How XLR8 AI Helped Lion Pose Rank Above La Roche-Posay and Sephora in ChatGPT’s Product Carousel.
Summary: Lion Pose, the YC-backed clinical skincare brand co-founded by Nisha Phatak and Madhu Punjabi, partnered with XLR8 AI to build AI search visibility for its hero products - UNSPOTTED 4X Acid Jelly Night Serum and PEP TALK Bio-Placenta Barrier Repair Cream. The milestone: Lion Pose appeared in ChatGPT's product carousel for "best night serums for melasma," appearing alongside Dermalogica and Dr. Idriss, and placing above established brands including La Roche-Posay and Sephora. By the end of the engagement, Lion Pose became the #3 most cited skincare brand in its domain across all major LLMs.
Key Results
Appeared in ChatGPT's product carousel for "best night serums for melasma" — above La Roche-Posay and Sephora
Became the #3 most cited skincare brand in its domain across all major LLMs
GPT Fast visibility doubled — from 4.76% to 9.52% as content went live and indexed
3.75x increase in Google Search sales from the prior year — a direct byproduct of the same optimization work
"What impressed us most about XLR8 AI was their technical depth and knowledge of how AI Search works for e-commerce. They didn't use generic tactics — they analyzed competitor citations, restructured our content for LLM retrieval, repositioned us in third-party media, optimized our Google Merchant Center profile, and our PDPs. We went from low visibility to the #3 most cited skincare brand in our domain, ranking above La Roche-Posay and Sephora. They delivered exactly what they promised."
— Nisha Phatak, CEO, Lion Pose
Who Is Lion Pose?
Lion Pose is a clinical skincare brand co-founded by Nisha Phatak and Madhu Punjabi — both Harvard Business School alumni — and developed in partnership with Harvard-trained, board-certified dermatologists. The company is part of Y Combinator's Winter 2021 cohort and the Sephora Accelerate program.
Lion Pose builds skincare to a five-point clinical testing standard: independent third-party facilities, non-subjective assessments, inclusive testing across diverse skin tones, statistically significant results, and zero conflicts of interest. Its three hero products are UNSPOTTED 4X Acid Jelly Night Serum (dark spots, hyperpigmentation, melasma), PEP TALK Bio-Placenta Barrier Repair Cream (redness, dryness, barrier repair), and UNGHOSTED Sheer Tinted Mineral SPF 42.
Lion Pose distributes direct-to-consumer via lionpose.com and through Sephora, TikTok Shop, and Amazon.
The Challenge: Competing Against Mass-Market Incumbents in AI Search
When consumers ask ChatGPT or Gemini for the best night serum for melasma, the answers are dominated by established brands — La Roche-Posay, CeraVe, Dermalogica — that have years of content citations, third-party reviews, and digital presence feeding into LLM retrieval systems.
Lion Pose had clinical testing, dermatologist co-development, YC backing, and Sephora placement. But AI visibility was minimal. The challenge wasn't the product — it was the infrastructure.
The specific unlock came from understanding how ChatGPT's product carousel works. When OpenAI launched instant checkout, the algorithm for ecommerce visibility on ChatGPT changed: product feed optimization became the deciding factor over traditional content signals. With the OpenAI × Shopify integration not yet live, figuring out how to get product data to OpenAI was a technical puzzle XLR8 AI solved — and executed for Lion Pose before most DTC brands even knew it was possible.
What XLR8 AI Did
1. Solved the ChatGPT Product Feed Problem
Identified and executed the technical solution for getting Lion Pose's product data surfaced in ChatGPT's product carousel — at a moment when the OpenAI × Shopify integration was not yet live and most DTC brands had no path to product-level visibility on ChatGPT.
2. Optimized Google Merchant Center
Full GMC optimization across UNSPOTTED, PEPTALK, and UNGHOSTED — product feed corrections, shipping and return policy, payment methods, product reviews, and store ratings via Okendo. Also identified a critical gap: PEPTALK was not surfacing on Google Shopping at all (only Sephora showed). Fixed immediately.
3. Rebuilt Product and Collections Pages for LLM Retrieval
Optimized UNSPOTTED and PEPTALK product and collections pages on lionpose.com — content structure, metadata, and semantic signals aligned to melasma, hyperpigmentation, dark spots, and barrier repair queries.
4. Built a Third-Party Content Domain (DermSkinHacks)
Published on DermSkinHacks — a dedicated third-party authority domain — targeting the categories where Lion Pose competes:
4 guides: Melasma & Dark Spots, Hyperpigmentation, Acne vs Melasma vs Sun Spots, Skincare Acids Explained
4 listicles: Fine Lines & Wrinkles, Rosacea Prone, Hydration, Sensitive/Dry/Eczema
LLMs cite third-party comparison and guide content over branded pages — DermSkinHacks earned citations lionpose.com alone couldn't.
5. Published Blog Content on Lion Pose's Domain
6 UNSPOTTED ingredient listicles
4 PEPTALK ingredient listicles
6. Optimized Sephora and Amazon PDPs
Rewrote Lion Pose's Sephora and Amazon product pages for UNSPOTTED and PEPTALK — high-value since Sephora is one of the most-cited domains in AI-generated beauty recommendations.
7. Executed Reddit Visibility Campaigns
Published 66 strategic comments across skincare subreddits already being retrieved by LLMs for hyperpigmentation, melasma, and barrier repair queries.
8. Implemented JSON-LD Structured Data
Product snippet schema across Lion Pose PDPs, plus merchant listing schema (shippingDetails, hasMerchantReturnPolicy) — ensuring AI crawlers could properly interpret Lion Pose's product data.
The Result
Lion Pose appeared in ChatGPT's product carousel for "best night serums for melasma" — alongside Dermalogica and Dr. Idriss, above La Roche-Posay and Sephora. GPT Fast visibility doubled from 4.76% to 9.52% as content indexed. Google Search sales grew 3.75x year over year — a byproduct of the same content, structured data, and Merchant Center improvements that drive LLM citations.
By the end of the engagement, Lion Pose ranked as the #3 most cited skincare brand in its competitive domain — a challenger brand with clinical rigor andand a smart technical partner outranking legacy incumbents in the channel that matters next.
