In a modest apartment in Dubai in 2010, a 27-year-old finance worker named Huda Kattan quit her corporate job, borrowed $6,000 from her sister, and bought her first batch of false eyelashes. Fourteen years later, that same woman runs Huda Beauty — a cosmetics empire valued at $1.2 billion, sold in Sephora stores in 54 countries, and followed by 55 million people on Instagram alone. She is the richest self-made woman in the Middle East, the first beauty influencer ever to appear on the Forbes billionaires list (2023), and still the only Arab woman to have built a global beauty brand from absolute zero.
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From Oklahoma to Dubai via Baghdad
Huda was born on 2 October 1983 in Oklahoma City, USA, to Iraqi immigrant parents who had fled Saddam Hussein’s regime. Her father, an engineering professor, and her mother, a homemaker who sold homemade pickles to make ends meet, raised Huda and her three siblings with a fierce belief in education and hustle. Growing up, Huda spoke Arabic at home, celebrated Eid and Thanksgiving, and learned early that being “different” could either break you or brand you.
She studied finance at the University of Michigan–Dearborn, then moved to Dubai in 2006 when her father got a teaching post there. By day she worked in recruitment for Robert Half; by night she did makeup on the side for friends. In 2010, after being laid off during the financial crisis, she enrolled in makeup school in Los Angeles (Joe Blasco Makeup Artist Training Center) — paying her own way with credit cards.
HUDA Beauty Products — The Glam Slam You’ll Love
A full-on glam guide to the best HUDA Beauty products — from lipsticks to highlighters — that promise effortless style and confidence for every woman.
The Blog That Changed Everything
Back in Dubai, Huda started a WordPress blog called “Huda Beauty” in April 2010, posting makeup tutorials using her iPhone camera and ring light made from aluminum foil. Within months it was the most-read beauty blog in the Middle East. Brands started sending free products; readers begged her to create her own.
In 2013 she launched her first product: 30 styles of false eyelashes sold exclusively at Sephora Dubai. They sold out in hours. Kim Kardashian posted a photo wearing a pair; overnight orders crashed the website. By 2017 Huda Beauty was doing $200 million in annual sales — all bootstrapped.
Building the Empire, One Product at a Time
Key milestones:
- 2017: Launched #FauxFilter foundation in 30 shades — one of the first mainstream lines to cater properly to Middle Eastern and South Asian skin tones.
- 2018: Easy Bake loose powder and the Rose Gold Remastered palette — still two of the best-selling items in Sephora Middle East history.
- 2020: Entered skincare with Wishful, starting with the viral Yo Glow enzyme scrub.
- 2021: Sold a minority stake to private-equity firm TSG Consumer Partners, valuing the company at $1.2 billion. Huda retained majority ownership and full creative control.
- 2024: Huda Beauty reached $650 million in annual revenue and opened flagship stores in London, Los Angeles and Riyadh.
She now employs over 400 people, 70 % of them women, and runs the brand with her two sisters: Mona (COO) and Alya (CFO).
Beyond the Contour: Giving Back
In 2022 she launched the Huda Beauty Empowerment Fund, pledging 1 % of all sales to women-led startups in the MENA region. In 2024 alone it invested in 27 female founders. During the 2023–2024 Gaza crisis she donated $1 million in aid and used her platform to call for ceasefire — a move that cost her some partnerships but earned respect across the Arab world.
Still the Same Huda
At 41, Huda still lives in Dubai with her Lebanese-American husband Chris Goncalo and their daughter Nour Giselle (born 2017). She films most of her own content, answers customer DMs personally, and refuses to move manufacturing out of Dubai even when it would be cheaper.
When Forbes asked her in 2023 how it felt to be a billionaire, she laughed and said in her Oklahoma-meets-Baghdad accent:
“I’m still the girl who used to do makeup in the bathroom with one mirror and a dream. The money is nice, but the real win is seeing a girl in Saudi or Pakistan or Mexico put on my lipstick and feel beautiful for the first time.”
From a borrowed $6,000 to a billion-dollar brand, Huda Kattan didn’t just sell makeup — she sold confidence to an entire generation of women who had never seen themselves on beauty counters. And she did it while staying unapologetically Arab, unapologetically loud, and unapologetically in charge.
