INTRODUCTION
Mona Kattan (@monakattan) is an Iraqi-American beauty entrepreneur, investor, and television personality dubbed the “Perfume Princess” of the Middle East. After co-founding the billion-dollar cosmetics empire Huda Beauty alongside her sister, she transitioned into a solo corporate titan as the founder and CEO of KAYALI, a luxury fragrance house that pioneered the Middle Eastern art of scent layering in the global West.
Birth name: Mona Kattan
Career
CEO of KAYALI Fragrances, Co-Founder of Huda Beauty, Television Personality, Angel Investor
Birthday
May 8, 1985
Age: 41
Zodiac Sign:
Taurus
Birthplace: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.
Nationality: American / Iraqi
HOW BIG IS Mona Kattan ON THE NET?
Mona commands a massive global audience, capturing over 7 million cross-platform followers who track her fragrance mixology, high-fashion styling, and lifestyle vlogs. Positioned by Forbes as one of the Most Powerful Women in the Middle East, her individual financial footprint is immense. Following a historic corporate restructuring where KAYALI transitioned into a standalone powerhouse backed by global private equity firm General Atlantic, her personal net worth is estimated between $100 million and $200 million.
HOW DID Mona Kattan become famous?
Mona first blew up globally in 2013 by masterminding the launch of Huda Beauty alongside her sisters Huda and Alya, transforming a simple beauty blog into a global retail powerhouse stocked in Sephora and Harrods. She permanently solidified her independent entrepreneurial legacy in 2018 by founding KAYALI (meaning my imagination in Arabic). Her mainstream celebrity scaled even further via international television, starring in the Facebook Watch series Huda Boss, judging on Shark Tank Egypt, and appearing as a prominent cast member on Netflix’s hit reality series Dubai Bling.
BEFORE THE FAME
Born in Oklahoma to Iraqi immigrant parents, Mona moved frequently during her youth, living in Massachusetts before her family relocated to Sharjah, UAE, when she was a teenager. She pursued a traditional corporate trajectory, earning a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the American University of Sharjah in 2008. Long before launching international cosmetic lines, she began her career working briefly as a customer service representative and investment banker, later pivoting to entrepreneurship by opening a boutique hair and nail salon in Dubai.
CLOSE WITH (ASSOCIATED);
Mona shares a lifetime personal and creative bond with her sisters, Huda Kattan and Alya Kattan, with whom she built her foundational beauty portfolio. In her personal life, she is married to Dubai-based logistics businessman Hassan Elamin, a relationship frequently spotlighted across her broadcast media projects. On a corporate scale, she operates alongside institutional growth partners at General Atlantic, while collaborating directly with world-renowned master perfumers from legacy fragrance houses like Firmenich and Givaudan to formulate her award-winning scents.
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