How supermarkets hide cheaper items in the baby aisle

MSE Update, 17 October 2025: While this blog was published a while ago, we've updated the prices and examples, and the general principle still applies. A big success from our baby aisle investigation back in 2017 was Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose dropped the price of cosmetic cotton buds as a result (see our news story).

You don't need to spend a pretty penny to look and feel, well, pretty. With costs of living ramping up the price of our weekly shop, switching the aisle where you stock up your beauty products could be a great way of keeping the pennies in check. Next time you need to replenish your beauty cupboard, skip the beauty aisle and make a beeline for the baby aisle. 

From cotton buds to sponges – a host of beauty essentials can all be found here at significantly lower prices than similar or near-identical alternatives elsewhere in the same shop. We’ve found this pattern at major stores, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Superdrug and Boots. Here’s what we found…

Cotton buds 23% cheaper for seemingly the same product

We found a pack of 200 cotton buds for 85p in the baby aisle* at Boots. The buds look and feel the same as the pack of 200 for £1.10 in the cosmetics aisle*, effectively making the baby aisle 23% cheaper.

Can you tell the difference (in the buds, not the packaging, of course)?

Upon further inspection, these two products were both made in Turkey, which could mean they came off the same Boots production line. One MSE staff member, who regularly uses cotton buds to remove make-up smudges put both the baby and beauty aisle equivalents to a blind test – she couldn't tell the difference between the two.

More seemingly identical products for less

After we found the cotton buds, we investigated and spotted a few more products that look identical to the pricier version sold elsewhere in the same shop. At Superdrug, you can get a 100g cotton wool pleat for £1.60. However, if you nip over to the baby aisle, you can get a 200g cotton wool pleat for £1.60 – that's the same price for another 100g more product.

Another example is sponges. Back at Boots, we found a two-pack of own-brand sponges in the baby aisle for 69p (35p each), while in the bath/shower section, we found another two-pack of own-brand sponges for £1.50 (75p each). There are some distinctions between the two, such as the colour and shape, but they essentially do the same thing. If you buy the baby sponges, you'd be saving 54%.

Similar products for much less

We’ve also seen a range of items that do the same job as their counterpart, but with very different prices in the same store. While these products might not be the same, many would be happy to swap out for a cheaper option which ultimately serves a similar function and use.

Staff at MSE swapped Boots biodegradable fragrance-free cleansing wipes for its Boots baby biodegradable fragrance-free wipes. Both are biodegradable and fragrance-free, but you get more wipes for less money when choosing the baby version – 4p per wipe vs 1p per wipe. There are some small variations between the two – the baby wipes are made in Turkey, while the face wipes are made in the UK.

MSE users also pointed out that you can substitute dog poo bags or sanitary disposal bags for nappy bags found in the baby aisle – the latter being a cheaper and more cost-effective option. In Morrisons, poo bags cost £2 for 75 (27p per 10 bags), while the nappy sacks cost 49p for 100 (5p per 10 sacks), which works out 81% cheaper.

Here are some more examples we found below. We have kept to own-brand, unless specified otherwise.

Is the swap worth it?

For some items, such as the cotton buds, sponges and cotton wool, it’s tricky to spot significant differences apart from the price. To us, they look and feel the same and are made in the same place for the same shop.

Buying ‘baby products’ might not always be cheapest, but there’s no harm in checking that aisle first. While we’ve only picked a handful of examples, this seems to be a trend across many supermarkets and pharmacies that sell baby products.

Aside from the baby section, there are other aisle swaps you can make to save yourself some cash in the supermarket. We've blogged around a number of other supermarket hacks, including buying in the world food aisle and how crouching down can save you cash. Also check our supermarket tips guide for loads more tricks.