Sunday Riley is an amazing brand, but we wouldn’t be QUILL if we weren’t giving you the good stuff – aka, affordable dupes for expensive AF products.
We’ve already written about Good Genes… but we missed all the other bestsellers. So, I’m taking care of the mess on aisle five and showing you what you could have – for a fraction of the price, and the exact same effects as Sunday Riley’s products.
Read on for our fav replacements, because look, no one needs to know you look damn good on a budget. You know? (We know, but we won’t tell anyone.)
We wrote an entire article on dupes for the product, but our favorite Good Genes doppleganger is from Summer Fridays (apparently brands with “day” in them are great?).
Good Genes and Summer Fridays’ Soft Reset both use lactic acid – a fantastic AHA that helps to exfoliate skin and give you a radiant complexion.
The assist for brightening comes in the form of glycolic acid in Soft Reset, while Good Genes relies on licorice and lemongrass.
And the hydration and soothing, plus pore minimization? You can thank Good Genes’ prickly pear, sure… or you can bless Soft Reset’s niacinamide, glycerin, chamomile, and aloe, all of which help calm down irritation.
We also love the addition of turmeric and sugarcane extracts in Soft Reset, which come together to add glow and protect, respectively. Who needs extra products for glow when you can get it in one product that costs $20 less than the alternative?
There are three products in Sunday Riley’s C.E.O. line, but we’re QUILL, so obvs we’re going to find dupes for all of them.
The C.E.O. Vitamin C Serum is a bit complex, but in the best way: vitamin C brightens, while AHA glycolic acid smoothes out skin texture AND balances pH. At the same time, a phytosterols complex reduces redness, and saccharide isomerate extract helps minimize pores and give you that fountain-of-youth look you’re craving.
So, what could possibly work the same for less than $85? bliss’ Bright Idea (which also works as a Bum Bum Cream dupe!), coming in at $28.
It’s a good dupe for the Sunday Riley serum with a ridiculous amount of vitamin C to plump and brighten, as well as citric acid (as opposed to C.E.O.’s glycolic acid) for ultimate glow. The dupe also has licorice for brightening and soothing effects, as well as glycerin and sodium hyaluronate to pump and lock in the hydration and calm dry, AHA-bombarded skin.
Bright Idea has a tri-peptide complex to help with skin elasticity, and it pairs with bisabolol, which helps fight signs of aging. Glow and lose those fine lines at the same time!
Within the C.E.O. Afterglow Cream, you’ll find a high amount of vitamin C in there for its rejuvenating, antioxidant-filled, and brightening properties. It also has an ingredient called ergothioneine, which is an amino acid with antioxidant properties, to stabilize the vitamin C. Hydration is locked in with sodium hyaluronate.
A worthy alternative to this $65 cream? Derma E’s night cream, filled with vitamin C and antioxidants. Derma E uses a vitamin C that’s already stabilized, stopping any degrading of your skin.
At the same time, rooibos acts as an anti-aging agent thanks to its fill of antioxidants, while hyaluronic pulls in moisture and locks it into skin, giving you a youthful complexion.
The coolest part? Derma E’s option also has a combination of probiotics, helping to guard against environmental stressors and balance the skin’s biome.
C.E.O. Glow Oil has a ton of ingredients working for it – how could there possibly be a dupe that does as much as Sunday Riley’s option? QUILL is here with good news: you’ll get the same results from the oils and C in Origins’ GinZing Into the Glow Brightening Serum.
Oils in C.E.O. Glow Oil include cranberry seed omegas and vitamins, pomegranate for its protective antioxidant, and jojoba to form a protective barrier against environmental stressors. GinZing has oils, too, including citrus oils combined to brighten (aiding the AHAs in the formula), and spearmint oil to help with elasticity.
But it’s the extracts in GinZing that really make this dupe work. These include coffee seed to awaken, ginseng root and papaya to fight wrinkles, oat kernel to cleanse the skin (like its fellow ingredient, the also-included salicylic acid), and algae to give your skin an overall makeover with its anti-acne and anti-aging properties.
GinZing also includes a ton of hydrating ingredients, like hyaluronic acid and sodium hyaluronate to lock in moisture, glycerin and squalane for hydration, and that algae extract for both hydrating and retaining extra moisture, too.
Autocorrect is a bitch sometimes, but not in the case of Sunday Riley’s product. Instead, this Auto Correct will give you a filter-worthy appearance, minus the Instagram effect. But you’ll look #Flawless with Tula’s Rose Glow & Get It eye balm, which offers damn-near identical effects at half the price.
Caffeine is the top ingredient in Auto Correct thanks to its fight against dark under eye circles, mixing with Brazilian ginseng root extract to reduce puffiness. To counteract under eye circles and puffiness, the Sunday Riley dupe uses caffeine as well; instead of Brazilian ginseng root extract for the puffiness, Rose Glow & Get It is formulated with rosehip oil and rosewater to soothe.
Both products have watermelon to deliver intense hydration, but Rose Glow & Get It also includes hyaluronic acid to lock in that moisture.
Horse chestnut and acmella oleracea extracts also help the eye area in Sunday Riley’s product by fighting aging, while Rose Glow & Get It uses apple to accomplish the same.
