Dermatologist Recommended Skin Care Brands: AI Market Discovery Index
Tracking how AI platforms recommend dermatologist recommended skin care brands. Updated monthly since July 2026.
On this page
- 01Benchmark Summary
- 02Current Benchmark at a Glance
- 03Research Scope and Qualification
- 04Current Brand Standings
- 05How to Read the Standings
- 06Recommendation Coverage Movement
- 07Largest Increase: Vanicream
- 08Largest Decline: Eucerin
- 09Category Leader: CeraVe
- 10Recommendation Placement Snapshot
- 11Buyer-Intent Distribution
- 12Historical Measurement Record
Benchmark Summary
CeraVe led the benchmark in September 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 91.2%, ahead of La Roche-Posay at 89.3%, a gap of 1.9 points. Coverage reflects the share of qualified observations where the brand appeared in a valid recommendation shortlist.
Vanicream recorded the largest coverage increase, rising to 70.8% in September 2026 from 64.7% in July 2026, a rise of 6.1 points. Eucerin recorded the largest coverage decline, falling to 26.7% in September 2026 from 32.7% in July 2026, a drop of 6.0 points. The month showed meaningful movement, with Vanicream the sole significant riser and Aveeno, Eucerin, and Neutrogena the significant decliners. CeraVe and La Roche-Posay held largely stable coverage across the three-month series, while Vanicream's rise marked a notable shift that turned its gap relative to several declining brands into a widening distance.
The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 760 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification.
AI recommendation trend
valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Sep 2026
- CeraVe91.2%
- La Roche-Posay89.3%
- Vanicream70.8%
- Cetaphil59.5%
- Neutrogena49.9%
- Aveeno41.0%
- EltaMD32.4%
- SkinCeuticals30.9%
- Eucerin26.7%
- Differin7.9%
Current Benchmark at a Glance
Measure | Jul 2026 | Sep 2026 | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|
Qualified benchmark observations | 773 | 760 | Down 13 |
Tracked brands | 10 | 10 | No change |
Qualified surface breadth | 6 | 6 | No change |
Recommendation-shaped answer share | 75.8% | 70.7% | Down 5.1 points |
Valid recommendation shortlist share | 93.0% | 92.9% | Down 0.1 points |
Leader by valid recommendation coverage | CeraVe | CeraVe | No change |
Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. The August 2026 reading also reached six families.
For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Dermatologist Recommended Skin Care Brands
Research Scope and Qualification
The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. This section shows how observations moved from raw prompts to the qualified set used for brand-level percentages.
Research stage | Jul 2026 | Sep 2026 | What it represents |
|---|---|---|---|
Source prompt-surface observations | 800 | 800 | Total prompts collected across AI/search surfaces |
Unique questions | 671 | 653 | Distinct questions after deduplication |
Brand / competitor mentions | 800 | 800 | Prompts mentioning one or more tracked brands |
Relevant observations | 787 | 785 | Prompts on-topic for the vertical |
Irrelevant observations | 13 | 15 | Off-topic prompts excluded |
Qualified benchmark observations | 773 | 760 | Public denominator after all exclusions |
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Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See the AI Market Discovery Methodology for full detail.
Current Brand Standings
This table is the primary current-month benchmark view, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.
Brand | Presence rate | Valid recommendation coverage | Top-three rate | Rank-one rate | Net sentiment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CeraVe | 97.8% | 91.2% | 64.2% | 45.3% | 0.98 |
La Roche-Posay | 95.7% | 89.3% | 55.3% | 15.5% | 0.98 |
Vanicream | 73.2% | 70.8% | 22.6% | 6.3% | 0.99 |
Cetaphil | 64.6% | 59.5% | 22.5% | 1.2% | 0.96 |
Neutrogena | 56.3% | 49.9% | 12.4% | 0.8% | 0.94 |
Aveeno | 44.2% | 41.0% | 9.2% | 1.5% | 0.94 |
EltaMD | 35.9% | 32.4% | 9.7% | 2.9% | 0.96 |
SkinCeuticals | 36.0% | 30.9% | 7.4% | 1.7% | 0.94 |
Eucerin | 28.9% | 26.7% | 7.5% | 0.3% | 0.94 |
Differin | 8.9% | 7.9% | 1.8% | 0.1% | 0.90 |
How to Read the Standings
- Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all.
- 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 is recommended in the top three positions.
- Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first or only recommendation.
- Net sentiment: positive minus negative sentiment across brand mentions, on a scale from -1 to 1.
For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions.
Recommendation Coverage Movement
Coverage movement runs from the July 2026 baseline to September 2026.
