Personal care purchases range from everyday essentials to more considered beauty and skincare choices. Spanning categories such as oral care, deodorant, skincare, cosmetics, hair care and hygiene, the sector is highly competitive, with brands vying for consumer attention across both routine purchases and more occasional moments of choice.
Drawing on YouGov BrandIndex data, UK personal care and beauty brand rankings 2026 highlight the brands that UK adults would consider the next time they are in the market to purchase a product.
In this article, we cover:
Which personal care and beauty brands are most considered?
Colgate ranks first, with 43.8% of UK adults saying they would consider the brand the next time they are in the market to buy. Dove follows at 36.7%, ahead of Oral-B at 33.1%, Nivea at 32.2%, and Sure at 28.8%.
Sensodyne ranks sixth at 25.3%, followed by Vaseline (24.7%), Andrex (23.9%), Gillette (22.7%) and No7 (22.3%).
The results show that consideration is not concentrated in beauty brands alone, with oral care, skincare, grooming and hygiene brands all featuring strongly across the ranking.
The wider Top 25 includes Head & Shoulders, Simple, Kleenex, E45, Dettol, Radox, Listerine, Aquafresh, Lynx, L’Oréal Paris, Sanex, Imperial Leather, Maybelline, Corsodyl and Rimmel.
Most improved: Which personal care and beauty brands recorded the greatest year-on-year gains?
Sensodyne posts the strongest year-on-year gain in consideration, rising by 1.6 percentage points among UK adults. Lynx and Corsodyl each gain 0.9 points, while WaterWipes rises by 0.8 points and L’Oréal Paris gains 0.8 points.
Sensodyne records the largest gain in consideration, increasing by 1.6 points during the period. WaterWipes follows with a 1.1-point increase and is the fastest-growing brand proportionally.
Among the remaining brands, movements are more modest and should be viewed as directional. Rimmel records a 0.6-point increase, while Mitchum, Bulldog and Simple each gain around half a point. Charlotte Tilbury rounds out the improvers table with a 0.4-point uplift.
Overall, the results point to positive momentum across a diverse mix of personal care, beauty and grooming brands, although the strongest evidence of growth is concentrated among the leading movers.
Which brands stand out on Value and Quality?
Consideration shows which brands consumers would put on their shortlist. Value and Quality show a different part of the brand-health picture, because they measure net positive versus negative perceptions rather than purchase consideration.
Vaseline records the highest net Value score among the displayed brands at 28.2. Colgate follows at 27.3, ahead of Nivea (25.9), Dove (25.8) and Aquafresh (23.1).
Dove leads on net Quality at 41.2, closely followed by Colgate (40.6). Oral-B records a score of 39.7, while Nivea (39.1) and Vaseline (37.6) complete the top five.
The results highlight a cluster of brands that perform well on both Value and Quality. While Vaseline records the highest Value score and Dove the highest Quality score, the gaps at the top are relatively small, with Colgate also ranking among the category's strongest performers across both measures.
Which brands lead in beauty and cosmetics?
While the overall ranking is led by everyday personal care brands, with No7 (22.3%) and L'Oréal Paris (15.7%) among the most-considered brands overall. However, both sit outside the dedicated Beauty & Cosmetics grouping used for this analysis.
Looking specifically at brands classified within the Beauty & Cosmetics category, Maybelline records the highest consideration score at 15.0%, ahead of Rimmel (13.4%) and L'Oréal Paris Makeup (11.7%). Max Factor (10.8%) and Chanel (9.9%) round out the top five.
Methodology
This article draws on YouGov BrandIndex data collected among UK adults from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. Year-on-year movement compares the current period with 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025.
The primary consideration ranking is based on UK adults, current period n>7,813; previous period n>8,176. Figures are rounded to one decimal place.
Consideration is reported as a percentage. For Personal care & Beauty brands, respondents were asked: When you are in the market next to purchase health & beauty products, from which of the following would you consider buying? For cosmetics & skincare brands, respondents were asked: When you are in the market next to buy a product from a cosmetic and skincare brand, from which of the following would you consider?
Value and Quality are reported as net scores. Value asks which products represent good or poor value for money, while Quality asks which represent good or poor quality. For the additional Top 10 rankings, 28 brands are categorised as beauty & cosmetics and 53 as health, skincare & personal care. Each brand appears in only one editorial subgroup.
Disclosure: The data analysis in this article was conducted by YouGov with the assistance of AI tools.
About YouGov BrandIndex
YouGov BrandIndex is an always-on, daily brand tracking tool that measures consumer perceptions of thousands of brands across sectors and markets.
For health and beauty brands, BrandIndex helps marketers understand how their brand performs across key measures of awareness, consideration, perception, customer experience and recommendation.
BrandIndex can be used to monitor brand health over time, benchmark competitors, identify audience-specific strengths and weaknesses, and understand how consumer perceptions differ across category, demographic and behavioural groups.
Explore more health and beauty brand data
This ranking is one view of the broader health and beauty data available in YouGov BrandIndex. Additional analysis can include competitor benchmarks, audience cuts, year-on-year movement, Premium Spenders, women by generation, and other relevant brand-health measures.
Request a BrandIndex demo or health and beauty brand briefing to explore how your brand and competitors perform across the audiences and metrics that matter most.
