Specialist beauty marketing agency Foundation has published new research into how leading AI platforms recommend beauty brands, revealing that visibility in AI search is driven by category authority, earned media and community trust rather than brand-owned content.

The study analysed recommendations across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, examining which beauty brands appear most frequently and where AI platforms source their answers. Across more than 1,335 brand mentions and 690 cited sources, the research found that AI visibility is far from random, with brands winning recommendations varying significantly depending on the type of beauty question being asked.

Key findings:

• The top performing beauty brands overall were e.l.f., Maybelline, Charlotte Tilbury, NYX, L’Oréal Paris, NARS, Hourglass, Fenty Beauty, Rare Beauty and Merit.
• Budget beauty queries most frequently surfaced e.l.f., Maybelline, NYX and L’Oréal Paris; clean beauty conversations were dominated by ILIA, Kosas, Merit, Saie and Tower 28; luxury-focused prompts favoured Giorgio Armani, Charlotte Tilbury and NARS.
• Category leaders included Charlotte Tilbury, Makeup by Mario, Urban Decay and Natasha Denona for eye products, and Aquaphor, La Roche-Posay, Laneige and Vaseline for lip care.
• Earned media accounted for 44% of all cited sources, whilst brand-owned content represented just 7%.
• Reddit emerged as the single most cited source across the entire study, ahead of major beauty publications including Vogue and Allure.
• Only 40 brand recommendations were consistently returned by all four platforms for the same prompt, highlighting significant differences between AI models.
• Claude showed the greatest diversity in recommendations, frequently surfacing brands that appeared nowhere else in the dataset. ChatGPT relied heavily on established beauty and lifestyle publications; Gemini combined editorial sources with official product information; Perplexity placed greater emphasis on retailer listings and community-driven platforms.

Olivia Ford, Performance Lead at Foundation, said: “The brands appearing most consistently in AI recommendations are those that own a particular space, whether that’s affordable makeup, clean beauty, luxury cosmetics or a specific hero product category. AI platforms rely heavily on third-party validation and although editorial coverage remains incredibly influential, community discussion is just as important.”

Foundation will be discussing the full findings, methodology and practical implications for beauty brands during its upcoming webinar, Your 2026 AI Beauty Guide.

For more information, visit foundationagency.co.uk.