When Huda Kattan announced in June 2025 that Huda Beauty had bought back an outside investor's stake, the decision marked a new stage for a company that began with her online beauty advice and false eyelashes packed at home. The brand was returning to founder ownership after eight years with a private-equity investor.

Kattan is an American beauty entrepreneur of Iraqi heritage, based in Dubai. She is the founder and CEO of Huda Beauty, the makeup company she developed from a blog into an international cosmetics business. Her career also includes skincare, a former fragrance venture with her sister Mona, and an expanding role in brand campaigns.

Huda Kattan: Profile Snapshot

• Name: Huda Kattan
• Background: American, of Iraqi heritage
• Professional base: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Profession: Makeup artist, beauty creator and entrepreneur
• Education: Finance studies at the University of Michigan–Dearborn; professional makeup training in Los Angeles
• Founder and CEO: Huda Beauty
• Other business connections: WISHFUL skincare; KAYALI, co-founded in 2018 and separated from Huda Beauty in 2025

Before the Brand, There Was a Beauty Blog

Kattan did not begin her career running a cosmetics company. After studying finance, she pursued professional makeup training in Los Angeles and worked as a makeup artist in Dubai. In 2010, she launched the Huda Beauty blog to share tutorials, product opinions and techniques with an audience interested in trying them.

The blog created a direct line between her work and the questions readers asked. False eyelashes became a recurring subject. Kattan had been combining and adapting lashes herself, and followers wanted to recreate the looks. Rather than continue recommending other products, she began developing her own.

The First Lashes and the Business That Followed

In 2013, Kattan introduced Huda Beauty false eyelashes through Sephora at The Dubai Mall. A company history describes a $6,000 loan from her sister Alya as part of the early launch. Kattan later recalled packing products in her living room, while trying to manage the demands of makeup work, blogging and a young company.

The product range expanded beyond lashes. Lip Contour pencils, complexion products and the Easy Bake setting powder became part of Huda Beauty's makeup identity. Kattan continued using tutorials and conversations with her audience to explain looks and introduce products rather than relying only on conventional advertising.

WISHFUL and a Wider Beauty Portfolio

Kattan extended that approach into skincare with WISHFUL, which launched in 2020. The line was developed around concerns she had encountered through her own skincare experiences and feedback from readers. Products under the WISHFUL name have continued to be listed through Huda Beauty's official store.

Fragrance was another family business connection. In 2018, Huda and her sister Mona co-founded KAYALI under the Huda Beauty business. Mona took a leading creative and executive role in building the fragrance brand. That connection changed in 2025, when KAYALI separated from Huda Beauty and began an independent chapter with Mona and investment firm General Atlantic. KAYALI should not be treated as a current Huda Beauty subsidiary.

Why Huda Beauty Returned to Founder Ownership

In 2017, investment firm TSG Consumer Partners bought a minority stake in Huda Beauty. The arrangement supported a period of growth, but it also meant the business had an outside investor. In June 2025, Huda Beauty announced that Kattan had bought back that interest and restored full founder ownership.

The change was more than an ownership headline. In interviews after the buyback, Kattan discussed the difference between a founder's creative priorities and an investor's financial expectations. Regaining control gave her greater freedom to decide which products and ideas the business would pursue. It did not mean that the company's earlier growth had happened without the work of her family or its wider team.

Fragrance and a Cardi B Campaign in 2026

In May 2026, Huda Beauty launched Easy Bake Intense Eau de Parfum, its first fragrance under the Huda Beauty name. The release came after the separation of KAYALI and established a new fragrance product within Kattan's independently controlled business. A London launch event later that month brought the product to a wider audience.

In August 2026, Huda Beauty announced the Ultra Snatched collection with rapper Cardi B. Both Kattan and Cardi B appeared in the campaign for new pink-and-lilac additions to the Easy Bake powder range. It was a named product campaign and creative collaboration, not evidence that Cardi B had acquired a stake in the company.

Huda Kattan on Famousi

Kattan's journey now includes two different kinds of independence: the early freedom to build a brand from her own makeup advice, and the later decision to regain control of the company she founded. Readers can follow that story through new Huda Beauty products, the direction of WISHFUL, changes in the wider Kattan beauty businesses and collaborations such as the Cardi B campaign.

Famousi covers these developments alongside relevant brand stories and shopping opportunities. When Huda Beauty publishes an offer, or Kattan shares a creator code with her audience, the terms and current availability must be checked before it is presented as usable. A general brand promotion is not automatically a personal code from Kattan.

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