Whether you’re on a budget or just love a bargain, here is our pick of tried-and-tested cheap makeup alternatives to Charlotte Tilbury, NARS and much more
When it comes to finding the perfect foundation, lipstick, or eyeshadow many of us assume we have to spend big but this isn’t always the case. Far from it, and this is where makeup alternatives come in.
We regularly find cheap makeup and skincare that outperforms premium rivals, sometimes coming in at five times cheaper. However, it’s one thing to uncover a hidden gem when you’re not searching for it. It’s quite another to find a cheap alternative that looks or performs as well as your favourite individual makeup items.
To make this easier, we’ve tested hundreds of products in the hunt for the best alternatives for bestselling products from the likes of Charlotte Tilbury, Hourglass, NARS, Huda Beauty and more. And many come in better than half price. We’ve also started listing the best skincare alternatives UK, if that’s more your bag!
Below you’ll find our most recent makeup bargain – under Makeup Bargain of the Week – and then we’ve divided the other alternatives by brand name. So you’ll find all the Glossier makeup alternatives together, all the cheap Charlotte Tilbury alternatives together and so on.
Cheap makeup alternatives UK
Rather than reading all the way through, we’ve also started bundling the makeup alternatives from the same brands in one place. Just click on the link in the list below to jump straight to your preferred section, or scroll through to see all the best makeup alternatives from a wide range of brands and product lines.
- Charlotte Tilbury alternatives
- Huda Beauty alternatives
- Glossier alternatives
- NARS alternatives
- MAC alternatives
- Laura Mercier alternatives
- Benefit alternatives
- IT Cosmetics alternatives
- Too Faced alternatives
- Hourglass alternatives
- Estee Lauder alternatives
- Aldi beauty alternatives
FURTHER READING: The best cheap makeup brands that prove you don’t need to spend a fortune to look great
Makeup Alternative of the Week
Every week we pick our favourite alternative and highlight it as part of our Makeup alternative of the Week.
︎ YSL Touche Eclat concealer alternative: Save £22
THE ICON: As iconic concealers go, you don’t get much better than the YSL Touche Eclat. It’s lightweight and blends like a dream and its brush applicator means you only use what you need. Not only does it brighten and illuminate the skin, but it’s also enriched with skincare ingredients including hyaluronic acid, vitamin E, and caffeine to hydrate, nourish, and energise the skin. Perfect for dark circles. Available in 13 shades.
THE ALTERNATIVE: Just like YSL’s icon, Revolution Pro’s Brightening and Tightening Under Eye Concealing Wand is great for concealing and treating under-eye imperfections such as dark circles, puffiness, and fine lines. The wand applicator makes it easy to apply the product precisely where it is needed, and the lightweight formula allows for easy blending for a seamless finish. The downside is that the shades are very limited.
Buy now from Revolution
Charlotte Tilbury makeup alternatives UK
Charlotte Tilbury has been an iconic makeup artist to models and celebrities for years and her own makeup line, now available to us commoners, regularly sells out. She has a cult status and now sells a huge range of makeup and skincare essentials. However, none of it comes cheap. The good news is that there are a lot of very similar items that tick many of the same boxes for half the price or greater.
If you’re looking for a Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream alternative, check out our Skincare Alternatives page. You can also discover if it’s worth the money in our Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream review.
Charlotte Tilbury alternatives: At a glance
- Wonderglow alternative: e.l.f Illuminating Face Primer
- Setting Spray alternative: Revolution Setting Spray
- Light Wonder alternative: L’Oreal Paris True Match Tinted Serum
- Beauty Light Wand alternative: Revolution Bright Light Highlighter
- Pillow Talk alternative: Revolution Heart Race
- Magic Away Concealer alternative: Revolution Eye Bright Concealer
- Luxury Palette alternative: e.l.f Bite-Size eyeshadow
︎ Charlotte Tilbury Wonderglow alternative: Save £31
THE ICON: This soft Wonderglow Face Primer (£40) is a bestseller for Charlotte Tilbury. It gives a dewy, radiant finish and creates that famous candlelit look that Charlotte loves. This primer can be used under makeup, under a different primer, or used on its own. What’s more, it’s hydrating because it contains hyaluronic acid, with a light diffuser to mask imperfections.
THE ALTERNATIVE: The e.l.f Illuminating Face Primer (£9) is the perfect alternative for Charlotte Tilbury’s bestseller. Not only is it all about giving you that radiant glow, but this £9 primer also fills in fine lines and evens out your complexion. It leaves a silky feel on the skin and, just like the Charlotte Tilbury Wonderglow, you can wear this under makeup or alone.
