Joe Marshall · 31 May 2026
UK Health and Beauty Search Trends [May 2026]: What Britain's Wellness Searches Reveal
We pulled Semrush data on UK health, beauty and wellness search. Gym and protein demand peaks every January, there is a second spring spike few brands plan for, Ozempic is fading as Pilates climbs, and trust-led treatments command premium clicks. Here is what it means for 2026.
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Health, beauty and wellness is one of the most emotionally charged corners of UK search, and one of the most calendar-driven. We pulled search data from Semrush across fitness, beauty, aesthetics and mental wellbeing. The picture is a market with a giant annual reset in January, a fast-moving set of trends, and some surprisingly expensive clicks.
The biggest and fastest-growing health & beauty brands in UK search
The 10 biggest health & beauty brands in UK search
Health and beauty demand still runs through the high-street names. Boots alone takes more than four in ten of the searches across the top brands.
| # | Brand | UK searches / mo | Share of top-10 demand |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Boots | 3.4M | |
| 2 |  Superdrug | 1.2M | |
| 3 |  Holland & Barrett | 823K | |
| 4 |  Gymshark | 550K | |
| 5 |  Space NK | 450K | |
| 6 |  Sephora | 368K | |
| 7 |  MyProtein | 301K | |
| 8 |  PureGym | 301K | |
| 9 |  Cult Beauty | 165K | |
| 10 |  Lookfantastic | 110K |
Branded search volume, UK, Semrush (May 2026). Share is each brand’s percentage of the combined monthly search volume of the ten brands shown.
The fastest-growing health & beauty brands in UK search
Prestige and viral beauty drove the fastest growth. Refy and Rhode led the field, with Sephora and Charlotte Tilbury close behind as social-led brands pulled demand.
| # | Brand | UK searches / mo | 12-month search trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Refy | 50K | |
| 2 |  Rhode | 91K | |
| 3 | Sephora | 368K | |
| 4 |  Charlotte Tilbury | 368K | |
| 5 | Gymshark | 550K | |
| 6 | Space NK | 450K | |
| 7 | PureGym | 301K | |
| 8 |  The Ordinary | 91K |
Change in branded search demand over the trailing 12 months, UK, Semrush. Ranked by trajectory; arrows show the direction of travel.
January is the whole industry's Super Bowl
Nothing in wellness search compares to the new-year reset. Demand for the core resolution terms climbs to its outright annual peak in January: "gym membership" and "protein powder" both hit their twelve-month high, while "Dry January" leaps from near-zero to a sharp spike.
Our take: if you sell anything in fitness or wellbeing, January is not a campaign, it is the campaign. The audience is enormous, motivated and price-checking, all at once. The brands that win it have their offers, onboarding and paid social creative built and tested through December, ready to capture intent the moment the clock strikes midnight. The flip side is retention: the same data shows demand fading fast by February, so the real prize is converting January's rush into members who stay.
The two seasons of wellness
January is not the only pull. Plot gym membership against sun cream and you see wellness has two distinct seasons: a January resolution peak and a late-spring, body-and-sun-prep peak as summer approaches.
Our take: the smart wellness calendar has two big moments, not one. The pre-summer window from spring onwards is a second, quieter spike of motivated intent that far fewer brands plan for, which makes it cheaper to win. Treating May the way everyone treats January is one of the easiest edges in the category.
The biggest searches: from Ozempic to the Pilates boom
On raw volume, the category is led by access ("gym near me" at 201,000), the weight-loss-drug phenomenon ("Ozempic" also at 201,000), and the diet brands. Beauty staples like The Ordinary and collagen sit at 90,500, and Pilates is climbing fast towards its own peak.
Our take: wellness trends move at the speed of social, and the data shows it, Ozempic interest is already easing off its earlier high while Pilates and collagen climb. The brands that win here watch the trend curve weekly and move in weeks, not planning cycles. It is the same lesson the air-fryer taught retail, which we covered in our UK retail search breakdown.
Trust, and treatment, command a premium
Where the searcher is buying a professional or a procedure, clicks get expensive. "Therapy" commands £6.90 a click and "hair transplant" £4.87, with weight-loss and dentistry terms close behind. These are high-consideration, high-trust decisions.
Our take: at these prices, and in a category this personal, trust does the selling. Reviews, credentials, before-and-afters and transparent pricing convert far better than another discount, and they protect margin on clicks that are not cheap. Measuring which of those signals actually drives bookings is what separates a profitable clinic or practice from one quietly burning budget.
What this means for health and wellness brands in 2026
The UK wellness search market rewards a clear plan. January is the defining demand event, so be ready before midnight on the 1st and obsess over retention afterwards. There is a second, under-served spring peak worth owning. Trends move fast, so watch the data and react. And in trust-led, premium categories, credibility converts better than discounts. If you want help building a wellness plan around these moments, get in touch.
This is part of Clicky Trends, our ongoing research into what the UK is actually searching for, industry by industry. See also our breakdowns of retail and travel search.
All search volume, cost-per-click and trend figures are from Semrush’s UK database, pulled in May 2026. The twelve-month trend window runs from March 2025 to February 2026, with each series indexed to its own peak.