Oscar Wilde said “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” It also happens to be big business.

Karen Grant, global beauty industry analyst at NPD Group, told Business of Fashion that creating a successful beauty “dupe”—one deemed by the online beauty community to be a near-perfect match to a cult product like the Kylie Lip Kit—can be worth “millions and millions of dollars” for a brand. Technology and social media have given rise to a channel of fast beauty knock-offs.  The blog Temptalia has a searchable database of more than 75,000 dupes.

The drivers for the meteoric rise of the beauty dupe business according to BOF:

• The consumer’s desire for instant gratification.
• The decline of brand loyalty and quickening trend cycles.
• Dupes are cheaper and more accessible.
• Beauty blogger endorsements have given dupes legitimacy.
• According to Google Trends, interest in the search term “beauty dupe” has almost tripled since January of 2016.

Read the full article “Behind the Business of Beauty Dupes” on Business of Fashion