Buy now from Amazon
︎ Charlotte Tilbury Setting Spray alternative: Save £18
THE ICON: The Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray (£26) offers 16 hours of setting power while being oil-free and lightweight. It can even be used as a primer to set the face before applying makeup. We’ve tried it and love it and there have been countless reviews with each one celebrating its staying power and how it leaves the skin looking dewy.
THE ALTERNATIVE: A fantastic alternative for Charlotte Tilbury’s Setting Spray is the Makeup Revolution Conceal & Define Infinite Setting Spray (£8). It’s so good, and so revered, that it’s sold out a number of times. It offers the same amount of setting spray as the Charlotte Tilbury version (100ml), promises the same 16-hour staying power and leaves the skin dewy. All for £18 cheaper!
Buy now from Beauty Bay
︎ Charlotte Tilbury Light Wonder alternative: Save £21.01
THE ICON: The Charlotte Tilbury Light Wonder Foundation (£36) was one of our editor’s favourites when she put all of the best Charlotte Tilbury foundations to the test. It goes on well and blends easily. It gives a skin-like finish with added brightness to lift your complexion. It is a sheer-to-medium coverage which is perfect for your no-makeup days and it has SPF15 that doesn’t create a white cast all over your face.
THE ALTERNATIVE: The L’Oreal Paris True Match Tinted Serum (£14.99) is the best Charlotte Tilbury alternative for Light Wonder we’ve found. The consistency matches. It gives the same shot of hydration to keep the skin looking plump. It leaves the skin looking radiant and is easy to blend. The only things missing are the addition of SPF, and the fact the L’Oreal version comes in one fewer shade – 9 instead of 10.
You can read how both of these foundations performed in our huge foundation group test via the spreadsheet here
Buy now from Boots
︎ Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Light Wand alternative: Save £21
THE ICON: Charlotte Tilbury’s Beauty Light Wand (£29) has won numerous awards and, as a result, is almost always sold out. Available in a range of shades – Spotlight, Peachgasm, Pinkgasm, Goldgasm, and Pillow Talk versions in Original and Medium – these wands use a soft cushion to gently apply the shimmering, lightweight cream formula to areas where you want to catch the light.
THE ALTERNATIVE: The Revolution Bright Light Highlighter (£8 ) wand is such an amazing makeup alternative for the Charlotte Tilbury icon that we honestly don’t think we’d be able to tell the difference in a blind test. For just £8, you get almost identical shades in the names Beam, Gold Lights, Radiance, Divine, Goddess and Strobe. The Gold Lights, in particular, is an identical match for Charlotte Tilbury’s Spotlight.
Buy now from Boots
︎ Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Alternative: Save £21
THE ICON: Charlotte Tilbury’s iconic Pillow Talk (£26) is so popular that one is sold every two minutes (according to the brand). This is because Pillow Talk is a matte nude-pink lipstick that is universal for all skin types.
THE ALTERNATIVE: Revolution’s range of matte lipsticks includes a number of cheap alternatives to Charlotte Tilbury’s bestseller. Choose from the shades Heart Race (£5), Icon (£5), or Chauffeur (£6.45). These are the closest we’ve found that comes to the tone, texture and finish of Charlotte Tilbury’s Pillow Talk. Each one is highly pigmented, glides on smoothly and they last for hours.
Buy now from Amazon
︎ Charlotte Tilbury Magic Away Concealer Alternative: Save £16
THE ICON: Charlotte’s Magic Away Concealer (£24) gives incredible full coverage for a flawless finish. It reduces the appearance of dark circles, blemishes and redness. The finish is natural and radiant. We like how the concealer stretches and keeps the under-eye area smooth – our one complaint is that it’s quite thick so can take a bit of work to blend out. This means it isn’t ideal for mature skin.
THE ALTERNATIVE: Revolution’s Makeup Revolution Eye Bright Concealer (£8) comes in 15 shades and is specifically targeted for under-eye dark circles. We love that this concealer contains Vitamin C, so it helps treat the eye area and brighten it naturally while giving you medium coverage. The texture is more creamy than Charlotte Tilbury’s thicker version and blends more easily.
Buy now from Revolution
︎ Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow alternative: Save £37
THE ICON: Charlotte Tilbury sells 17 different versions of her £40 Luxury Palettes, each one offering a quadrant of shades designed to help you create an entire eyeshadow look with complementary colours and tones. Many of these are particularly suited for certain eye colours and this makes it easier to match and make a statement. One of our favourites is the Walk Of No Shame palette (£40). It contains three semi-shimmer, and one shimmer shade, with a mix of peach, champagne, sunset pink and berry blush crimson, which is like a rose gold sparkle.
THE ALTERNATIVE: We can hardly believe just how well the e.l.f Bite-Size eyeshadows mirror the shades offered by Charlotte Tilbury’s range. Especially when you consider that each four-pan palette costs just £3. The one that’s most similar to Charlotte Tilbury’s Walk of No Shame palette is the Berry Bad (£4).
