Is there a dupe for Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Daily Peel?

Not an exact one — the original's specific five-acid blend (glycolic, salicylic, lactic, malic, citric) at undisclosed strengths, pre-dosed into a buffered pad, is its own thing. But the daily-resurfacing function is a commodity. The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution ($13.50) delivers the AHA side at a disclosed 7% for a few cents per use, and Stridex Maximum pads ($4.68) cover the salicylic, grab-and-go side. Together they do most of the job for a fraction of the $94 price.

Why is the Alpha Beta Daily Peel so expensive?

At roughly $3.13 per single-use pad, you are paying for the format and the brand, not the chemistry. The acids inside — glycolic and salicylic above all — are among the cheapest, most-studied actives in skincare and are sold at disclosed concentrations elsewhere for a few cents per use. What the price buys is the convenience of a pre-dosed, pre-soaked multi-acid pad with a soothing antioxidant cushion.

Can The Ordinary replace Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta?

For everyday glow and texture, largely yes — The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution does the core daily AHA resurfacing for about $13.50. What it will not replicate is the original's all-in-one convenience and the exact glycolic-plus-salicylic-plus-lactic-plus-malic-plus-citric combination in a single wipe. If the multi-acid breadth or the BHA component matters to you, pair the glycolic toner with a salicylic product like Stridex.

What acids are in the Alpha Beta Daily Peel?

Step 1 contains five exfoliating acids: glycolic and lactic and malic (alpha-hydroxy acids), salicylic (a beta-hydroxy acid), and citric acid, plus witch hazel and soothing green tea and chamomile. Step 2 neutralizes. Dr. Dennis Gross does not disclose the individual percentages, which is why the comparison here is by function and by which disclosed actives the cheaper options deliver.

Dupe report Nº 019 / Multi-acid daily peel pads

Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Daily Peel dupes, ranked by formula match

A five-acid pad at about $3 a use. The daily resurfacing it does costs cents.

The verdict / read the actives, not the marketing

There is no exact Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Universal Daily Peel dupe. There is no exact dupe for the Alpha Beta Daily Peel — its specific five-acid blend (glycolic, salicylic, lactic, malic, citric) at undisclosed strengths, pre-dosed into a convenient pad with a soothing antioxidant cushion, is genuinely its own thing. But the job it does — gentle daily acid resurfacing for tone and texture — is a commodity, and you are paying roughly $3 per single-use pad for it. The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution delivers a disclosed 7% glycolic acid, the AHA workhorse, in a 240 mL bottle that costs about $0.80 per gram of active and a few cents per use — the closest functional daily-resurfacing alternative. Stridex Maximum pads cover the salicylic, grab-and-go side for $4.68. What the original sells that neither dupe matches is the all-in-one multi-acid convenience and the buffered, soothing formula; what it cannot justify is the price of the acids themselves, which are cheap and disclosed elsewhere.

— ✓ original Glycolic

— ✓ original Salicylic

$13.50 vs $94 original The Ordinary

Best available match: 70% base-formula score — the highest we measured across the candidates. Scores reflect formula proximity — read the actives column for the clinical story. How we score ↓

The winner

The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution

Buy on Amazon $13.50 Breakdown ↓

Some links earn us a commission. It never changes the verdict — the methodology is public.

02 / The scoreboard

3 formulas, 2 numbers that matter

Read the actives column first — it is the apples-to-apples comparison. $ per gram of active is what the working ingredients cost you; the base-formula score is supporting evidence, not the verdict.

Product	Actives vs original	$ / g of active	Price	Base formula	Verdict
Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Universal Daily Peel	Multi-acid blend; concentrations undisclosed	$0.00	$94.00 pads	100% the reference	The original
Partial overlap missing actives — different formula wearing the keywords
The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution	Concentration disclosed	$0.80	$13.50 240 mL	70% highest measured	The winner Amazon →
Stridex Maximum Strength Medicated Pads	Concentration disclosed	— not disclosed	$4.68 pads	55%	Best budget Amazon →

✓ same % as original ≠ different % ? in formula, % undisclosed — not in formula

03 / The original

Why the original is the original

The Alpha Beta Daily Peel is a two-step, single-use pad. Step 1 is a blend of five exfoliating acids — glycolic, salicylic, lactic, malic, and citric — at concentrations the brand does not disclose, buffered with green tea and chamomile; Step 2 neutralizes. The pitch is convenience and a balanced multi-acid dose.

Two things are true at once. The convenience is real — a pre-dosed, pre-soaked pad with a soothing antioxidant cushion is genuinely pleasant, and the specific five-acid ratio is the brand's own. But the acids themselves are commodities: glycolic and salicylic are the two most-studied daily exfoliants in skincare, and you can buy either at a disclosed concentration for a fraction of the per-use cost.

At roughly $3.13 per pad, you are paying a premium for the format, not the chemistry. The candidates below do not replicate the exact five-acid blend — nothing sold cheaply does — but they deliver the same daily-resurfacing job. We are honest about what you give up (the all-in-one convenience, the buffered cushion) and what you save.

