Mona Kattan on superpower scents and conquering the beauty boardroom

Most of us would recognise Mona Kattan as one of the most successful women in the beauty industry. Not only because she co-founded Huda Beauty and launched Kayali, a brand that paved the way for the Middle Eastern perfume-layering culture in the West, but also because she’s a trend-setter and passionate advocate for female representation in business.

But behind all that is a warm, bubbly personality, which I noticed almost immediately after hopping on a Zoom call with the entrepreneur on a cold Monday afternoon. Tuning in from sunny Dubai, Mona joined with her super glowy skin and an impressive amount of energy, despite the four hour time difference. But regardless of opposite weather conditions and our different heritage (I grew up in Kazakhstan), I felt an almost instant connection – especially as someone who’s also moved halfway across the globe to pursue my passion.

Born and raised in the US, Mona, along with her sister Huda Kattan, started her beauty journey from a very young age. She shared that both sisters were involved in beauty pageants from the age of three until seven. “I was such a girly girl growing up. Me and Huda both used to love playing with dolls and had makeup parties,” she recalled.

But before the beauty moguls founded Huda Beauty, Mona’s career took her everywhere from investment banking to owning a beauty salon. Having founded Kayali in 2018, she’s now known as a ‘perfume princess’ in the Middle East, amassing 2.8 million followers on Instagram (and counting). To find out more about her journey, I chatted with Mona on everything from her relationship with beauty and mental health, the inspiration behind Kayali, reconnecting with her Middle Eastern roots and her hopes for the beauty industry.

“Moving to Dubai was a huge part of my inspiration behind starting the brand because although I’m originally Middle Eastern, I was really not connected to my roots at all.”

When I grew up in the States, I was not familiar with the traditions and the rituals – there was such a huge disconnect. And when I moved to Dubai, I fell in love. People use fragrances as a part of their rituals, multiple times a day [as opposed to once a day]. It’s something that they do with intention. It’s not an afterthought. There’s different [fragrance] rituals you do at a wedding or on Fridays, which is considered a holy day. I love seeing it is a tool and not just something that you do right before you leave the house. 

I do feel like I’m kind of torn between being an American and being an Arab, but I wanted to share this with my friends that I grew up with [in the US] that they were missing out on this. So I was like: “let me kind of merge the two worlds and go somewhere in the middle and create a brand that connects to my roots.” In 2023, we’re finally launching a project that I’ve been working on for five years. It’s really going to give people a taste of the Middle East – I can’t wait to share it with the world.

“I really feel like beauty is a tool and fragrance, especially, is a superpower.”

I feel like we kind of helped start [the fragrance layering trend]. When we first launched [Kayali] in 2018 and we were pitching to retailers, we were telling them the brand is all about layering different fragrances together and mixing-and-matching. We got so much criticism and they were like: “It’s not going to work, you’re crazy.” And now we see it all over TikTok and Instagram. I’m obsessed with the fragrance community [on social media]. They’re so creative and I just love that people are experimenting.