Brand | Jul 2026 | Sep 2026 | Movement since baseline |
|---|---|---|---|
Aveeno | 46.4% | 41.0% | Down 5.4 points |
CeraVe | 90.7% | 91.2% | Up 0.5 points |
Cetaphil | 63.3% | 59.5% | Down 3.8 points |
Differin | 6.1% | 7.9% | Up 1.8 points |
EltaMD | 33.1% | 32.4% | Down 0.7 points |
Eucerin | 32.7% | 26.7% | Down 6.0 points |
La Roche-Posay | 89.1% | 89.3% | Up 0.2 points |
Neutrogena | 55.5% | 49.9% | Down 5.6 points |
SkinCeuticals | 29.8% | 30.9% | Up 1.1 points |
Vanicream | 64.7% | 70.8% | Up 6.1 points |
Aveeno, Eucerin, and Neutrogena each declined in both August and September 2026. Cetaphil's coverage fell 5.6 points from August 2026 to September 2026, a move beyond normal variation, though its change since July 2026 was not. Vanicream rose 4.0 points from July 2026 to August 2026 and another 2.1 points into September 2026.
Largest Increase: Vanicream
Vanicream's valid recommendation coverage rose to 70.8% in September 2026 from 64.7% in July 2026, an increase of 6.1 points. The brand's presence rate rose to 73.2% in September 2026 from 68.6% in July 2026, an increase of 4.6 points, and its top-three rate held near 22%. Vanicream extended its rise for a second consecutive month, following a 4.0-point gain from July 2026 to August 2026 with a 2.1-point gain from August 2026 to September 2026.
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Largest Decline: Eucerin
Eucerin's valid recommendation coverage fell to 26.7% in September 2026 from 32.7% in July 2026, a decline of 6.0 points. The brand's presence rate fell to 28.9% in September 2026 from 37.1% in July 2026, a drop of 8.2 points. Eucerin declined in both August and September 2026, moving down 2.6 points from July 2026 to August 2026 and another 3.4 points into September 2026.
Category Leader: CeraVe
CeraVe retained the top coverage position, holding at 91.2% in September 2026 versus 90.7% in July 2026. Its rank-one rate rose to 45.3% in September 2026 from 40.2% in July 2026, a gain of 5.1 points, while its presence rate held at 97.8% in September 2026 versus 98.2% in July 2026. La Roche-Posay remained close behind at 89.3% in September 2026, essentially unchanged from 89.1% in July 2026.
Recommendation Placement Snapshot
Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, placement rates reveal different first-position shares.
Brand | Sep 2026 top-three rate | Sep 2026 rank-one rate | Jul 2026 top-three rate | Jul 2026 rank-one rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CeraVe | 64.2% | 45.3% | 61.8% | 40.2% |
La Roche-Posay | 55.3% | 15.5% | 53.3% | 17.3% |
Vanicream | 22.6% | 6.3% | 20.7% | 6.6% |
CeraVe's first-position rate rose 5.1 points from July 2026 to September 2026, reaching 45.3%, while La Roche-Posay's rank-one rate edged down to 15.5% in September 2026 from 17.3% in July 2026. Similar coverage can still hide very different first-position rates: CeraVe and La Roche-Posay sit close on overall coverage but differ sharply on how often each leads the recommendation.
Buyer-Intent Distribution
All qualified observations in the current public series fell into the Brand Recommendation class, which captures discovery and consideration-stage questions seeking brand recommendations.
Buyer-intent class | Jul 2026 | Sep 2026 |
|---|---|---|
Brand Recommendation | 773 | 760 |
Pricing & Value | 0 | 0 |
Multi-Brand Comparison | 0 | 0 |
Total qualified observations | 773 | 760 |
The current public series measures the Brand Recommendation class of discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.
Historical Measurement Record
This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.
Measurement | Qualified observations | Coverage leader | Leader coverage | Largest coverage movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jul 2026 | 773 | CeraVe | 90.7% | Not applicable (baseline) |
Aug 2026 | 760 | CeraVe | 93.2% | Vanicream up 4.0 points |
Sep 2026 | 760 | CeraVe | 91.2% | Vanicream up 6.1 points from Jul 2026 |
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 the following:
- Market share or sales attribution of any kind.
- Every possible AI response, since only a sample of surfaces and prompts is captured.
- Organic-search ranking or performance outside AI/search surfaces.
- Social mention volume or other non-AI brand signals.
- Private or sponsored channels not included in the benchmark.
- Causality from a metric movement alone, since the benchmark records change rather than explaining it.
About This Benchmark
The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how brands surface across major AI search and assistant surfaces, using a neutral, observation-based methodology that records presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment month to month. The six canonical surface families tested are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.
- AI Market Discovery Methodology
- AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions
- AI Market Discovery Research Standards
- Modeled AI Authority Value
Get a Company-Level Authority Index
The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper, with brand-specific analysis across surfaces, queries, and placements.
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