Huda Kattan’s eponymous “Huda Beauty” brand has become one of the most widely known beauty brands all over the world. Her beauty empire also extends to her Youtube and Instagram influencer status, where she has a collective 50 million followers.
With a net worth of $610 million, Kattan earned the honor of a feature on Forbes’ 2019 “America’s Self-Made Women” list. Forbes also declared her one of the 10 most powerful beauty influencers.
But Kattan does not only offer beauty tips and products. In fact, the influencer has chosen to forego her salary for the next year to ensure the financial stability of her workers during the coronavirus pandemic. While beauty supply stores such as Sephora are laying off thousands of employees at a time, Kattan would rather prioritize the financial stability of her employees.
“No ONE will get through this until we get through this TOGETHER,” wrote Kattan in an email to her staff regarding the pandemic. “I was so inspired by my team! Unity is the answer.”
Kattan’s dedication to her employees earned her a spot on Hayat’s Top 30 Ramadan Illuminators list.
For Huda Kattan, Beauty is a Lifelong Passion
Huda Beauty grew out of Kattan’s passion for makeup. With her family’s support, she decided to follow that passion where it led. Originally in the finance field, Kattan and her husband Christopher Goncalo travelled to Dubai for her work. But neither recruitment, finance, nor PR gave her any satisfaction. At this point, Kattan decided, “I’m not doing anything unless I love it, because I’ve given my life to so many jobs.”
“I need to love what I do, because I’m going to give 110 percent,” Kattan tells USA Today. “I’m going to be working from 6 in the morning until 10 p.m., so I need to make sure I like it.”
So, she went beauty school and returned to Dubai, working as a makeup artist, blogger, and influencer.
“When I started blogging, all the makeup artists around me were like, ‘you’re crazy – you’re giving out free advice.’,” reminisces Kattan. However, her blog helped her gain traction and become known before the launch of Huda Beauty’s first product in the Middle East. A year later, the US launch and a subsequent color cosmetics release exploded the brand onto the beauty market. With a snowballing social media presence, Kattan’s brand expanded quickly.
Cosmetics as Transformation
Kattan was born to Iraqi parents in Oklahoma, but spent her childhood in Tennessee and Massachusetts. “I felt really ugly as a child,” Kattan shared at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women summit. “We grew up in Tennessee; we were the only brown people in the city. There were a lot of times when children made us feel like we were not beautiful.”
She recalls her earliest fascination with makeup, watching her sister Alya, who would spend “so much time putting on the mascara, separating the lashes,” Kattan tells Allure. “Watching her – it was like an art.”
“A lot of issues from my childhood were driving me, and I had no idea,” Kattan says about the creation of Huda Beauty. “I never felt like I belonged in society, I never felt really comfortable in my own skin. And there are literally billions of people who feel like that.”
She tells Entrepreneur Middle East that this “ugly child syndrome,” as she calls it, became a pillar of her career and the Huda Beauty brand. Built with the immense support of her sisters Mona and Alya, as well as her husband as Chief Operating Officer, Huda Beauty blossomed.
Huda Kattan Devotes Resources for COVID-19
With the onset of the pandemic, Kattan has turned her attention to ensuring that those less fortunate than her keep their jobs and income. To this end, she announced her decision to forego her salary to protect the wages of her employees. Additionally, she will donate to independent make-up artists. Her family has not only supported this decision, but joined her in foregoing their salaries.
Yet this is far from Kattan’s first experience with charity and philanthropy. In 2017, she helped create Huda Beauty Angels, a mentorship and funding program for aspiring entrepreneurs. Kattan has also sponsored a $5,000 scholarship for an aspiring makeup artist to get formal training.
The current COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in severe financial strain on many companies and individuals. Mass layoffs due to lesser demand for non-essential services have put many people in difficult situations. Kattan has joined the likes of Ralph Lauren and Emanuel Chirico in forgoing her salary.
“I’m hoping that as a company we come out closer,” says Huda Kattan about herself and the 267 people Huda Beauty employs worldwide. “Financially, I don’t know that that means, but I’m more concerned with the team right now.” Additionally, Huda Beauty is donating $1,000 to 100 individual makeup artists whose business is hurt by social distancing measures.
Join Kattan’s 4 million YouTube subscribers here or 44 million Instagram followers here.
