What AI Search Recommends for US Beauty Buyers

Executive summary

• Rare Beauty, Glossier, and Charlotte Tilbury capture 36% of DTC beauty cites across 28 prompts. Legacy department-store brands (Clinique, Estée Lauder) now appear mostly only in "luxury" and "gift" queries.
• TikTok shapes ChatGPT output more in beauty than any other category. r/MakeupAddiction and TikTok virality are the two largest ChatGPT input signals. A brand going viral on TikTok gets ChatGPT cites within 3 to 6 weeks.
• Ingredient-intent queries are wide open. "Best niacinamide serum under $30", "best retinol for beginners", "mineral sunscreen that does not leave white cast" get hedged or generic answers. The brand that publishes the clearest ingredient-led buying guide owns months of citations.

How each engine behaves in US beauty

ChatGPT is r/MakeupAddiction, r/SkincareAddiction, and TikTok-heavy. The engine reproduces the upvoted consensus and picks up virality faster than any other engine. Brands that are dormant on TikTok and Reddit (most legacy brands) lose share week over week. Brands that seed 10+ creators per month accumulate cites measurably.

Claude is ingredient-first. It cites brands that publish full INCI ingredient lists, percentage of actives when known, pH, and clinical-study references. Claude will refuse to recommend "best vitamin C serum" without substantiation and will default to brands with explicit actives-percentage disclosure (Paula's Choice, The Ordinary, Skinceuticals). Brands that hide their actives lose Claude share entirely.

Gemini follows Sephora and Ulta. It pulls retailer review data directly and weights Google Shopping star ratings. A brand in Sephora Clean, Ulta Conscious Beauty, or Sephora Beauty Insider recommendations gets Gemini cites disproportionately. Products with under 200 Sephora reviews are suppressed.

Perplexity leans on Byrdie, Allure, Vogue Beauty, Harper's Bazaar, The Strategist, and Into The Gloss. Fifty-six percent of cited sources came from these six in our test. Independent dermatologist blogs (Dr Dray, Dr Shah Dr Pimple Popper, Dr Idriss) also surface regularly for ingredient queries.

Share of voice this week

Estimated citations per 100 prompts, blended:

• Rare Beauty 34 (ChatGPT 42, Claude 26, Gemini 40, Perplexity 28). Cross-engine dominance.
• Glossier 28. Owns "natural no-makeup" queries.
• Charlotte Tilbury 27. Luxury makeup, gift queries.
• The Ordinary 26. Ingredient-led skincare default.
• CeraVe 24. Drugstore default across engines.
• Paula's Choice 22. Owns the "BHA" and "vitamin C" ingredient queries.
• Skinceuticals 20. Luxury actives.
• Fenty Beauty 19. Foundation inclusivity.
• Drunk Elephant 18. Clean skincare prestige.
• NARS 15. Color cosmetics classic.
• Sol de Janeiro 14. Body viral brand.
• Summer Fridays 13. DTC prestige skincare.
• Ilia 13. Clean beauty makeup.
• Tower 28 12. Sensitive-skin makeup.
• Merit 11. Minimal-makeup DTC.
• Tarte 10. Shape Tape concealer, gift sets.
• Kosas 10. Clean performance makeup.
• Saie 9. Clean beauty rising.

Below 9: noise.

What the winners do that losers don't

Rare Beauty teardown. Rare Beauty is a masterclass in modern beauty AI visibility. Selena Gomez's social footprint provides TikTok seeding density that no brand can match through paid. The brand's shade range is documented with skin-tone swatch galleries, model diversity is explicit, and founder narrative (mental health, Rare Impact Fund) is repeatedly cited in editorial. Product pages publish INCI lists and finish descriptions. Sephora availability gives them Gemini share. They appear to pass all four engine tests simultaneously.

The Ordinary teardown. The Ordinary built the ingredient-first template. Every product names the active (Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%, Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5) in the SKU title itself. Product pages explain what the ingredient does, at what percentage, with what pH, and what not to combine it with. Claude cites The Ordinary for nearly any ingredient query because the data is unambiguous. The brand's parent (DECIEM) publishes a "regimen builder" quiz that the AI has learned to reproduce in its own recommendations.

CeraVe teardown. CeraVe wins the "dermatologist recommended" space with a simple play: every product page lists the three ceramides, explains MVE technology, and cites dermatologist endorsement. The brand's TikTok presence (via sponsored derms like Dr Dray) is massive. CeraVe Moisturizing Cream is the single most-cited skincare SKU in our data across all four engines. The brand is near-category-reference for "what to use if you have sensitive skin".

Prompt-type segmentation

Transactional ("best drugstore foundation for oily skin"): CeraVe, e.l.f., Maybelline, Revlon. Drugstore brands still hold this bucket.