FURTHER READING: How to choose a Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow palette
Buy now from e.l.f
Laura Mercier makeup alternatives UK
It’s not cheap, far from it, but the entire Laura Mercier collection is designed to give a truly professional finish. This is because it’s been formulated by iconic makeup artist, Laura Mercier herself. We’ve previously reviewed the Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturiser and we’re big fans of the Loose Setting Powder. However, neither is without great makeup alternatives, as we explain below.
︎ Laura Mercier Setting Powder alternative: Save £25.50
THE ICON: We know the Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder (£32) is many people’s favourite setting powder and it’s almost sacrilege to suggest an alternative. It minimises the appearance of pores, fine lines and wrinkles without the caking effect we often get with setting powders. Being translucent, it’s also a universal shade that can be used on any skin tone although you can also buy alternative shades, in Medium Deep and Honey.
THE ALTERNATIVE: The e.l.f High Definition Powder (£6.50). only contains 8g of powder (compared to the 29g you get in the Laura Mercier version) but you could still buy almost four of these little pots of wonder for the same price. This High Definition powder is a great sheer powder that gives a soft-focus look, blurs pores and sets beautifully under the eyes.
FURTHER READING: Best setting powder
Buy now from e.l.f
Glossier makeup alternatives: Cheap alternatives to Glossier
As you can read in our list of the best Glossier products, the brand sells a range of makeup and skincare items that have become staples in our collection. The brand regularly appears in our Best Buys lists – best concealer (Stretch Concealer), best primer (Glossier Futuredew) list and its Glossier Cloud Paint is one of the best blushers around. If you can’t stretch to Glossier prices, however, here are some cheap Glossier alternatives.
- Glossier Boy Brow alternative: e.l.f Wow Brow
- Glossier Cloud Paint alternative: MUA Blushed Liquid Cream
︎ Glossier Boy Brow Alternative: Save £8
THE ICON: We love Glossier Boy Brow (£14) because it gives our brows an instant fluffy groomed brow look. It’s made of conditioning agents that give a flexible hold and it doesn’t flake. We love how Glossier also recently bought out an Auburn shade. The reason it’s so popular is that it picks up even the smallest of hairs to ensure a fuller-looking brow, without making them look fake.
THE ALTERNATIVE: e.l.f Cosmetics is one of the best cheap makeup brands around and it has a great Glossier Boy Brow alternative called WOW Brow Gel (£6). It comes in five shades to choose from and just like Glossier’s version, it gives full, voluminous natural-looking brows.
Buy now from e.l.f
︎ Glossier Cloud Paint Beam alternative: Save £12
THE ICON: Glossier’s seamless cheek colour – Glossier Cloud Paint (£15) –has achieved almost cult status. It comes in eight shades and is a lightweight buildable gel-cream blusher that can also double up as lip tint or eyeshadow. It gives a lovely flush of colour to give a natural look to your skin. We love the shade Beam, which Glossier describes as a soft peach.
THE ALTERNATIVE: The MUA Makeup Academy Blushed Liquid Cream Blush (£3) is such an alternative for Glossier’s Cloud Paint we’re not sure we could tell the difference. It blends really nicely, just like Cloud Paint; it’s buildable, just like Cloud Paint, and it can also be used on your lips and eyes. It’s extremely pigmented for such a cheap product and feels soft to the touch. We’re big fans of MUA Makeup Academy and it features in our list of the best cheap makeup brands in the UK.
Buy now from Revolution
Huda Beauty makeup alternatives
We’re obsessed with Huda Beauty here at mamabella. However, our bank balance is not. The brand’s eyeshadow palettes are highly pigmented, and we’re very big fans of her Wishful skincare range, but they each cost a pretty penny. Because of this, and because of just how popular the products are, cheap makeup brands tend to focus on duping them. Here are our favourites, like-for-like makeup alternatives for Huda Beauty.
︎ Huda Beauty Faux Filter foundation alternative: Save £26
THE ICON: As you can read in our Huda Beauty foundation review, the Faux Filter offers great coverage and all-day staying power. It’s one of the best foundations for oily skin and it comes in a great range of 39 shades. It doesn’t clog your pores and it’s transfer-proof, water-proof and smudge-proof. The downside is that it doesn’t come cheap, at £36.
THE ALTERNATIVE: Scoring an almost identical score to Huda Beauty’s Faux Filter in our best foundation group test, Maybelline’s 30H Superstay foundation is one of the best makeup alternatives we’ve found for the more expensive Huda Beauty version. It’s full coverage like the original. It’s water, transfer and humidity-proof. It lasts all day and gives a matte finish. The sacrifice you make for the cheaper price is that it’s only available in 20 shades, which is half the number of Huda Beauty shades.
