Clean Makeup Brands: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Who leads clean makeup brands in AI-driven discovery, and by how much?
• Which clean makeup brands moved beyond normal variation, and in which direction?
• How did recommendation-shaped answer share and valid shortlist share change across the benchmark?

e.l.f. Cosmetics leads clean makeup brands in AI-driven discovery with 56.7% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, up from 45.7% in July 2026. The gap to second-place Rare Beauty, at 51.6% in October 2026, up from 42.5% in July 2026, stands at 5.1 percentage points. e.l.f. Cosmetics recorded the largest coverage increase of the month, rising 11.1 points from 45.6% in September 2026, while ILIA Beauty recorded the largest decline across the full series, falling 5.6 points from 40.9% in July 2026 to 35.3% in October 2026. Tarte Cosmetics also declined beyond normal variation across the series, down 5.5 points from 16.8% in July 2026 to 11.3% in October 2026.

e.l.f. Cosmetics and Rare Beauty are the two significant risers across the full July-to-October period, while ILIA Beauty and Tarte Cosmetics are the two significant decliners over the same period. Five brands — Glossier, Kosas, Milk Makeup, Thrive Causemetics, and Tower 28 — remained within normal variation across the series, and Beautycounter is a watch item after three consecutive monthly increases that have not yet crossed the threshold for significance. The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 626 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the six canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. All six families were represented in both months. August 2026 recorded 640 qualified observations and September 2026 recorded 645, both sitting between the baseline and current months.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Clean Makeup Brands

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See the AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology for the full qualification rules.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• How do the clean makeup brands rank by valid recommendation coverage?
• Which brands show the strongest presence and top-three recommendation rates?
• Which brand converts presence into first-position recommendations most effectively?

This table shows the primary current-month benchmark view, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned in any context
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommended options
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation
• Net sentiment: positive minus negative mentions divided by total mentions, on a scale from 0 to 1

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which clean makeup brands gained or lost recommendation coverage since July 2026?
• What drove e.l.f. Cosmetics' rise and ILIA Beauty's decline in valid recommendation coverage?
• Which supporting brand moves signal second consecutive increases that have not yet reached significance?

Seven brands recorded increases over the full series from July 2026 to October 2026, while three brands recorded declines. e.l.f. Cosmetics and Rare Beauty moved beyond normal variation to the upside, and ILIA Beauty and Tarte Cosmetics moved beyond normal variation to the downside. Between September 2026 and October 2026, e.l.f. Cosmetics rose 11.1 points, Rare Beauty rose 7.9 points, Milk Makeup rose 4.9 points, Tower 28 rose 4.6 points, Kosas rose 3.2 points, and Thrive Causemetics rose 3.2 points. ILIA Beauty has now declined in two consecutive months since August 2026.

Largest Increase: e.l.f. Cosmetics

e.l.f. Cosmetics rose to 56.7% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, up from 45.7% in July 2026, an increase of 11.0 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. The brand recorded valid recommendations in 355 qualified observations in October 2026, up from 286 in July 2026. Its top-three rate rose to 34.2% in October 2026, up from 24.4% in July 2026, and its rank-one rate rose to 20.9% in October 2026, up from 10.2% in July 2026. The increase from September 2026 to October 2026 was 11.1 points. The gap between e.l.f. Cosmetics and ILIA Beauty widened in each of the four months, from 4.8 percentage points in July 2026 to 21.4 percentage points in October 2026.

Largest Decline: ILIA Beauty

ILIA Beauty declined to 35.3% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, down from 40.9% in July 2026, a drop of 5.6 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. The brand declined in two consecutive months since August 2026 before recording a partial recovery in October 2026 relative to September 2026. Its top-three rate fell to 20.0% in October 2026, down from 26.8% in July 2026, and its rank-one rate fell to 9.4% in October 2026, down from 17.4% in July 2026. The distance between ILIA Beauty and Rare Beauty widened in each of the four months, from 1.6 percentage points in July 2026 to 16.3 percentage points in October 2026.

Category Leader: e.l.f. Cosmetics

e.l.f. Cosmetics holds the top valid recommendation coverage position at 56.7% in October 2026, up from 45.7% in July 2026. The brand's presence rate rose to 62.9% in October 2026, up from 57.5% in July 2026. Its rank-one rate rose to 20.9% in October 2026, up from 10.2% in July 2026.

Notable supporting moves

Thrive Causemetics increased for a second consecutive month, reaching 18.2% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 from 16.8% in July 2026; this increase has not moved beyond normal month-to-month variation. Milk Makeup also increased for a second consecutive month, reaching 28.3% in October 2026 from 25.2% in July 2026; its September-to-October increase of 4.9 points moved beyond normal month-to-month variation, though the brand's cumulative movement since July remains within normal variation. Beautycounter increased for a third consecutive month, reaching 3.5% in October 2026 from 2.6% in July 2026, though the cumulative movement remains within normal variation and does not yet constitute a trend.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How did top-three and rank-one rates differ among the leading clean makeup brands?
• What does the gap between coverage and first-position rates suggest about shortlist prominence?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Placement tells a more detailed story.

The gap between e.l.f. Cosmetics and Rare Beauty in top-three appearances was 4.8 points in October 2026, but their rank-one rates differed by 12.0 points, suggesting that close coverage can still hide different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent class captured all qualified observations in the clean makeup benchmark?
• What do the empty pricing and multi-brand comparison classes mean for the current measurement scope?

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class of discovery.

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery only and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing and value or multi-brand comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains were cited most often in AI responses about clean makeup brands?
• How concentrated are citations among the top domains, and which source types dominate?
• Which tracked clean makeup brand's own domain appears in the top 10?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark recorded 6,252 citations from 1,264 unique domains.

Citations are moderately concentrated: the top 10 domains account for 32.8% of all citations, while the remaining 1,254 domains share the rest. One tracked brand's own domain, thrivecausemetics.com, appears in the top 10 at rank nine. Retail and review sites dominate the upper ranks, with sephora.com and ulta.com appearing alongside editorial and social platforms including allure.com, byrdie.com, reddit.com, and instagram.com.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or sales attribution
• Every possible AI response to every possible query
• Organic-search ranking performance
• Social media mention volume
• Private or sponsored channels and experiences
• Causality from a metric movement alone

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how often brands appear in AI-generated recommendations across major AI and search surfaces. It is a neutral, category-level measurement built from a defined set of prompts each month.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Index
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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