- Across 24 AI answers (12 shopping prompts × ChatGPT and Gemini), 79 different brands filled 120 product slots.
- ChatGPT and Gemini named on average only 1.75 of the same brands per prompt (out of 5).
- Every ChatGPT answer (12/12) linked to Ulta Beauty; 62% of its 87 links went to major retailers, 28% to brand sites.
- Gemini answered 10 of 12 prompts with shopping cards showing price, merchant and star rating.
- L'Oréal Groupe brands held 21 of 70 slots in skincare and body-care prompts, but 3 of 50 in makeup, hair, fragrance and K-beauty prompts.
Why we ran this
When a shopper asks an AI assistant "best vitamin C serum for sensitive skin?", the answer is a shelf with five places on it. We wanted to know who gets those places, which sources the assistants lean on, and how much two assistants agree. This is the first edition of the Beauty AI Shelf Index; we will re-run the same prompts and publish the changes.
Method
Twelve consumer prompts across skincare, sun care, makeup, haircare, fragrance, K-beauty, body and lip care. Each prompt was run once on ChatGPT and once on Gemini on 9 October 2026 (23:47–23:54 UTC), logged out, in a fresh browser profile with an en-US locale and US time zone. Brands were attributed by hand from each answer. The publication below contains derived results; original answer captures and screenshots are not publicly linked.
Captured 9 October 2026 (UTC); first published 10 October 2026. See the measurement methodology for cohort and evidence rules.
| # | Category | Prompt (exact wording) |
|---|---|---|
| S1 | Skincare | Best vitamin C serum for sensitive skin? Recommend 5 products with brands and say where the information comes from. |
| S2 | Sun care | Best mineral sunscreen for dark skin with no white cast? Recommend 5 products with brands and sources. |
| S3 | Skincare | Best retinol serum for beginners? Recommend 5 products with brands and sources. |
| S4 | Skincare (men) | Best moisturizer for men with oily skin? Recommend 5 products with brands and sources. |
| S5 | Makeup | Best clean mascara that doesn't smudge? Recommend 5 products with brands and sources. |
| S6 | Makeup | Best setting powder for oily skin? Recommend 5 products with brands and sources. |
| S7 | Haircare | Best scalp serum for thinning hair? Recommend 5 products with brands and sources. |
| S8 | Fragrance | Best long-lasting vanilla perfume under $100? Recommend 5 with brands and sources. |
| S9 | Skincare (acne patches) | Best hydrocolloid pimple patches? Recommend 5 products with brands and sources. |
| S10 | K-beauty | Best Korean toner for dry skin? Recommend 5 products with brands and sources. |
| S11 | Body care | Best body lotion for very dry skin? Recommend 5 products with brands and sources. |
| S12 | Lip care | Best lip balm for very chapped lips? Recommend 5 products with brands and sources. |
Finding 1 — Retailers are the shelf AI reads
ChatGPT linked to Ulta Beauty in all 12 answers and to at least one major US retailer (Ulta, Sephora, Target, CVS, Walmart) in 12 of 12. Brand websites were linked in 9 of 12 answers.
What it means: your Ulta, Sephora, Target and Amazon product pages are part of your GEO. If the size, INCI, claims or shade list there differ from your own site, the assistant has two versions of the truth.
Finding 2 — Two assistants, two different shelves
For the same prompt, ChatGPT and Gemini named on average 1.75 of the same brands. They shared none for skincare (S1). The closest agreement was body care (S11: CeraVe, Eucerin, La Roche-Posay).
Interpretation: the two assistants returned different brand sets in this sample. Our service scope covers six platforms, but this edition contains observations from only ChatGPT and Gemini.
Finding 3 — Gemini answers like a shop
In 10 of 12 answers, Gemini showed product cards with price, merchant and star rating before any explanation. ChatGPT did this in 1 of 12 in this run.
Interpretation: product facts such as price, availability and merchant identity deserve verification alongside page text. These observations do not establish how Gemini weights those facts or which data feed supplied a shopping card.
Finding 4 — Big groups own derm-skincare; style categories are open
CeraVe appeared in 9 of 24 answers, more than any other brand. L'Oréal Groupe brands (CeraVe, La Roche-Posay, Kiehl's, L'Oréal Paris, Maybelline, SkinCeuticals, Kérastase) held 24 of 120 slots overall — 21 of 70 in skincare and body-care prompts, and 3 of 50 in makeup, haircare, fragrance and K-beauty.
What it means: in dermatologist-led categories, challengers compete with brands that have years of reviews and expert citations. In makeup, fragrance and K-beauty, the shelf was far more varied — a smaller brand with clear, consistent product facts has a real chance.
