Nail polishes are currently the only cosmetics available on the app. Users select their favorites from a list of luxury brands and colors and then match them to a cheaper version.

“My sister Pam and I were shopping in Sephora one day and realized there had to be drugstore dupes for every pricey item we bought, but we didn’t have the time or inclination to go through the trial and error to determine which drugstore items were the dupes,” said Lizzy Klein, creator and founder of SuperDuper, New York. “Pam gets the credit for recognizing there should be an app for that.

“We want people to use SuperDuper at the nail salon, drug store, and wherever else they’re thinking about nail polish, so it had to be mobile,” she said. “We also expect the camera to be key as we develop the feature set.”

The app is only available for Apple iOS, with plans to expand into Android and add a greater database of cosmetics.

Not cosmetic changes
Lizzy Klein, who is a former Seamless.com executive, developed the app for four months before releasing it. She tested and compared multiple luxury nail polishes to drugstore equivalents on each of their own nails and in various lighting.

List of Yves Saint Laurent colors on SuperDuper

After speaking to experts at cosmetic retailers and brands, beauty bloggers, researchers and other product professionals, the conclusion was made that all nail polish formula is relatively the same.

The price variations with these products make this a valuable app for consumers and cheaper brands. For instance, the nail color Fracas by Chanel is the same as Essie’s Peach Daiquiri, but Chanel is priced at $27 compared to $8.50 for Essie.

Essie is already an established nail polish brand with a reliable formula. However, potential consumers can easily been lured away to another brand with the assumption that more expensive means its better.

SuperDuper brings those customers back to Essie with a simple click.

App of the beholder 
Consumers are able to use this app on-the-go through their iPhone or iPad. If a customer is in a store looking at higher-priced nail polishes, she will be able to search for the less expensive twin.

But it can work the opposite as well.

If a user is in a drugstore thinking of a particular favorite luxury nail color, she can pull up the app, find the duplicate and then search for it in the store.

SuperDuper will partner with brands in the future as the app gains more downloads and users. But Ms. Klein first wants to focus more on the optimal user experience.

It is not a surprise that an app such as SuperDuper has been released, given the growing interest in the segment. Allure released its beauty appointment app last year (see more).

“We have big plans for SuperDuper,” Ms. Klein said. “We want to change the way you spend your beauty bucks.

“We plan to tackle other color cosmetic categories lipstick, eyeliner and eyeshadow and incorporate recommendations, social components and ecommerce,” she said.

 Final Take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile Marketer, New York