IF Molly-Mae Hague posts about a beauty product, chances are it’ll go viral in an instant.
So it’s little surprise beauty fans were racing to their nearest high-street stores to snap up Aveeno’s ‘Face Calm + Restore Oat Gel Moisturiser,’ which she claimed was a convincing dupe of Tatcha’s ‘dewy skin cream.’
The 24-year-old influencer recently took to her YouTube channel and branded the bargain buy “fricking insane.”
Molly-Mae continued: “This is not to say that Tatcha is not incredible because it is, but this is for my girls that want a more affordable product.”
So one beauty whizz named Ellie Cheesman decided to put the high-end product and the bargain replica to the test to see if the Aveeno product is really worth the hype.
“The Molly Mae effect has once again worked on me – it worked with the Zara jacket and it’s worked with this,” she begins, in a post shared to her TikTok (@elliecheesmanxxxx) page.
Holding up a pot of the popular Aveeno product, which claims to “instantly hydrate your complexion,” she continues: “This is apparently meant to be a dupe – it’s meant to be identical apparently – to the Tatcha ‘dewy skin cream.’
“I love the Tatcha Dewy skin cream with all my heart and more, but my God is she expensive…”
Ellie, who says she has “normal to dry skin,” continues: “I mean, it is worth the money.
I love this, it looks so gorgeous on the skin, but if I can find something that works just as good for a fraction of the price then I’m going to do it.”
First up, she conducts the ‘smell test’ and says that while Tatcha “smells so good,” the Aveeno moisturiser is fragrance free so doesn’t actually smell of anything.
After admitting that texture-wise they “do look a little bit different,” Ellie then proceeds to apply the Tatcha cream on one side of her face and the Aveeno dupe on the other, before analysing the results.
After rubbing in the same pea-sized amount, the beauty fan says: “So in comparison, Tatcha straight away is a bit thicker.”
Speaking of the Aveeno, she points out: “This kind of melts and goes really nice, I mean it’s super soothing and it feels lovely.
“Straight away, I do actually think they look really similar on the skin. I saw some people said it’s not as glowy as Tatcha and I do somewhat see that slightly.
“The glow on the Tatcha is slightly dewier than on the Aveeno side but it feels the same.”
Pointing out another small difference, she notes that the Aveeno side “feels colder” for longer, while the Tatcha side melted away quick, so she couldn’t feel it on her skin for as long.
Ellie concludes: “Overall, for £8, I get where Molly-Mae’s coming from!”
She captioned the post: “As soon as I saw @Holly rose parsons video I ran STRAIGHT to boots to grab the @Aveeno_US Oat Gel Moisturiser.
“So lets test it next to the real deal and see if its worth the hype.”
The post quickly racked up thousands of views and comments, with many eager to share their own verdict on the two products.
“I love Aveeno – use religiously defo need to try this,” wrote one.
A second penned: “The Aveeno is an oat soothing gel cream – it’s cold for eczema people like me. It’s a god send!”
A third commented: “I could never part with my Tatcha!”
Meanwhile, a fourth noted: “I’m on my 3rd jar and I love it! It’s definitely worked a trick on my usually dry skin!”