Finding 5 — Third-party voices travel with the answer
ChatGPT named an editorial, review or medical source in 10 of 12 answers — including Allure, American Academy of Dermatology, Cosmopolitan, Dupe, NBC Select, Vogue, Who What Wear, mybest.
What it means: earned coverage and expert sources are part of the answer. This matches published research showing that most sources AI cites for beauty are third-party sites.
Published brand summaries
| Prompt | ChatGPT named | Gemini named | Shared |
|---|---|---|---|
| S1 · Skincare | Vanicream, CeraVe, Medik8, Avène, The Ordinary | Bliss, TruSkin, L'Oréal Paris, Minimalist, iS Clinical | — |
| S2 · Sun care | La Roche-Posay, Colorescience, CeraVe, Live Tinted, MDSolarSciences | Lion Pose, RANAVAT, Supergoop!, CeraVe, Babo Botanicals | CeraVe |
| S3 · Skincare | CeraVe, The Ordinary, The INKEY List, La Roche-Posay, Olay | Naturium, Medik8, Avène, CeraVe, SkinCeuticals | CeraVe |
| S4 · Skincare (men) | La Roche-Posay, CeraVe, Neutrogena, Kiehl's, The INKEY List | Clinique, Kiehl's, Baxter of California, Jack Black, Lab Series | Kiehl's |
| S5 · Makeup | Caliray, MERIT, Thrive Causemetics, ILIA, Tarte | MERIT, Caliray, ILIA, RMS Beauty, Heimish | Caliray, ILIA, MERIT |
| S6 · Makeup | Laura Mercier, ONE/SIZE, Maybelline, Huda Beauty, Fenty Beauty | Maybelline, MILK Makeup, ONE/SIZE, Laura Mercier, Airspun | Laura Mercier, Maybelline, ONE/SIZE |
| S7 · Haircare | Rogaine, The Ordinary, Nioxin, Living Proof, Coco & Eve | The Ordinary, Act+Acre, Kérastase, Verb, Cécred | The Ordinary |
| S8 · Fragrance | KAYALI, Lattafa, Eilish, NEST New York, Ariana Grande | The 7 Virtues, Ariana Grande, Skylar, Heretic, Summer Fridays | Ariana Grande |
| S9 · Skincare (acne patches) | Hero Cosmetics, COSRX, Peach Slices, Rael, Nexcare | Hero Cosmetics, COSRX, PanOxyl, The INKEY List | COSRX, Hero Cosmetics |
| S10 · K-beauty | LANEIGE, TIRTIR, Round Lab, Haruharu Wonder, TONYMOLY | Pyunkang Yul, TIRTIR, Haruharu Wonder, Torriden, TONYMOLY | Haruharu Wonder, TIRTIR, TONYMOLY |
| S11 · Body care | CeraVe, Eucerin, La Roche-Posay, Aveeno | CeraVe, La Roche-Posay, Eucerin, Lubriderm | CeraVe, Eucerin, La Roche-Posay |
| S12 · Lip care | Aquaphor, Vaseline, CeraVe, La Roche-Posay, Lanolips | Aquaphor, La Roche-Posay, Dr. Dan's, Jack Black, Summer Fridays | Aquaphor, La Roche-Posay |
Each answer requested five products; multiple products can belong to the same brand. This table lists distinct brands per answer, while the JSON retains repeated brands when they occupy separate product slots.
What beauty brands should do
- Fix the retailer shelf first. One canonical product record — name, size, INCI, claims, shades — pushed to your site and every retailer.
- Make product data machine-readable. Product schema with GTIN, price and availability, and a clean product feed.
- Measure on several engines. The same prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot and Grok, re-run monthly.
- Earn the third-party trail. Editorial testing, dermatologist and expert commentary, honest reviews.
- Pick the prompts you can win. Concern-, skin-type- and shade-specific prompts are more open than "best moisturiser".
Category guides: skincare · sun care · makeup · haircare · fragrance · K-beauty & C-beauty
Limits
- One run per prompt per engine; AI answers vary between runs.
- Logged-out answers can differ from logged-in, personalised answers.
- Two engines only in this edition; Perplexity, Claude, Copilot and Grok require sign-in for automated runs.
- Gemini's logged-out answers showed shopping cards without clickable source links, so Gemini sources were not counted.
- BeautyGEO sells Beauty GEO services. No brand in this index is a BeautyGEO client, and none paid to be included.
Data and citation
The public derived dataset — prompts, timestamps, brands per answer, linked domains and named sources — is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: download the JSON. It contains extracted observations, not full answer text or a per-answer citation-URL archive. Please cite as: BeautyGEO, Beauty AI Shelf Index, October 2026 edition, beautygeo.com. Editorial and evidence policy.