New data from 500 beauty gift prompts (April to October 2026) shows that fragrance makes up 51.8% of what people ask AI models about beauty gifts. Our analysis shows that retailer pages were the most-cited sources across models.
This post helps beauty marketing and communications teams understand which brands AI models recommend, why they recommend them, and the prompts people use to discover holiday gifts.
A summary of the data’s findings:
About 40% of gift prompts ask about price, sales, or value.
Fragrance makes up 51.8% of beauty gift prompts, and men’s grooming and cologne make up 17.8%.
In 9 AI answers to top gift prompts, retailer pages made up 47% of cited sources. Sephora.com was cited in 6 out of 9 answers.
What beauty gift questions do people ask AI models most?
Fragrance accounted for over half of the prompts analyzed. Profound consolidated data from April to October 2026, and 87.4% of their share had commercial intent. Perfume and fragrance gifts made up 51.8% of the prompt share. Men’s products and cologne accounted for 17.8%, and holiday deals, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday accounted for 9.0%.
| Topic | Prompts | Share of prompt volume |
|---|---|---|
Perfume and fragrance gifts | 181 | 51.8% |
Men’s grooming and cologne gifts | 87 | 17.8% |
Holiday beauty deals, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday | 43 | 9.0% |
Beauty gift ideas | 29 | 5.3% |
Skincare gifts | 20 | 3.4% |
Beauty gift sets | 20 | 2.8% |
Makeup gifts | 20 | 2.4% |
Beauty advent calendars | 20 | 1.9% |
Beauty gifts by budget and stocking stuffers | 20 | 1.9% |
Luxury beauty gifts | 20 | 1.8% |
Teen and tween beauty gifts | 20 | 1.7% |
Clean, cruelty-free and refillable beauty gifts | 20 | 0.0% |
Source: 5W analysis of 500 representative prompts that Profound consolidated from about 6,000 English-language AI prompts (all regions, April 4 to October 4, 2026). Share is each topic’s portion of the total estimated prompt share across all 500 prompts.
Many fragrance prompts asked for help matching a scent to a person. Representative prompts include “What are thoughtful fragrance gift ideas for a longtime female friend?” and “How can I identify body mists that match someone’s fragrance preferences?”
Men’s cologne and gifts account for 17.8% of prompt share. About 70% of that share comes from prompts about cologne or scent, such as “What are the best men’s fragrance and gifts to buy during the holiday season?”
Prompts included in this topic often include a budget. One representative prompt: “What grooming products should I buy for a male student during holiday sales with a $100 budget?”
Most gift prompts ask about price, people, or both
About 40% of prompts asked about price, sales, discounts, budgets, or value. An additional 38% comes from prompts that identify who the gift is for (mom, girlfriend, sister, etc). Ten percent mention both, so they’re counted in each group.
In this dataset, consumers are using LLMs to research gifts, prompting things like “What beauty gift should I choose for a female friend when I do not know her preferences?”
Authenticity makes up about 5% of overall prompt share. It appears in the highest-share prompt: “Where can I find an authentic popular perfume at the best price during holiday sales?”
Do people ask about clean or cruelty-free beauty gifts?
Clean, cruelty-free, and refillable beauty gifts carried almost no prompt share. Profound returned 20 prompts for the topic, and each rounds to 0.0%. Prompts reflecting these values tied them to a person, for example, “What clean, cruelty-free beauty gifts would be thoughtful for my sister-in-law who likes natural, botanical products?”
What do ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini recommend as beauty gifts?
To supplement the Profound data, we ran three additional popular gift prompts through ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini and found that retailers were the most-cited sources and fragrance houses, like Tom Ford, were among the models' top frangrance recommendations.
The three high-share prompts included authentic perfume at the best price (the top fragrance prompt), men’s fragrance and gift ideas, and a skincare gift set for moms. Each prompt ran once per model on October 12, 2026, and produced nine answers.
| Prompt | Model | Brands and sellers listed | Sources cited |
|---|---|---|---|
Authentic perfume at the best price | ChatGPT | No brands. Brand websites, Macy’s, Ulta Beauty, Sephora, Nordstrom | 4 retailer pages |
Authentic perfume at the best price | Perplexity | Creed, Tom Ford. Led with discounters FragranceNet, FragranceX and Jomashop | 10, including Harper’s Bazaar and Woman & Home |
Authentic perfume at the best price | Gemini | 11 fragrance brands, including Versace, YSL and Tom Ford. Discount outlets and Macy’s | 6, including Who What Wear (WWW) and Macy’s |
Men’s fragrance and grooming gifts | ChatGPT | Byredo, Dior, Creed, Suri | 2: GQ (three articles) and Men’s Health |
Men’s fragrance and grooming gifts | Perplexity | Azzaro, Giorgio Armani, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, Creed, Prada | 10, including Esquire, GQ and FashionBeans |
Men’s fragrance and grooming gifts | Gemini | 20 brands, including Dior, Tom Ford, Chanel and Jack Black | 17, mostly retailers and brand blogs |
Skincare gift set for a mom | ChatGPT | Clinique, Sephora Collection, Tower 28, Estée Lauder | 2: Ulta and Sephora pages |
Skincare gift set for a mom | Perplexity | Tatcha (top pick), Caudalie, RANAVAT, Shani Darden and three others | 7, including Everyday Health and Oprah Daily |
Skincare gift set for a mom | Gemini | 18 brands, including Estée Lauder, The Ordinary, Laneige and Rhode | 8, including Forbes and Everyday Health |
Source counts are unique websites per answer. Source: 5W test of three representative gift prompts from Profound, run October 12, 2026 through the DataForSEO LLM Responses API with web search on: ChatGPT (GPT-5.4 mini), Perplexity (Sonar) and Gemini (2.5 Flash).
