kbeautytmi › AI citations
When people ask AI about K-beauty,
whose name comes back?
Every week we ask 4 AI engines (Perplexity · Gemini · OpenAI · Claude) the same 75 K-beauty questions — best toner for sensitive skin, best Korean sunscreen, and so on — and count which brands the answers actually cite. Citations ≠ sales. This is the discovery layer forming before anyone reaches a shelf. Measured 2026-09-14
The leaderboard
Violet bar = how often AI names the brand. The chip = how many of our 20 retail channels it actually charts on — the gap between fame and shelf is the story.
1KLAIRS
63on 2 channels
2COSRX
47on 7 channels
3Anua
40on 14 channels
4LANEIGE
32on 4 channels
5Dr.Jart+
29on 3 channels
6ETUDE
29on 6 channels
7medicube
25on 10 channels
8Paulaschoice
23on 2 channels
9Eucerin
21on 1 channel
10INNISFREE
19on 2 channels
11AESTURA
16on 7 channels
12Avene
16not on our shelves
13Purito
15on 6 channels
14Glow Recipe
14on 1 channel
15The Ordinary
14on 3 channels
16ROUND LAB
13on 9 channels
17SKIN1004
13on 5 channels
18Torriden
13on 5 channels
19Dr. Althea
12on 11 channels
20ILLIYOON
12on 2 channels
21NATURIUM
11on 1 channel
22BIODANCE
10on 12 channels
23Abib
9on 3 channels
24MEDIHEAL
9on 5 channels
25SOME BY MI
9on 6 channels
26Beauty of Joseon
8on 10 channels
27Haruharu Wonder
8on 6 channels
28Neogen
8on 1 channel
29Pyunkang Yul
8on 2 channels
30BENTON
7not on our shelves
31numbuzin
7on 7 channels
32Bioderma
6on 1 channel
33Sulwhasoo
6on 1 channel
34HANYUL
4on 1 channel
35I'M FROM
4on 1 channel
36Isntree
4on 1 channel
37MISSHA
4on 1 channel
38Real Barrier
4not on our shelves
39SKINFOOD
4on 3 channels
40TONYMOLY
4on 1 channel
41AXIS-Y
3on 4 channels
42easydew
3not on our shelves
43It's skin
3not on our shelves
44IUNIK
3on 3 channels
45mixsoon
3on 4 channels
46PEACH & LILY
3on 1 channel
47REJURAN
3on 3 channels
48Shiseido
3on 2 channels
49VT Cosmetics
3on 3 channels
50April Skin
2not on our shelves
51celimax
2on 8 channels
52Centellian24
2on 3 channels
53Dermatory
2not on our shelves
54Hyggee
2on 1 channel
55IOPE
2on 1 channel
56MEDIPEEL
2not on our shelves
57NATURE REPUBLIC
2not on our shelves
58Peach Slices
2not on our shelves
59Petitfee
2on 1 channel
60TIRTIR
2on 3 channels
61TOCOBO
2not on our shelves
62TOSOWOONG
2not on our shelves
63ACWELL
1on 1 channel
64APLB
1on 2 channels
65BANILA CO
1on 1 channel
66belif
1not on our shelves
67beplain
1on 5 channels
68CELDYQUE
1not on our shelves
69d'Alba
1on 3 channels
70Demaf
1not on our shelves
71Dieux
1on 2 channels
72DR ORACLE
1not on our shelves
73Farm Stay
1on 1 channel
74FATION
1on 1 channel
75goodal
1on 3 channels
76Hada Labo
1not on our shelves
77Heimish
1on 2 channels
78Himalaya
1not on our shelves
79JUMISO
1on 1 channel
80JUNGSAEMMOOL
1on 3 channels
81Knours
1on 1 channel
82LINDSAY
1not on our shelves
83ma:nyo
1on 3 channels
84makeprem
1on 2 channels
85Mamonde
1not on our shelves
86Mary&May
1not on our shelves
87Secret Key
1not on our shelves
88THE FACE SHOP
1on 2 channels
Week over week
2026-07-06
№1 COSRX 40
2026-07-13
№1 Anua 36
2026-07-27
№1 COSRX 49
2026-08-03
№1 COSRX 56
2026-08-10
№1 COSRX 46
2026-08-17
№1 COSRX 59
2026-08-24
№1 Anua 13
2026-08-31
№1 COSRX 56
2026-09-07
№1 COSRX 59
2026-09-14
№1 KLAIRS 63
The trend line is the product — the archive deepens every Monday and Thursday.
What Copilot cites on generic queries
From Bing's AI Performance data — non-brand queries only.
"how to achieve glass skin"
72 citations · 28.57% share
"glass skin skincare routine steps"
63 citations · 28.51% share
"dermatologist tested meaning beauty tools"
24 citations · 33.8% share
"glass skin skincare routine"
20 citations · 17.39% share
"glass skin skincare routine tips"
15 citations · 14.56% share
"glass skin routine"
14 citations · 9.27% share
"difference between eye serum and eye cream"
13 citations · 23.21% share
"what do toner pads do"
12 citations · 27.27% share
"sebum softener"
12 citations · 14.63% share
"glass skin routine steps"
11 citations · 40.74% share
"how to achieve korean glass skin"
10 citations · 17.86% share
"how to have glass skin"
10 citations · 20.83% share
"supple preparation unscented toner"
8 citations · 10.67% share
"rice whip facial cleanser"
8 citations · 18.6% share
"dermatologically tested"
8 citations · 5.41% share
"glass skin skincare routine steps products"
7 citations · 33.33% share
"how to tell if moisturizer feels sticky or heavy before buying"
7 citations · 46.67% share
"dermatologist-tested skincare products meaning"
6 citations · 26.09% share
"how to get glass skin routine"
6 citations · 54.55% share
"how to tell if a moisturizer feels sticky or heavy before buying"
4 citations · 66.67% share
"best skincare routine for glass skin"
3 citations · 18.75% share
"hypoallergenic deodorant guarantee meaning"
3 citations · 30% share
"bi-phase facial mist dry skin relief flights air conditioning"
3 citations · 23.08% share
"eye serums vs eye creams puffiness"
3 citations · 17.65% share
"daily skincare routine for redness and hydration"
3 citations · 23.08% share
"how to know if gentle cleanser is cleaning skin properly"
3 citations · 25% share
Why this matters
Shoppers increasingly ask AI before they search, and AI answers concentrate on a handful of names. A brand that dominates retail shelves but never gets cited is invisible in the next discovery channel — and a brand AI loves that hasn't hit mass retail is a signal buyers can act on. Cross-reading this leaderboard against our retail ladder is the whole point: in 2026-09, the top of the AI leaderboard and the top of the retail-reach ladder were the same brands — evidence the discovery layer and the shelf are moving together.
Method: identical prompts to 4 engines, brand mentions extracted from answers with
token-boundary matching against our chart-brand dictionary. Reprocessed brand-neutrally by kbeautytmi.
AI citation ≠ endorsement, quality, or sales.
What this measures, and what it does not.
These 65 questions were not written to survey K-beauty evenly. They lean hard toward sensitive
and barrier-focused skincare — 27 of the 65 ask about sensitive skin, and three name a single
ingredient. A brand that sells into that space will rank higher here than it would on a
question set built for the whole category. Read this as who AI cites for these questions,
not as who AI cites most in K-beauty overall.
The raw engine measurements are shared from an external skincare GEO engine and reprocessed here;
the brand dictionary and scoring are ours. We are building our own question basket to replace this
one — until then, treat the ranking as directional. How we measure.