Editorial standards

These are the rules we hold ourselves to. They're the reason you can trust a number on this site more than a brand telling you its own product is a perfect match.

Accuracy & no fabrication

Every comparative claim on DupeLuxe is grounded in cited evidence or the documented profile of the original product. We do not invent sensory details, reviews, or testing we didn't do. When our sources are thin or our confidence is low, we say less — or publish nothing — rather than guess.

Responsible use of AI

We use large language models to help compile mappings, compute scores, and draft page content at scale. Every use is constrained by confidence gating: the model is instructed to decline when it isn't sure, and low-confidence output is dropped, not published. AI helps us cover more products accurately — it is never licensed to make things up.

Independence from commissions

DupeLuxe is reader-supported through affiliate links. Scores, rankings and verdicts are computed from independent evidence before any commercial link is attached, and are never adjusted for commission. A product we earn nothing from can — and does — outrank one we do.

Sourcing

We build a first-party dataset from public brand mappings, public community clone lists, published similarity ratings, and documented dupe pairings. We cite our sources and link out so you can verify them. We do not scrape or republish competitors' proprietary databases.

Our methodology, concretely

Multiple independent sources per match. For fragrance we cross-reference brand "inspired-by" mappings, public community clone lists, and published similarity ratings; for makeup and skincare we compile heavily-documented dupe pairings. No single source is treated as ground truth.
Verified similarity where it exists. When an independent, published similarity percentage is available for a pairing, we use it directly and cite it; otherwise the score reflects how many independent sources agree.
Currently-available only. Every alternative we publish is checked against live retailer listings; discontinued and unavailable items are dropped, so you're not chasing a dupe you can't buy.
Prices kept fresh. Retailer prices come from official APIs and are refreshed regularly; each carries the date it was last checked.
Skincare handled carefully. For skincare we compare on ingredients and formulation positioning, not on promised results — we never claim a cheaper product delivers identical efficacy, and we note that outcomes vary. It's informational, not medical advice.
Confidence-gated; thin pages excluded. When we can't say anything genuinely useful and verifiable about an obscure product, we keep that page out of the search index rather than publish filler.

Corrections

Prices, availability and formulations change, and no aggregation is perfect. If you spot an error — a wrong score, a discontinued product, an outdated price — please tell us and we'll review and update it. Pages carry a "last updated" date.

Affiliate disclosure

See our full affiliate disclosure for how we're compensated.