Do you actually know whether this cream will suit me, or are you just selling it?
A fictional shopper asked this question to the AI assistants of five beauty brands: bareMinerals, Glamnetic, Laura Mercier, Paula's Choice and Tarte.
All 5 answered honestly: nobody can guarantee the result in advance.
We looked at 61 beauty and skincare websites.
Only 5 had an open AI assistant that could talk about both the product and the terms of purchase, and that we were able to check.
We welcome the teams who make their assistant available without login or registration.
What we liked most:
- The Laura Mercier assistant told a shopper with dry skin that the powder she chose was not the best pick for her, and suggested another one.
- The bareMinerals and Glamnetic assistants warned about ingredients that sensitive skin may react to, without being asked.
- PAIGE from Paula's Choice gave detailed answers about the terms of purchase and pointed out the Canadian import fees that applied to this order.
The main observation: the assistants know the products well, but not always the rules of purchase on their own website. Shipping, the welcome discount and the refund time were published on the website, but they did not always reach the chat.
We collected the best answers into a separate chapter, "Best practices", for the whole industry.
This is not a ranking and not advice to buy anything. It is an AI Test Purchase, consumer research that helps teams make their AI assistants stronger.
Report: Five Beauty Brands, One Shopper: Generative AI Assistants and Twelve Questions.
If you find an inaccuracy in the report or would like us to run an additional closed test purchase for you, message me.