04 / The candidates

Every candidate, examined

01 / The Ordinary

The winner

$0.80 per g of active

$13.50 retail · 240 mL

70% base formula · highest of 6

The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution

Shared formula DNA 1 of 26 original ingredients present

Water Alcohol Denat. Glycolic Acid Potassium Hydroxide Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Water Salicylic Acid Polysorbate 20 Citric Acid Lactic Acid Malic Acid Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract Achillea Millefolium Extract Anthemis Nobilis (Chamomile) Flower Extract Soy Isoflavones Copper PCA Zinc PCA Lecithin Disodium EDTA Alcohol Polysorbate 80 Fragrance (Parfum) Linalool Benzyl Salicylate Benzoic Acid Phenoxyethanol Sodium Benzoate

shared with original not shared rare marker — weighs more in the score

What matches: Delivers a disclosed 7% glycolic acid — the single most-studied daily AHA — in a leave-on toner, doing the core resurfacing job of the original's AHA side. Shares glycolic and citric acid with the peel; at $0.80 per gram of active in a 240 mL bottle, it works out to a few cents per use versus the original's ~$3.13 per pad.
What differs: Glycolic-only — it does not include the original's salicylic (BHA) side or the lactic, malic, and citric supporting acids, and it is a liquid you apply with a cotton pad rather than a pre-soaked one. It also layers in a hydrating amino-acid and aloe base the original lacks. Not the five-acid blend; the daily AHA workhorse at a fraction of the price.
Who it's for: The winner — the closest functional daily-resurfacing alternative. If you used the peel for everyday glow and texture, a disclosed 7% glycolic toner does that job for about $13.50. If you specifically want the multi-acid plus BHA combination in one wipe, only the original delivers it — or pair this with a salicylic product.

Ships in: Packaging not verified No brand or retailer statement on the bottle — we won’t guess.
pH: pH not published L-ascorbic acid needs pH below 3.5 to absorb
Data source: Concentration disclosed INCI verified verbatim; ASIN B071914GGL price PA-API-verified 2026-06-14.

$13.50 for 240 mL → $0.80 per gram of active — 0.0× cheaper per active gram than the original's $0.00.

Buy on Amazon $13.50

02 / Stridex

Best budget

— per g of active

$4.68 retail · pads

55% base formula · 2nd of 6

Stridex Maximum Strength Medicated Pads

Shared formula DNA 1 of 26 original ingredients present

shared with original not shared rare marker — weighs more in the score

What matches: Covers the salicylic (BHA) and pad-convenience side of the original at the lowest price on the page ($4.68) — pre-soaked 2% salicylic acid pads you swipe and toss.
What differs: BHA-only and harsher: the pads add alcohol-class surfactants, menthol, and fragrance, with none of the glycolic, lactic, or malic AHA exfoliation and none of the soothing antioxidant cushion the original uses to balance the acids. A more astringent product that overlaps on format and the salicylic component.
Who it's for: The best-budget pick if pad convenience and the BHA side are what you valued and your skin tolerates a stronger feel — strong for oily or congested skin and the body. For the AHA resurfacing that defines the Alpha Beta peel, the glycolic toner is the closer match.

Ships in: Packaging not verified No brand or retailer statement on the bottle — we won’t guess.
pH: pH not published L-ascorbic acid needs pH below 3.5 to absorb
Data source: Concentration disclosed INCI verified verbatim; ASIN B000O1KP1O price PA-API-verified 2026-06-14.

$4.68 (pads) → — not disclosed: the brand doesn't state active percentages, so this number cannot honestly exist.

Buy on Amazon $4.68

05 / Methodology

How we verified this

Verified 2026-06-14

Every formula on this page was tokenized — split into its individual INCI ingredients — and matched against the EU CosIng ingredient database, so "Aqua," "Water," and "Eau" all resolve to the same ingredient.

The base-formula match score works like this: sharing a rare ingredient counts far more than sharing a common one. Almost every serum contains water and glycerin — that proves nothing. Almost nothing contains Ethoxydiglycol or Laureth-23, so when a candidate shares those with the original, it says something real about how the formula was built. (For the statisticians: it is an IDF-weighted Jaccard similarity over the normalized ingredient lists.)

Scores are computed, not opinions. The verdict tags are our editorial read of the actives, the scores, and the prices — and the methodology stays public so you can disagree with us precisely.

Where the ingredient lists come from

Multi-acid blend; concentrations undisclosed
Concentration disclosed

Sources for this report

INCIDecoder product pages (live crawl 2026-06)
Amazon Creators PA-API — ASIN/price verification (2026-06-14)
glycolic-acid.json + salicylic-acid.json ingredient dossiers (verifiedbeautydata internal, 2026-06)

06 / Questions

Frequently asked

Is there a dupe for Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Daily Peel?: Not an exact one — the original's specific five-acid blend (glycolic, salicylic, lactic, malic, citric) at undisclosed strengths, pre-dosed into a buffered pad, is its own thing. But the daily-resurfacing function is a commodity. The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution ($13.50) delivers the AHA side at a disclosed 7% for a few cents per use, and Stridex Maximum pads ($4.68) cover the salicylic, grab-and-go side. Together they do most of the job for a fraction of the $94 price.
Why is the Alpha Beta Daily Peel so expensive?: At roughly $3.13 per single-use pad, you are paying for the format and the brand, not the chemistry. The acids inside — glycolic and salicylic above all — are among the cheapest, most-studied actives in skincare and are sold at disclosed concentrations elsewhere for a few cents per use. What the price buys is the convenience of a pre-dosed, pre-soaked multi-acid pad with a soothing antioxidant cushion.
Can The Ordinary replace Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta?: For everyday glow and texture, largely yes — The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution does the core daily AHA resurfacing for about $13.50. What it will not replicate is the original's all-in-one convenience and the exact glycolic-plus-salicylic-plus-lactic-plus-malic-plus-citric combination in a single wipe. If the multi-acid breadth or the BHA component matters to you, pair the glycolic toner with a salicylic product like Stridex.
What acids are in the Alpha Beta Daily Peel?: Step 1 contains five exfoliating acids: glycolic and lactic and malic (alpha-hydroxy acids), salicylic (a beta-hydroxy acid), and citric acid, plus witch hazel and soothing green tea and chamomile. Step 2 neutralizes. Dr. Dennis Gross does not disclose the individual percentages, which is why the comparison here is by function and by which disclosed actives the cheaper options deliver.