Comparative ("Rare Beauty versus Glossier lip products"): Almost no brand has versus content. Editorial sites win.

Educational ("what order to apply skincare morning routine"): The Ordinary and Paula's Choice own this because they publish routine guides.

Trust ("is The Ordinary actually effective", "is Drunk Elephant worth the price"): Brands with clinical-study references win. Most do not publish them.

Skin-type ("best skincare for combination skin with rosacea"): Derm-focused brands win (Skinfix, La Roche-Posay, Avène). DTC brands are underweighted here because they do not publish skin-type targeting explicitly.

Ingredient-intent ("best retinol for beginners"): Paula's Choice, The Ordinary, Shani Darden, Sunday Riley split. Brands without named percentages lose by default.

Gap map

Brands with real US presence under 5% AI share:

• Youth To The People. Clean skincare prestige with real revenue, cited in 4 of 28. Cause: light ingredient explanation, thin versus content.
• Kiehl's. Legacy prestige skincare, cited in 3 of 28 despite wide Sephora and Ulta availability. Cause: the brand's product pages read like marketing copy, not ingredient data Claude can cite.
• Caudalie. French pharmacy prestige, cited in 4 of 28. Cause: US-specific editorial coverage is thinner than European.
• Dieux. Rising clean skincare brand, cited in 3 of 28. Cause: small editorial footprint, minimal Reddit presence.
• Westman Atelier. High-end clean makeup by Gucci Westman, cited in 2 of 28 despite Vogue love. Cause: site treats products like editorial pieces; AI cannot parse structured data.
• Topicals. Gen-Z clean skincare, cited in 5 of 28. Growing TikTok presence, needs explicit ingredient-percentage content.
• Hero Cosmetics. Mighty Patch for acne, cited in 4 of 28. Needs versus content against COSRX.
• Tower 28. Sensitive-skin makeup, cited in 12 of 28 but still under-share given editorial density. Needs dermatologist endorsement content.

Open queries no brand owns

1. "Mineral sunscreen for dark skin that does not leave white cast". Chronic pain, open.
2. "Retinol for a beginner with sensitive skin in their late 20s". Editorial-only answer.
3. "Best fragrance-free body lotion that actually moisturizes". Unanswered.
4. "Makeup remover that does not strip the skin barrier". Hedged.
5. "What skincare to use during pregnancy that is not just Belli". Open.
6. "Concealer for under-eye that does not crease on mature skin". Editorial wins, no brand.
7. "Hair and makeup products that survive 12-hour hospital nursing shifts". Niche but real, zero brand answer.
8. "Fungal-acne safe moisturizers". Reddit-only, no brand owns.

The 90-day playbook

Scored Impact / Confidence / Ease.

1. Publish full INCI, actives percentages, and pH per SKU (I5 / C5 / E3). Claude will not cite otherwise. 2 to 3 weeks of content work.

2. Build a dermatologist advisory board and publish their clinical endorsements (I5 / C3 / E2). Drives Claude, Perplexity, and trust-tier queries.

3. Pitch Byrdie, Allure, Vogue Beauty, Harper's Bazaar Beauty, and The Strategist (I5 / C3 / E2). Custom angle per outlet. Expect 6 to 10 weeks to land one.

4. Seed 30 to 60 TikTok creators per quarter (I5 / C4 / E3). Beauty TikTok moves ChatGPT output faster than anywhere else. Mid-tier creators (50K to 300K) are most efficient.

5. Publish a routine builder or shade finder quiz (I4 / C4 / E3). AI learns from these and reproduces brand logic in its answers.

6. Get Sephora Clean or Ulta Conscious Beauty status if eligible (I4 / C3 / E2). Gemini cites this credential.

Methodology and appendix

Prompts tested: best drugstore foundation oily skin, best mineral sunscreen dark skin, best retinol beginners, best vitamin C serum under $40, best lip balm dry lips, best concealer mature skin, best eye cream 30s, best cleanser combination skin, best moisturizer fungal acne safe, best body lotion fragrance free, best hair serum frizz, best mascara sensitive eyes, best makeup remover, best dupes for Rare Beauty blush, Glossier versus Rare Beauty, best clean makeup brands, best skincare pregnancy safe, best eczema body wash, best scalp serum hair thinning, best tinted sunscreen, best foundation for redness, best cruelty free makeup, best hypoallergenic perfume, best body oil dry skin, best at-home hair color, best brow gel thin brows, best lip oil, best setting powder, best bronzer pale skin. Engines: ChatGPT gpt-5, Claude sonnet-4-6, Gemini 2.5, Perplexity Sonar Pro.

Week 1 directional. Week 2 confirmed.

Next week

April 27 rerun. Reply with your domain for a SKU-level check.