I’ll be honest. I was never the girl who cared much about skincare. As long as I took off my make-up at the end of the day and managed a face mask once a month, I considered that a win.
But when lockdown hit I needed something to take my mind off the terror of an unknown virus sweeping the world. A combination of boredom and a crippling fear that my youth was slipping away led me to invest in skincare.
Left with more disposable income than usual (because I wasn’t going anywhere) I dabbled with higher-end, pricier brands like Kiehl’s and Clinique.
However, when life opened back up and we were able to enjoy our freedoms again, I realised I couldn’t keep up this very expensive habit.
So imagine my joy when I discovered budget supermarket Aldi had launched a skincare range at a fraction of the price of high-end beauty products, the award-winning Lacura range.
Aldi’s website claims the range gives you the chance to “upgrade your day and night beauty regimes, without blowing your budget.” But is it up to the job?
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I decided to test out three of Aldi’s products against their high-end counterparts to see if there was a difference - and I was pleasantly surprised.
The products
I tested out Aldi’s Caviar Illumination Day Cream (£6.99), Healthy Glow Salicylic Acid Toner (£3.49), and Illuminating Primer (£5.99).
To compare, I bought similar products from high-end website Beauty Pie. While the website offers top quality products for lower prices, you can only get these deals if you pay for an annual membership of £59 (or a one-off day pass for a tenner).
I used Beauty Pie’s Triple Hyaluronic Acid Deep Moisture Miracle Cream (£15.88), the Japanfusion Energy Essence Mist (£11.53) and the Wonderfilter Velvet Finish Primer (£11.06). If you were to purchase these products without having a BeautyPie membership, they’d set you back an eye-watering £60, £30 and £35 respectively.
With each group of products I applied the toner first and then the moisturiser. After my skin was ‘prepped,’ as the TikTokers would say, I put on the primer and applied my usual face of make-up.
I started my experiment by applying the Beauty Pie products first - solely because they arrived in the post before their Aldi counterparts.
Beauty Pie verdict
You can understand why people pay big money for these products. Not only are they packaged in aesthetically pleasing millennial pink bottles and jars, they feel great when applied to your face.
Spraying the Japanfusion toning mist onto my skin made me feel instantly brighter and more alert. It wasn’t too heavy and allowed the skin to ‘breathe’. After it had set in, I applied the miracle cream.
It’s a fairly viscous moisturiser but you don’t need much of it at all. It feels slightly heavier than normal creams, but leaves your face with a ‘dewy’ look that makes you feel as if you’ve just walked out of the salon.
For those with oily skin, it might not be a winner. But my skin practically drinks moisturiser and if left untreated for a day, borders on reptilian, so it was the perfect option for me.
Then, the primer. Good God, I’ve never known smooth skin like it. What are pores? I don’t appear to have them anymore. Applying this glorious product onto my face felt like a luxury I’d never experienced. It’s a matte primer, so perhaps not the best choice to pit against an illuminating option from Aldi, but my goodness, it delivers. It was the perfect base for my foundation (which has a tendency to feel a little cakey) as it glided straight on and blended perfectly.
After a long day of work, I’ve often found my make-up can look patchy and I’ve never been able to find a primer that solved the issue - until now. This is, without a doubt, one of the best products I’ve ever used on my face.
Lacura by Aldi verdict
The budget versions had big shoes to fill. After being totally wowed by the Beauty Pie products I didn’t think anything could live up to their majesty. But in some areas, I’m pleased to report I was impressed.
First up was the toner, which not only retails at a fraction of the price of the Beauty Pie version, but is also in a much bigger bottle, so there’s no argument you’re getting more for your money.
You have to put this toner on a pad and then apply it to your face, rather than spraying it on. I think this motion is actually much more refreshing than the spray, so it would be my preference when choosing toners in future. Just like the Beauty Pie version, this felt wonderful on my face and I was instantly brighter.
Then for the Caviar Illumination Day Cream. When opening the jar, you can see the cream is much thicker than the Beauty Pie version. I was concerned it might feel a little heavy on the face, but I was proven wrong.
Perhaps it was down to my scaly skin gasping for hydration again, but this cream blended into my face nicely and felt really nourishing. I would definitely buy this product again.
I suppose I should have prepared for disappointment with the Illuminating Primer, after proclaiming the Beauty Pie version was the best product I’d ever used. Other products were always going to fall flat in comparison.
Sadly I didn’t rate this product at all and I wouldn’t recommend it. It didn’t feel particularly nourishing on my skin, and when I applied foundation over the top, it didn’t blend well. In fact, my foundation looked pretty awful on top of the primer and I had to spend a lot of time blending it in.
After a few hours wearing a full face of make-up, it all began to look pretty patchy and it was clear that the primer hadn’t done its job.
However, while I wouldn’t buy Aldi’s primer again, I fully intend to stick with their toner and moisturiser, which are unbelievably good value for the results they give.
The Beauty Pie products are wonderful if you’re lucky enough to be able to afford them, but I think I’ll keep some Aldi products in my wash bag and buy myself an extra pint at the weekend.
