If you know beauty, you know Mona Kattan. The Iraqi-American beauty entrepreneur is not only the co-founder and president of Huda Beauty, but also the creator of KAYALI fragrances. When she’s not making waves in the beauty industry, she likes to wow her over two million Instagram followers. So how did one of the Middle East’s most famous personalities get to where she is now? Read on!
Q
What is the backstory of KAYALI?
A
I’ve been obsessed with fragrance for most of my life, and it has become completely intertwined with every aspect of my life. With the help and support of our incredible team, I was able to realise my dream of creating a luxury fragrance brand called KAYALI, inspired by my love for fragrance and my Middle Eastern heritage.
Q
What pushed you to start your own business, and how did you do it?
A
My obsession with scents started when I was younger. I love how they make me feel and a lot of people don’t talk about it, but I firmly believe that it is a tool to increase one’s confidence. It was when I moved to Dubai in 2002 that my passion for it grew. I started to play with the idea of possibly creating my own label when I was working with a brand called Micallef as I was deeply inspired by how intricate its founders were with every juice they touched.
When I did start building my business, there was no doubt in my mind that I had to work with the incredible perfume house Firmenich. I loved everything it stood for – including how it works on sustainably resourced ingredients, which was really important to me and my team. So, in 2018, after having worked with my sisters on building Huda Beauty, I decided to dive into my passion for fragrance and create my own brand, KAYALI.
Q
What was your vision when you first launched your business?
A
I really wanted to empower and educate people to use their own imagination to create their own unique scents – something that people have been doing in this region since forever. That’s why each of our fragrances can be layered to create a special bespoke for whoever wears it. I also wanted to make fragrances fun. I think that the world of perfume can be a bit intimidating, but for me, fragrances are incredibly personal and have the power to transform how you feel. This power of perfume is something that I want to demonstrate with my brand.
Q
What makes KAYALI unique?
A
The community we’ve built around KAYALI is just so special. When we started, we really wanted to share our unique perspective on fragrance and how it’s used within the region, and our community has embraced it wholeheartedly.
Q
What have the past two years been like for you as an entrepreneur?
A
The last two years have been an absolute rollercoaster – not only as an entrepreneur, but also as a person. I have learned to be agile and flexible, which is hard for me because I’m a bit of a perfectionist and a planner. Since the pandemic started, I was able to deepen my knowledge of fragrance and transition my simple love for it into further understanding and appreciating it. One big challenge that we faced was around the production of a fragrance, which supposed to come out last year. Because our factories had to close for such a long period of time, we had to move one of our key launches to this year.
Q
What’s the best thing about leading your own business? Any proud moments you can share?
A
The best part has been that I get to learn so much along the way. I’m also really fortunate to have my sisters, who I work closely with, cheering me on. My proudest moment was when we created our KAYALI Elixir 11 in the summer of 2017. We had just confirmed our investors and we were finally seeing a lot of interest in the brand. It was such an emotional moment because people could see the vision that I had been planning since I was a teenager.
Q
What is Dubai like as a place to start a business?
A
The business opportunities in Dubai are plentiful, and starting our businesses here felt really organic to us. Once we launched, we found that the regional community really embraced us – that has always been so encouraging.
Q
Which books/podcasts/blogs do you follow and why?
A
I love reading. I pick up a new book every other week, but one of my favourite books is Me and My Higher Self by Bunny Michael. It’s full of love notes from your higher self in the form of relatable and smart mantras. I also really enjoy listening to Jay Shetty’s podcast.
Q
What inspires you?
A
I’m inspired by everything around me. I’m such a romantic, so a lot of my inspiration for our fragrances comes from past experiences. There’s so much beauty in different life experiences and moments, so I try my best to bottle those moments.
Q
How do you balance work/family life?
A
I work pretty closely with my sisters, so work time often overlaps with family time, but over the years, we’ve learnt to set healthy boundaries to take care of ourselves so we can be the best version that we all need.
Q
What’s one piece of advice that you would give to every budding entrepreneur?
A
Your decisions should be either a ‘hell yes’ or a ‘hell no’. Trust your own intuition – it usually steers you in the right direction.
Q
What do you want to develop next?
A
We’re working on so many different things with KAYALI right now! We’re focused on expanding our collection, while looking into some interesting new formats for fragrance, so watch this space.
