Huda Kattan Interview Highlights: From Instagram to a Beauty Empire

Huda Kattan started with makeup tutorials on a blog, launched a single product in a Dubai mall, and spent the next decade building a cosmetics brand that by 2025 was sold through Sephora in the United States and Harrods in London. Along the way she took private equity money, handed over the CEO job, took it back, and in 2025 bought out her investor.

This post is for creators thinking about launching a product, marketers who work with creator-led brands, and anyone curious how the Huda Beauty story sounds in her own words. It covers how she uses her community to decide what to make, why she stopped using filters, why she turned down a $185,000 sponsored post, and what she says about investors and her own mistakes.

It also briefly covers a 2025 controversy over one of her own videos, because it bears on how a founder-led brand works with retailers.

Who is Huda Kattan?

Huda Kattan is an American makeup artist, beauty blogger and entrepreneur who founded Huda Beauty, a Dubai-based cosmetics company that grew out of the beauty blog she started in 2010.

She was born in Oklahoma City in 1983 to parents who had emigrated from Iraq, spent part of her childhood in Tennessee, and moved to Dubai in 2008. She studied finance and, CNBC reported, started Huda Beauty as a blog and YouTube channel after losing a job in recruitment. In 2013 she launched false eyelashes at Sephora in The Dubai Mall, funded by a $6,000 loan from her older sister, Alya. According to the company’s 2025 announcement, her husband, Christopher Goncalo, is co-CEO and Alya leads social strategy. Her younger sister, Mona, co-founded Huda Beauty and runs the fragrance brand Kayali.

How did Huda Kattan get started?

Kattan didn’t start in beauty; she has said she disliked her first career, in finance. The turn came when she trained as a makeup artist and spotted a product gap from the inside.

“Having retrained to be a make up artist and then seeing there was a gap in the market for fabulous false lashes, I took the jump to start a business and worked very, very hard at it.”

— Huda Kattan, TheIndustry.beauty, October 2021

The blog came first. Entrepreneur’s 2018 profile says she left finance for makeup in 2010 and started the blog to teach ordinary people the techniques celebrities paid professionals for. She joined Instagram in 2012. The lashes followed in 2013, and money was the first obstacle.

“One of the most challenging things was getting started. In order to start the business, I took a 6,000 USD loan from my older sister Alya to get going.”

— Huda Kattan, A&E Magazine, October 2020

She has also said that getting a meeting with Sephora took so many emails that people would think she was crazy if they knew.

The order is the useful part: teach, find a gap through your own work, then launch one product with one retailer. For a creator, that means starting from the question your audience asks most often, not the biggest market.

How does Huda Kattan decide what to make next?

Her answer has been consistent for years: she asks her followers.

“Honestly, it’s our community. … We listen to their feedback, highlighted with our recent reformulations, like our Faux Filter Foundation and we value their input so much on products they would love us to create and what they would like to see.”

— Huda Kattan, TheIndustry.beauty, October 2021

In April 2017 she asked her Instagram followers to suggest a name for the brand’s new foundation, and later told Entrepreneur that her community helps create products more than it probably realizes. In January 2026, Hypebae described the relaunched Easy Bake Pressed Powder as a direct result of community feedback.

Listening isn’t launching everything people ask for. Kattan has said products take years to develop and some never come out because they don’t make the cut. Feedback decides what’s worth working on; the brand decides what’s good enough to sell.

For marketers, that feedback loop is the part of a creator brand that’s easy to undervalue: a constant, free stream of what customers want, in their own words.

What does Huda Kattan say works on Instagram?

Kattan has described how Instagram changed under her. At first she posted what she was eating and where she was going, like everyone else. Then beauty Instagram matured.

“It started to change as Instagram became more popular in the beauty community, and it became more informational. People had to learn or gain something by coming to you.”

— Huda Kattan, Entrepreneur, March 2018

In 2018, with a team of about 150 people, she still directed videos and sat with the editor, and said one video could take six hours, minimum, to shoot and edit. Ideas came at home rather than in the office, often from beauty problems she had herself, and she was clear about the limit.

“I don’t like to force content. If it doesn’t feel right, there’s no way in hell I’m going to do it. If it’s fake, you’re going to know it in my face.”

— Huda Kattan, Entrepreneur, March 2018

The approach has carried over to TikTok, where by late 2024 she was posting tutorials in Arabic and reaction videos, Grazia Malaysia reported. The lesson is the 2018 one: every post should teach something, and problems you actually have make better content than topics you think you should cover.

