Method
A resemblance reading, with its reasoning shown.
We started with skincare and beauty because that’s where viral look-alikes show up fastest.
01
We read the packaging
Your photos go through a vision model that transcribes printed text — brand, product name, claims, size — and describes the packaging: container shape, cap, colour palette, typography, layout.
02
We turn that into two fingerprints
One fingerprint captures how the pack looks. A second captures the wording on it. Both are stored as vectors so any two products can be compared numerically.
03
We compare within the product type
A serum is compared with serums first. Products from other categories still appear, but under 'Related', so a cleanser that happens to share a bottle shape doesn't crowd out the real matches.
04
We score and explain
Sixty percent of the score comes from visual resemblance, forty from the label text, with a small boost when brand or product names overlap. Every match lists the specific reasons behind its number.
Every check you run helps the next shopper
There is no private product database being served from a back room. The index is built one submission at a time — by you, and by everyone else who checked a product before you. When you photograph a pack, it’s read, fingerprinted, and added to the same pool your result was drawn from.
So a check that comes back “no close matches” isn’t a dead end — it means you just became the first person to log that product. The next shopper who photographs the same pack, or a look-alike of it, will get a match because of you.
The more people use Dupe Detective, the sharper every result gets. That’s the whole engine.
What this is not
- Not an authenticity check. A high score means two products look alike. Look-alike packaging is often perfectly legal.
- Not a formulation comparison. We read what is printed on the pack, not what is inside it.
- Not exhaustive. We only compare against products people have submitted. A low score can simply mean the look-alikes are not in the index yet.
How we make money — and why it can’t move a score
Some result pages carry a “Buy the original” link to a retailer, and we may earn a commission if you buy through it. Brands can also pay us to be alerted when look-alikes of their products are submitted.
Neither payment can change a similarity score, suppress a match, or decide what gets flagged. Scores are produced by the model and the formula described above, before any commercial link is attached. If a paying brand’s own product resembles something else in the index, it is scored and shown exactly like any other submission — and paid links are labelled as affiliate links wherever they appear.
Found a copycat? Here is how to report it
A high resemblance grade can be a sign that a brand should know about the listing. We have a step-by-step guide for documenting the packaging, gathering side-by-side evidence, and reporting it to the brand, marketplace, or authorities.
Read the reporting guide