A plane ticket to Brazil for a beach holiday is pricey. A tub of body cream? Probably less so. Now, a TikTok creator recently discovered a dupe for luxury beauty brand Sol de Janeiro at, of all places, Five Below.
Creator Abby Rivera (@abbythebadassmom) bills herself as the “Shopping Challenge Bestie” and posts content about affordable alternatives to popular beauty products. She recently went viral posting about her Five Below discovery on TikTok, and the video has about 691,000 views and 74,000 likes as of Saturday.
“The best dupe yet,” Rivera promises in the video.
The creator holds up three colorful containers of body butter. “If you are obsessed with Sol de Janeiro, get your butt to Five Below,” she says. “The Solar Flare collection smells identical.”
Rivera compares three Sol de Janeiro scents to three Solar Flare products. The Brazilian Caramel Dreams scent at Five Below smells like Sol de Janiero’s No. 62, she says. Both feature notes of salted caramel, pistachio, and vanilla. Vanilla Plum Nectar and No. 40 smell similar, with notes of plum, jasmine, and vanilla or tonka bean. Pink Hibiscus Dragonfruit and No. 68 are almost twins, with dragon fruit and floral notes.
In addition to the body butters, she found hair and body fragrance mist and body oil at Five Below.
“Five bucks for everything,” Rivera says, adding, “You could actually get all three body sprays, all three body butters, and you would still be less than the price of one Sol de Janeiro product.”
@abbythebadassmom Hands down the best dupe for Sol De Janeiro. Dont know how long these will last at 5 Below so might want to hurry. Cheaper alternatives to Sol De Janeiro #soldejaneirodupe #dupeswithabby #skincarewithabby #soldejaneiromist #fivebelowfinds#bumbumcream #soldejaneiro62 #skincaredupes ♬ original sound – Abbythebadassmom – Abby Rivera
In the caption of the video, Rivera urged viewers to act fast, because the Solar Flare products might go quickly.
“Literally heading to my five below right now … my 8-year-old daughter has been begging for sol de Janeiro,” one commenter wrote.
“I went to five below and I was in shock … I thought I was the only one it’s identical!!!” someone else wrote.
Another viewer asked if the Five Below scents lasted as long as Sol de Janeiro. A fellow commenter replied, “I’ve actually been really disappointed at how fast sol de janerio wears off! Can’t imagine the dupe can be much worse but at that price point, I wouldn’t mind reapplying throughout the day.”
Another person commented on the video, “It’s amazing and the smell [lasts] a while … I would recommend.”
“I work at 5 below..and u bet i already [bought],” a comment read.
“Got it! Showed the employee your video and she was happy to show me where they had it!” a viewer chimed in.
Other TikTokers offered Sol de Janeiro dupe finds at other stores, like Solar Floral at TJ Maxx or Marshall’s, and Brazilian Mist at Dollar Tree.
Named after the “Sun of January,” or when the Brazilian sun is at its highest peak in summer, Sol de Janeiro touts a beachy, feel-good vibe to all its products. Vogue Business this year called it a “cult beauty brand.”
The company positions itself as the epitome of Brazilian beauty, but not all of its ingredients are sourced from the South American country. The products themselves are manufactured in the U.S. According to CB Insights, the company was founded in 2015 and is based in New York.
“While many of our ingredients are indigenous to Brazil, these are not the only ingredients we use and love. Just like Brazil is known for its diversity, our ingredients are also diverse to offer the very best of everything. We source ingredients from around the world to consistently bring you the highest quality products and benefits,” according to the website.
It’s difficult to make direct ingredient comparisons between the Sol de Janeiro and Five Below products, based on information available online.
Five Below doesn’t list the full ingredients for its Solar Flare products on its website. Aside from the fragrance notes on the package, the body oil contains jojoba and sunflower oil, and the body butter contains cocoa and shea butter, according to Five Below. The hair and body fragrance mist is not listed on the website.
Sol de Janeiro, however, lists the ingredients for all its products, including perfume mists and body creams. The Brazilian Bum Bum Cream, for example, contains cupuaçu butter, coconut oil, açaí oil, and more.
“I did not look at any of the ingredients, I was just blown away about how they smelled identical,” Rivera told the Daily Dot in an email interview on Friday. “Even the packaging of the body butters was so similar. It is what caught my attention to pick them up and check out what they were.”
The Sol de Janeiro price points, on the other hand, can be compared quite easily to Five Below’s $5. The Brazilian Bum Bum Cream runs from $10 to $48. Most Sol de Janeiro fragrances cost $24 to $38.
“I love helping my followers find similar products to high-end viral products and cheaper alternatives that provide similar benefits and results,” Rivera told the Dot. “I always have my eye out for the cheaper alternatives. So many of my followers responded saying, ‘thank you, I wanted the original, but it is not in my budget.’”
Rivera went viral a few months ago for a video about a negative shopping experience at Sephora involving children.
The Daily Dot reached out to Five Below and Sol de Janeiro via email.
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