The Skincare shelf

What ChatGPT and Google AI Mode recommend when a US shopper asks them about skincare — ranked by how often each brand made the shelf.

Stories

AI Shopping Shelf Insights

🇺🇸 Skincare · US · September 2026

The shelf AI calls cheap and the shelf it calls dear are different brands

AI puts a price label on what it recommends, in its own words. In skincare the brands it calls inexpensive are the ones it puts first — and the brands it calls a splurge sit further down the same shelf.

💷 The brands AI calls cheap

CeraVe 80.5% COSRX 96.0% Vanicream 93.3%

💎 The brands AI calls dear

SkinCeuticals 100.0% Tatcha 81.5% Estée Lauder 76.9%

See the full story →

Shopper Journeys

How the skincare shelf shifts as a shopper moves from “what's out there” to “which one do I buy”, for everyone or for one shopper.

Everyone The Gifting Parent The Reinventer The Routine Builder The New Shopper

Awareness

Anua 18%

COSRX 18%

LANEIGE 9%

CeraVe 7%

Facetory 7%

Research

COSRX 13%

ETUDE 8%

Differin 6%

SKIN1004 6%

Beauty of Joseon 5%

Comparison

COSRX 39%

SKIN1004 8%

Differin 6%

Beauty of Joseon 6%

Anua 3%

Validation

COSRX 20%

Purito 6%

SKIN1004 4%

Isntree 4%

Round Lab 4%

Purchase

COSRX 39%

Beauty of Joseon 11%

SKIN1004 8%

Round Lab 7%

LANEIGE 4%

The Routine Builder's shelf. Each stage's bar is shelf-share within that stage.

Brand

Shelf-share

Shelf Share Trend

Visibility

CeraVe

10.7%

37.5%

Vanicream

6.9%

24.4%

La Roche-Posay

6.7%

27.5%

COSRX

6.7%

15.6%

Bubble Skincare

5.2%

15.6%

Evereden

3.1%

10.6%

SkinCeuticals

2.7%

8.1%

Beauty of Joseon

2.3%

13.8%

Byoma

2.2%

10.6%

Avène

1.8%

11.9%

SKIN1004

1.7%

11.3%

LANEIGE

1.6%

14.4%

Anua

1.3%

5.6%

Differin

1.3%

3.1%

ETUDE

1.2%

4.4%

Cetaphil

0.9%

9.4%

Round Lab

0.9%

5.0%

Kiehl's

0.9%

4.4%

Tatcha

0.9%

4.4%

Skinfix

0.8%

3.8%

Youth To The People

0.7%

2.5%

Clinique

0.6%

10.6%

Aveeno

0.6%

7.5%

Temu

0.6%

EltaMD

0.5%

6.3%

No brand named

21.3%

Shelf-share = the share of shopper attention a brand holds. Visibility = the share of answers that named it at all.

How to read this table

Shelf-share weights every mention by where the brand sits in the answer, so the shelf adds up to 100%. Named first on a short shelf is worth far more than named fourth on a long one.

Visibility ignores position — simply how often a brand is named. Divide shelf-share by visibility and you get how much of the shelf a brand takes when it does appear.

No brand named is the share of answers that recommended no identifiable brand at all — advice, or retailers only.

Products the engines name

The specific SKUs surfaced inside skincare answers.

Product

Shelf-share

Shelf Share Trend

Visibility

Price

Low pH Good Morning Gel Cleanser

COSRX

5.2%

11.3%

$9.99 – $10.95 – $14.00

Moisturizing Cream

CeraVe

2.9%

8.4%

—

Toleriane Double Repair Face Moisturizer

La Roche-Posay

2.5%

8.1%

$11.49 – $24.99 – $40.48

Daily Facial Moisturizer

Vanicream

2.1%

8.1%

—

Gentle Facial Cleanser

Vanicream

1.6%

6.3%

$8.99 – $10.00 – $12.99

Triple Lipid Restore 2:4:2

SkinCeuticals

1.6%

5.0%

—

Hydrating Facial Cleanser

CeraVe

1.5%

5.6%

$39.00

Fresh Start Gel Cleanser

Bubble Skincare

1.3%

3.1%

$10.00 – $15.00

Super Cuties Trial Kit

Bubble Skincare

1.2%

4.1%

$30.00 – $32.99

Toleriane Hydrating Gentle Cleanser

La Roche-Posay

1.0%

3.4%

$16.49 – $19.99

Skin Barrier Glow Up Kit

CeraVe

1.0%

3.1%

$31.99

Centella Ampoule

SKIN1004

0.8%

4.1%

$9.50

Skin Renewing Night Cream

CeraVe

0.8%

3.1%

$15.44 – $21.99

7-Days of Glass Skin Advent Calendar

Anua

0.8%

1.9%

$34.00

Tolerance Control Soothing Skin Recovery Cream

Avène

0.8%

1.9%

—

Hydrating Cleanser

CeraVe

0.7%

2.8%

$14.16

Slam Dunk Hydrating Moisturizer

Bubble Skincare

0.7%

2.5%

$10.00

C E Ferulic

SkinCeuticals

0.7%

1.6%

—

SoonJung 2x Barrier Intensive Cream

ETUDE

0.6%

3.4%

$15.00 – $33.32

Barrier+ Triple Lipid-Peptide Cream

Skinfix

0.6%

1.9%

$20.00

How to read this table

Price is a band, not one number: the cheapest price on the market, the brand’s own price in bold, and the dearest — sorted low to high. Where only one figure is known, only one is shown. A dash means no price we could verify, not a free product.

How we measure

We ask the assistants the same real shopper questions each run, and record every brand each one recommends.

What that means in practice

Each run we ask ChatGPT and Google AI Mode the same set of questions, one persona and market at a time.

Shelf-share is the share of answers in a category that named a brand. The questions never name a brand, so a brand is on the shelf because the engine chose it.

We settle on the questions before each run, never after. A brand on the shelf is the assistant’s pick, not one we went looking for.

Read the full method — the shoppers, their journey, and the season →

Grow your Brand’s Revenue in the AI Shopping Channel

See which shoppers already find you on the shelf, and where you are missing.

🧴 The Skincare shelf

AI Shopping Shelf Insights

The shelf AI calls cheap and the shelf it calls dear are different brands

Shopper Journeys

Products the engines name

How we measure

Grow your Brand’s Revenue in the AI Shopping Channel

The Skincare shelf