Do AI models cite retailers or magazines for beauty gift advice?
Retailer pages made up 47% of the sources of the nine answers cited (31 of 66). Editorial outlets made up 32%, and brand sites and specialist blogs made up 21%. Sephora.com appeared in 6 of the 9 answers and was recommended as a safe place to purchase in 7.
How do ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini answer beauty gift questions differently?
ChatGPT cited the fewest sources, eight in three answers, and opted for retail product pages plus GQ and Men’s Health. Perplexity cited the most editorial outlets, 12 of its 27 sources. Gemini recommended the most brands (49, compared with 14 for Perplexity and 8 for ChatGPT) and drew 24 of its 31 sources from retailers and brand sites.
Tom Ford, Creed, Giorgio Armani, and Dior each appeared in 3 of 9 answers. Only three non-retailer brands from the index top 25 appeared overall: Estée Lauder, Tatcha, and The Ordinary, and they answered skincare prompts.
Where does AI tell shoppers to buy authentic perfume?
ChatGPT recommended brand websites and department stores for prompts regarding authentic products.
Older and off-season guides helped answer late-2026 questions.
Those guides included GQ’s 2025 cologne discovery kit list, Harper’s Bazaar’s 2025 Cyber Monday perfume deals, and Esquire’s 2025 gift sets. Perplexity answered a skincare gift prompt in an October run, citing Mother’s Day guides from Everyday Health, Oprah Daily, and the Miami Herald.
We made one run per model, so this data is directional. Answers change between runs, and API results often differ from what people see in the consumer apps with live web search enabled.
Which media outlets do AI models cite for beauty gift questions?
Nineteen editorial outlets were cited across the nine answers. GQ and Everyday Health each appeared in two answers, and the others in one. Grouped by gift topic, the list below shows where coverage is most likely to reach AI answers.
Men’s titles: GQ, Esquire, Men’s Health, FashionBeans, W Magazine, Yahoo Creators, Ape to Gentleman, Coach and Scent Chronicles. Perfume deals and authenticity: Harper’s Bazaar, Woman & Home, Necole Bitchie, Who What Wear and Sparkles and Stretch Marks—skincare gifts for mom: Everyday Health, Oprah Daily, Hello!, Miami Herald and Forbes.
How can a beauty brand get recommended in AI holiday gift answers?
Beauty brands can increase their AI recommendations by publishing utility-first content that explains their product and the problem it solves. The top prompt in our dataset shows the details a page should include to increase its visibility in AI answers.
Use plain language in product descriptions. Use conversational language to describe scent notes, family, and strength on product pages and gift guides. A model can only match a perfume to “warm floral” when a page it can read says so.
Specify authorized retailers and sale dates. The most popular prompt asks where to find an authentic perfume at the best price. An updated web page that lists authorized sellers and holiday promotions answers both questions.
Pitch recipient-based gift guides. Gift prompts include recipients, so placements in “gifts for mom” or “gifts for him” roundups should align with that language. The media list above shares some of the gift guides that the models cite as sources.
Include prices and relevant information near the top of a page: Gift prompts often include a budget, so transparent pricing helps models match products to budgets efficiently. Prices can conflict with retailer discounts, so update pages as promotions change.
How was the data in this post collected?
We collected gift prompt data by running a prompt research report in Profound on 12 beauty gift topics, using a general beauty-category context. Profound matched prompts from April 4 to October 4, 2026, kept those with commercial or informational intent, and excluded branded prompts. It consolidated about 6,000 English-language prompts from all regions into 500 representative prompts, each with an estimated share. The prompts quoted in this report are these representative prompts, not verbatim messages.
A topic’s share is the combined share of its prompts divided by the total share of all 500 prompts. We grouped prompts by theme (price, recipient, scent) using keyword matching. The date range ends before the holiday season, so holiday-season prompts may differ.
For supplemental support, we ran three high-share prompts once each through ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.
We measure AI recommendations for marketing and communications planning. It does not rank brands on safety, effectiveness, ingredient quality, or suitability for any skin or hair type. Users should consult a dermatologist when relevant, patch-test new products, and check ingredients for sensitivities.
FAQ
What do consumers ask AI models about beauty gifts?
Consumers prompt AI models about fragrance gifts, men’s gifts, and holiday beauty deals. Fragrance made up 51.8% of the current prompt share, men’s gifts 17.8%, and holiday deals at 9.0%.
What do consumers ask AI models about men’s gifts?
Most men’s gift questions focus on scent and account for nearly 70% of the overall prompt share. Many prompts include a budget or a recipient, like “I need a gift for a male college student with a $100 budget.
Which outlets do AI models cite for beauty gift questions?
In our supplemental data, GQ and Everyday Health were the most-cited editorial outlets. Retailer pages made up 47% of all cited sources, led by Sephora.com in 6 of the 9 answers.
How can a beauty brand improve its AI visibility?
Publish utility-first content, including ingredient lists and plain explanations of how ingredients solve common problems. Add content from dermatologists or chemists where it applies. Seek distribution at Sephora, Ulta, or other national retailers; build recognition around one hero product or ingredient before expanding; and keep content current.
How can I find out where my beauty brand stands in AI answers?
5W measures how often ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews recommend beauty brands, finds opportunities, and develops earned and owned media strategies and technical implementations to improve visibility in AI answers.
