Dupes

Dupes series explores TikTok's explosive dupe culture where everyday people reverse-engineer luxury products across beauty, fashion, food, and lifestyle. VV Steele breaks down how consumers are recreating three-hundred-dollar perfumes for twelve dollars, making nineteen-dollar Erewhon smoothies at home for three, transforming IKEA furniture into Pottery Barn aesthetics, and crafting designer-inspired handbags for a fraction of retail prices. Across three episodes covering beauty dupes, fashion and home hacks, and culinary copycats, VV examines which techniques actually work, the psychology behind luxury-coded pricing, and what this democratization movement reveals about generational wealth gaps, consumer rebellion, and modern capitalism. Discover the science behind fragrance layering, ingredient transparency in skincare, DIY leather crafting, restaurant recipe replication, and whether dupe culture represents empowerment or just affordable overconsumption in a different form. This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.