AEO INDEX OCTOBER 2026 USA: Charlotte Tilbury leads AI’s makeup recommendations, but nine different brands win the ten questions
In makeup, ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews pick winners product by product, and the brand they name most is rarely the one they name first.
Please read the Important notice and disclaimer before using, sharing or quoting these findings.
Charlotte Tilbury tops more AI makeup answers than any other brand, ranked first in 6 of 30 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews in Answer Engine Daily’s October 2026 AEO Index. The lead is thin. Its AI Rank Score of 25.3 is barely above NARS at 24.0, and the ten buying questions went to nine different brands. Charlotte Tilbury is the only one that won two, lipstick and setting spray.
Across the 30 answers the engines named 58 brands, and getting onto those lists is a different thing from getting the top line. e.l.f. appears in 67% of answers, more than any other makeup brand, and is ranked first in 3. Maybelline is named in 43% of answers and is never first.
The answers were collected on 21 October 2026 from one U.S. location, with analysis powered by markaeo.com. The question-by-question tables are in the full October 2026 report.
Who wins each makeup question?
The AI Rank Score runs from 0 to 100 and gives more credit the nearer the top of an answer a brand is named. A brand ranked first by every engine scores 100. The winners, question by question:
- Foundation: Estée Lauder, 93.
- Mascara: Lancôme, 60, just ahead of YSL at 57.
- Concealer: Tarte, 80, ahead of NARS at 77.
- Lipstick: Charlotte Tilbury, 100, with all three engines agreeing.
- Eyeshadow palettes: Natasha Denona, 93.
- Setting spray: Charlotte Tilbury, 93, with Urban Decay close behind at 87.
- Blush: Rare Beauty, 70.
- Eyebrow products: Anastasia Beverly Hills, 100, again with all three agreeing.
- Primer: e.l.f., 70.
- Tinted moisturizer: Laura Mercier, 73, three points ahead of bareMinerals.
A few of these winners barely show up anywhere else. Natasha Denona takes eyeshadow palettes but appears in 10% of answers overall. Estée Lauder wins foundation, yet it was missing from 5 of the 6 questions where it was expected.
Tarte won concealer without a single first place. All three engines ranked it second. NARS was first on ChatGPT and Gemini but fifth on AI Overviews, and since the score rewards placing high everywhere, three steady seconds beat a split vote.
How often do the engines agree?
ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews named the same top brand on 2 of the 10 questions, lipstick and eyebrow products. Mascara went the other way, with YSL first on ChatGPT, Lancôme on Gemini and Charlotte Tilbury on AI Overviews. On Gemini and AI Overviews, e.l.f. is the most-named brand, in 80% of each engine’s answers.
Which websites shape the answers?
Of the 183 sources the engines cited, 94.5% belong to someone other than the brand, and each engine has its own publishers. Who What Wear was cited 20 times, 17 of them by ChatGPT. Ulta was cited 15 times, 10 by ChatGPT. Between them those two sites account for 27 of ChatGPT’s 89 citations, and all 7 Vogue citations came from ChatGPT too. Google AI Overviews took 34.8% of its citations from Google Shopping product cards, and every one of the 8 Byrdie citations was from AI Overviews. Gemini cited sources in only 3 of its 10 answers.
One mismatch stands out. We read 101 of the 149 cited pages that could be opened. Maybelline was the most-mentioned brand on 11 of them, more than any other brand, yet no engine ranked it first on any question. Why the rankings and the cited pages part ways here, the data does not say.
What does this mean for makeup brands?
In makeup, I think the product question matters more than the brand. A team tracking one blended “makeup” score would see Charlotte Tilbury on top and miss that first places are scattered across nine brands. For a focused brand that is an opening. For a broad one it is a gap worth checking.
The publishers that count also change by engine. For ChatGPT it is Who What Wear, Vogue and Ulta; for AI Overviews, Shopping data and Byrdie. Getting a product reviewed in the right one is narrower work than general press coverage.
For November, watch mascara. Three engines picked three different brands first, and the top two are three points apart. The full figures are in the full October 2026 report.
How we measured: We asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews 10 non-branded makeup buying questions, giving 30 answers, collected on 21 October 2026 from a single U.S. location. AI answers vary by time, place and user. The full method and notice are in the report.
Sources
- Answer Engine Daily AEO Index: Makeup, October 2026
