens. Name the retailer, they probably will have a dupe. However, from a packaging perspective, Walmart’s Equate version stands out as the best match to the original. The bottle shape is not too far off, and the deco and pump colors are actually a very close match. Uniquely, Equate’s version uses front of pack real estate to make paraben, alcohol, and fragrance free claims which are not clearly displayed on Cetaphil’s front of pack. Value drivers outside of price?? We love to see it.
In our humble opinion, the best of the rest is still pretty good, Walmart.
Lacura Vitabase Moisturizing Primer
Dupe Rating: 🔥🔥
For this dupe, we’re hopping across the pond to the UK to say cheerio to the Lacura Vitabase Moisturizing Primer, made by Aldi. This dupe went viral on Tik Tok last year for its shockingly similar texture and blend of ingredients to the Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Face Base. Retailing at less than 20% of the price of the Bobbi Brown product, Lacura’s packaging dupe is impressive given the price point. The Lacura moisturizing primer comes in a heavy glass 50ml jar with a very similar shape and black threaded closure. While there is no embossed pattern on the top of the threaded closure, credit where credit is due to Aldi for creating an impressive luxury lookalike.
Now… When will we see this in US Aldi’s? 😏
Walgreens Moisturizing Cream, Sensitive Skin Formula
Dupe Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
The elusive triple 🔥dupe rating! That’s right, it’s going to Walgreens and their Vanicream Moisturizing Cream dupe. For our money, we think the packaging of this dupe is actually better than the original. For starters, Vanicream does not have the easiest packaging to dupe- outside of CeraVe, not many brands are going for the jar-pump combo closure. Walgreens found a comparative closure, and then proceeded to make the jar deco better. We like the bold text and claims placements more on the Walgreens SKU and think the Walgreens red logo and Pharmacist Recommended seal actually fit the design quite well. The jars themselves are pretty similar, with the Walgreens dupe having a slightly wider base.
Makes you think…does Vanicream need to dupe the dupe?
Trader Joes Peppermint Multi-Purpose Castile Soap
Dupe Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
Some call it dupes, others call it stealing, but a copycat list would be incomplete without a Trader Joe’s feature! We’re rounding off our list by looking at the Trader Joe's Peppermint Multi-Purpose Castile Soap. Now this SKU makes no direct comparisons on pack to another product (so we can’t know for sure), but we think this body wash may take ~inspiration~ from Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Castile Soap. As far as packaging goes, they’ve done pretty well! Trader Joe’s Multi-Purpose Soap uses a similar plastic cylinder bottle with matching white closure. However, the labeling really drives the comparison, employing a similar bright blue finish with white text blocks. While the Dr. Bronner’s bottle label contains much more text, ingredient callouts and major claims are well duped by Trader Joes.
Or maybe it's just a coincidence!
There it is, our 7 favorite personal care packaging dupes from retailer brands. We have no doubt we will be seeing more dupes in the coming years and are looking forward to reviewing some more low cost alternatives. Dupe on!
Creating your own private label? Visit Impacked to chat with one of our packaging experts or reach out to us at Concierge@impackedpackaging.com to learn more.