Why did Huda Kattan stop using filters?

Kattan has said she wears a lot of makeup and isn’t ashamed of it, so her objection is to editing, not to makeup. In a March 2021 YouTube video, reported by Cosmetics Business, she said she’d had enough of heavily edited beauty marketing and started a petition asking brands and influencers to disclose when they edit images. Arabian Business reported in 2025 that the company had eliminated filters and photo editing on its social channels.

She has tied the change to her daughter. On Eva Longoria’s podcast she described watching her daughter, then 10, refuse to take a photo without a Snapchat filter, and realizing that to her daughter’s generation, filtered photos looked normal.

“If the makeup is good, show it. Also, I don’t like how we use models. I do think it’s nice to show real people using the products. I think we should be a little bit more honest in the beauty industry”

— Huda Kattan on Eva Longoria’s podcast, as quoted by Arab News, April 2022

It cost her personally: she told TheIndustry.beauty that shooting the campaign for her Wishful skincare line without makeup or retouching left her feeling exposed.

For a brand selling complexion products, an unedited photo is also a product demonstration, so honesty and sales point the same way. For creators, the principle matches sponsorship disclosure: tell people what they’re looking at. Our guide to disclosing affiliate links and sponsorships covers paid posts.

What does Huda Kattan say about working with brands?

One sponsorship story Kattan has told is about a deal she turned down.

“Once, I got offered $185,000 to do one post, and I was so close to doing it — I genuinely loved the product. … I know you have to identify it as an ad, but I just didn’t feel comfortable with it.”

— Huda Kattan, Entrepreneur, March 2018

She said she asked herself whether Oprah would do it and turned the money down, though she’d been about to buy a car, and was candid that her husband’s income made that possible. She wasn’t taking sponsored posts on her Instagram then, but she didn’t call sponsorship wrong: nobody should feel ashamed of making money from posts, she said, as long as it’s done naturally.

Her objection wasn’t to the product, which she liked, but to how a paid post would feel on an account built on advice. That’s the instinct you want in a creator you sponsor. Our checklist on vetting a creator before a sponsorship includes checking how they handled past sponsors.

Why did Huda Kattan buy back Huda Beauty?

Private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners bought a minority stake in Huda Beauty in 2017. Kattan told CNBC in 2020 that she had almost walked away from outside investment, because the business was already cash-flow positive, but took it for the strategic help. Part of the money set up Huda Beauty Angels, a $10 million fund that invests in women founders.

In February 2025, Huda Beauty announced that it would sell its ownership of Kayali to Mona Kattan and the growth equity firm General Atlantic, and fully redeem TSG’s stake. The buyback was announced as complete in June 2025, making Huda Beauty fully founder-owned; the announcement didn’t disclose a price. Seven months later, she was blunter than any press release.

“Investors are tough, just straight up. I’m not saying ours were bad, because they weren’t. But it’s very different being a founder — when you work from pure passion. … So, being free from our investors meant we get to do cool things. We get to innovate differently.”

— Huda Kattan, Hypebae, January 2026

In the same interview she said she had only recently started getting paid. For creators weighing investors, her arc sums up the trade: outside money brought expertise and a fund for backing other founders, but also a second set of priorities, and full control took eight years to come back.

What mistakes does Huda Kattan say she made?

The first is giving up the CEO job. Cosmetics Business reported that she stepped down as CEO in 2020 and promoted a former NYX president to the role; that executive left in 2021, after which Kattan and her husband shared the job. In a February 2024 Instagram video she announced she was taking the role back, along with a full rebrand.

“I needed to get some experts in place, but I think maybe some of that guidance was pushing me too far down one way. … It has been one of the biggest regrets of my life because I didn’t listen to myself.”

— Huda Kattan, Instagram video, as quoted by Cosmetics Business, February 2024

She gave Hypebae an example: she felt the original pressed powder could be better but was afraid to say so because she wasn’t leading the company. When customers didn’t like it, she wished she’d spoken up, and redoing it was the first project after she returned.

The other mistake is about pace.

“I was always going at a million miles an hour and literally never stopped. My cup was not full and I was unable to give my most”

— Huda Kattan, TheIndustry.beauty, October 2021

She said lockdown helped her take a break from social media and spend time with her family; that year, she told A&E Magazine, the family also gave up their salaries to keep Huda Beauty’s teams intact. The lesson she draws is about balance, and about trusting the instinct that built the business.