Explore all of our favourite foundations in our best foundation spreadsheet
Buy now from Boots
︎ Huda Beauty Rose Gold Palette Remastered alternative: Save £47
THE ICON: A remastered take on the original Rose Gold Palette (£56) from Huda Beauty is an absolute classic. It contains 18 highly versatile shades in a mix of rich mattes and pigmented shimmers ranging from brown nudes all the way up to deep berry reds. There’s even a black – which is unusual for an eyeshadow palette.
THE ALTERNATIVE: We have to admit, it was a somewhat tricky task to find a suitable Huda Beauty Rose Gold alternative but we think this palette from Revolution Pro Regeneration Palette Revelation (£8.99) comes close. It has 18 warm golds, nude and pink shades in a mix of mattes and shimmers that closely resemble the tones and shades seen in Huda Beauty’s version. Even black.
Buy now from Revolution
︎ Huda Beauty Liquid Matte Lipstick alternative: Save £13
THE ICON: When Huda Beauty hit the market with its Liquid Matte Lipstick (£18), it soon became a sell-out. Within the collection, the shade Trendsetter is the perfect brown nude that will suit almost all skin tones and occasions. All liquid matte lipsticks in this collection are non-drying and feel light as a feather on the lips. They’re very highly pigmented with a suedette, long-lasting finish.
THE ALTERNATIVE: Maybelline sells a fantastic Huda Beauty makeup alternative called SuperStay Matt Ink (£9.99) and shade 70 “Amazonian” is a cheap alternative to the universal Trendsetter. We love that this matte lipstick has a precise applicator, like Huda Beauty’s icon. It’s non-drying and feels super comfortable on the lips. It’s also kiss-proof and lasts up to 12 hours.
Buy now from Lookfantastic
︎ Huda Beauty eyeshadow: Save £21
£6 | Buy now
THE ICON: Huda Beauty’s Obsessions collection is a growing range of nine-pan eyeshadow palettes that are perfect as travel compacts. There are various Obsessions colourways to choose from – our faves are Gold Obsessions and Topaz Obsessions – but the most versatile of the bunch is the Nude Obsessions range (£27 each). Designed with three overarching skin tones in mind – light, medium, and dark – each palette has been designed to offer nude finishes no matter what tone you have. Each palette gives a mix of five mattes and four shimmer shadows and all nine shades are highly pigmented and blend nicely. These little beauties are great for creating everyday eyeshadow looks to smokey evening ones.
THE ALTERNATIVE: Makeup Revolution quite often rivals Huda Beauty for makeup alternatives and the palette closest to Nude Obsessions is the Makeup Revolution Ultimate Nude Palette range (£6 each). This range similarly offers three palettes for light, medium and dark skin tones, and each one contains nine shades along with five mattes and four shimmer eyeshadows. The sacrifice you make is that the Makeup Revolution palettes don’t contain a mirror, but everything else is almost identical.
Buy now from Beauty Bay
︎ Huda Beauty Rose Quartz alternative: Save £41
THE ICON: The Rose Quartz Eyeshadow Palette (£58) from Huda Beauty is one of its latest palettes and it’s inspired by the crystal. The tones in this palette are rosy, earthy and pearly. It has a mix of eight velvety mattes, three high-shine buttery metallics, three pearly metallics, and three quartz-inspired shimmer marble creams. This palette is eye-catching and if you’re a big fan of soft rose tones with shimmer, this palette will be a dream.
THE ALTERNATIVE: The Morphe Coca-Cola X Morphe Cheerfully Cherry Artistry Palette (£17) has lovely pinky and earthy hues that match the Rose Quartz Palette. There is a mix of mattes, shimmers and metallics. We love the neutral tones and each row takes us by surprise. We love the pigment on this palette. The colours are a wide mix of cherry, peach, mauve and plum.
Buy now from Morphe
MAC Makeup Alternatives: Cheap alternatives to MAC
MAC Cosmetics is a staple brand for so many women but it can be a little on the pricey side. Here are some of the best MAC makeup alternatives for its range of lipsticks, foundations and more.
︎ MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation alternative: Save £23.01
THE ICON: MAC Studio Fix Fluid (£29) is an iconic foundation. There are countless four- and five-star reviews from beauty users – including our own writer Lucy, in her Studio Fix Foundation review – and it’s particularly great for oily skin types. It contains SPF15 but doesn’t leave a white cast over the face and it offers medium, buildable coverage with a matte finish. We love this foundation as it gives great coverage and it lasts a long time.
THE ALTERNATIVE: There is only one worthy contender that could match Studio Fix for oily skin types and buildable medium coverage, and that’s