Lutein gives a lil extra support to the eye area in Auto Correct through protection against more intense oxidative damage to the skin – think blue light. While Tula doesn’t have this, it includes extra protection and repairing from environmental damage via Lactococcus Ferment Lysate, a postbiotic ingredient.
Okay, so a liiiiitle ironic that 5 Stars only has 3.5 stars on Ulta’s site, but we won’t point it out… 😉
In all seriousness, reviewers say 5 Stars fights aging around the eye area; it does this by encouraging collagen production and soothing and nurturing the sensitive skin there.
… But reviewers say the same of Avène’s Physiolift Eyes, which claims to do the exact same thing at a fraction of the price.
Both have hydrators: Sunday Riley uses niacinamide, while Avène’s dupe uses hyaluronic acid AND sodium hyaluronate to lock in moisture. They also feature retinol derivatives; while 5 Stars chooses retinoids to fight fine lines and wrinkles and exfoliate, Physiolift Eyes retinaldehyde, aka retinal (more effective than retinOl), to exfoliate and iron out wrinkles.
Now, in Sunday Riley’s 5 Stars, red poppy seed extract fights dark circles. In Avène’s Physiolift Eyes, Dextran Sulfate does the heavy lifting and reduces puffiness. Another difference: the use of fucans from brown algae to support collagen production in Avéne’s option, compared to the use of a trio of ingredients from centella asiatica in Sunday Riley’s serum.
Either one will give you eyes you’re proud of. The real question is what you want to spend for those eyes.
A+ gives you retinol – but in an even higher dose! Instead of a slew of good ingredients, the ingredients list gets to the good stuff: a retinoid ester blend to fight wrinkles and clear up skin; COQ10 to fight UV-exposed skin and give you a healthy complexion, and Hawaiian white honey to draw in water. Throw in ginger, bisabolol, and cactus extract to hydrate and calm, and you’ve got a dream-boat-serum.
But we love the dupe of this Sunday Riley classic, too: Volition’s Skin Rhythm Balancing and Clearing Serum.
There’s COQ10 in Volition’s option, but it doesn’t use retinol at all – instead, it uses AHAs like mandelic and azelaic acids to exfoliate and rid your skin of dead skin cells, giving your skin total rejuvenation. Meanwhile, BHA salicylic acid works with the AHAs, and willowbark plays a key role in finishing the back-from-the-dead job.
But it’s the soothers that differ most. Instead of ginger and cactus extract, or white honey and bisabolol, Skin Rhythm relies on glycerin to pull in moisture, and calming ingredients like anti-inflammation turmeric and basil extracts. Niacinamide kisses the formula with its oil control and evening of texture. Voila – the perfect dupe for almost half the price.
Sunday Riley’s Luna Night Oil is filled with retinol to help eradicate the ick and fight aging, as well as avocado seed oil for its plumping effects and slew of vitamins. Its dupe, however, does this all with ease, too!
Pacifica’s Wake Up Beautiful Retinoid Serum comes with Granactive retinoid to do all that retinol does, just with less intensity (but the same results!). We discussed the benefits of reishi mushroom, and you’ll find it here working to fight aging with firming and toning quinoa extract, and melatonin (yep, the stuff that helps you sleep!) to block free radicals.
When it comes to soothing redness, blue tansy, German chamomile, and cape chamomile essential oils do the job in Sunday Riley’s oil. In the dupe, chamomile and rice bran extracts help to soothe irritated skin, while jojoba esters hydrate and sunflower extract protects the skin barrier — all while softening your skin.
So, both of them do damn good at fighting aging without giving you totally red, totally irritated skin. Which should you go with? Well, either will work, but the $18 vs. $105 price tags may sway you…
Okay, right off the bat, ICE has ceramides. This would scare us off, because, oooo, ahhhh, ceramides… but it doesn’t, because Sunday Riley’s rival – aka Moisture Whipped Ceramide Cream from Kopari Beauty – does too.
Both products incorporate ceramides as their main ingredients, helping to replenish and protect the skin’s natural moisture barrier, allowing water in but not out. They also use coconut (coconut extract in Sunday Riley’s formula, whipped coconut milk AND coconut extract in Kopari’s) to hydrate and fight back against free radicals.
ICE and the Moisture Whipped Ceramide Cream also contain vitamin F, something not many products contain. Vitamin F acts as an extra force behind the skin’s moisture barrier and protects from UV rays and over environmental stressors.
While ICE uses beet root extract and red algae for extra locking of hydration, the Whipped Ceramide Cream uses hyaluronic acid, which pairs nicely with ceramides.
And then there’s the pomegranate sterols, which help with aging in Sunday Riley’s option. While the dupe doesn’t have any sterols, it does have vegan desert milk – derived from the baobab tree and kalahari melon – to calm inflammation and smooth skin out. Goodbye, uneven texture.
When it comes to choosing which is best for you, we do acknowledge that ICE has anti-aging benefits. But consider the other benefits from the Sunday Riley dupe before you snag the OG, because the results are preeeeetty similar in the end.
We hope this helped you find your next favorite skincare products! Which Sunday Riley dupes do you love? Tell us below!