What advice does Huda Kattan give new creators?

Her advice to people building on Instagram is mostly about identity.

“It’s really important to know who you are and to own who you are. … When you get messy, you start to lose your DNA. You don’t need to be cookie-cutter like every other person.”

— Huda Kattan, Entrepreneur, March 2018

She pairs that with a warning against standing still: stay open to the right criticism and listen to your community, because audiences move fast and what’s interesting now may not be in a year. Owning who you are and changing with your audience aren’t contradictions in her account; balancing them is the job.

For founders, she told CNBC in 2020 that a business needs a purpose beyond money, and that she had no money in her first seven years. She told A&E Magazine to be ready to sacrifice, including good opportunities, and to trust your gut. The honest summary: it took years of obsession, not one viral post.

What is Huda Kattan working on now?

As of October 2026, Kattan runs a fully founder-owned Huda Beauty. In January 2025 she launched Huda Hotline, a podcast Arab News called her first major project outside the business; she said her community had asked for it, and that surveys show many of her followers are women starting businesses.

The brand has focused on its core products. One of her first projects as sole owner, Hypebae reported, was the reformulated Easy Bake Pressed Powder, unveiled in January 2026.

“[The launch] does symbolize new beginnings. Huda Beauty has been on a journey, and it hasn’t always been good. There were moments where we weren’t real to who we are.”

— Huda Kattan, Hypebae, January 2026

On August 31, 2026, Huda Beauty launched Ultra Snatched, an extension of the Easy Bake range, with Cardi B. The campaign, “Snatched Baddies”, has Kattan and Cardi B trading lives, and the launch announcement says Cardi B helped shape the creative.

The period has also included controversy. In a July 2025 TikTok video, Beauty Independent reported, Kattan falsely claimed Israel orchestrated both world wars, the September 11 attacks and Hamas’s October 7 attack; TikTok said it removed the video for breaking its guidelines, Kattan said she took it down herself, and Sephora said it was reviewing its relationship with Huda Beauty. In an August 2025 video, Kattan said her words had been misrepresented and that “I would never condone any hate of any kind”.

What creators can learn from Huda Kattan

Sources

• The Interview: Huda Kattan, TheIndustry.beauty, October 2021
• Huda Kattan, Founder on Success, Confidence and Achieving Your Dreams, A&E Magazine, October 2020
• Why Beauty Hack Guru Huda Kattan Turned Down a $185,000 Instagram Sponsored Post Deal, Entrepreneur, March 2018
• This is what Huda Kattan says she looks for in new hires, CNBC, February 2020
• Huda Kattan gets candid about beauty on Eva Longoria podcast, Arab News, April 2022
• ‘I’ve had enough’: Huda Kattan calls time on ‘toxic’ beauty standards, Cosmetics Business, March 2021
• Huda Kattan announces Huda Beauty rebrand, Cosmetics Business, February 2024
• Found in Beauty: Huda Kattan on Being in the Driver’s Seat Again, Grazia Malaysia, December 2024
• Huda Kattan launches ‘Huda Hotline’, a podcast for honest talking, Arab News, January 2025
• Huda Beauty Announces Kayali’s Transition into a Standalone Fragrance Powerhouse, General Atlantic, February 2025
• Huda Kattan reclaims full ownership of Huda Beauty, ending TSG Consumer partnership, Arabian Business, June 2025
• Huda Beauty’s Sales Fall On Sephora’s Website Amid Backlash Over Anti-Israel TikTok Video, Beauty Independent, August 2025
• Huda Kattan Is Ushering in a New Era of Huda Beauty, Hypebae, January 2026
• Huda Beauty and Cardi B turn up the snatch with the new Ultra Snatched collection, Huda Beauty via PR Newswire, August 2026
• Huda Kattan, Wikipedia, for early-life details

What to do next

If you’re a creator weighing your own product, see how others answer the same questions in our MrBeast interview and our Emma Chamberlain interview. The rest of the series is on the blog.

If you’re a brand looking for creators with Kattan’s instinct for saying no, start with our creator lists, and read our methodology to see how we judge creators on recent work rather than follower counts. Before you sign anyone, run through our checklist on how to vet a creator before a sponsorship.