Dubai-based beauty mogul Mona Kattan spills her trade secrets on building an empire

Gulf News

When beauty mogul and entrepreneur Mona Kattan invited you to her basement library at her swanky villa in Palm Jumeirah, you were forgiven for expecting rows of leather-bound books neatly stacked together under warm lighting.  But the trailblazer Kattan, co-founder of the multi-million-dollar makeup empire Huda Beauty and Kayali Fragrances with over 3million followers on Instagram alone, is no traditionalist.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/lifestyle/fashion/mona-kattans-scent-of-success-as-she-rolls-out-a-new-perfume-in-dubai-1.95648066  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #MonaKattan #perfumes

Transcript

00:00I think we should always think about just the first step, like starting something

00:05because the empire will happen after many years, like 10, 15, 20 years

00:10staying focused and having a vision and staying in the right direction

00:14so I think for anyone, it's not that hard to start, what's hard is to keep going.

00:22Good afternoon, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News, I'm the entertainment editor.

00:27I have a very exciting interview happening, I'm going to go to Mona Khattan's basement

00:32it's also her perfume library, I'm told she collects perfumes from the age of 14

00:37and it's filled with racks and racks, some people have books but Mona Khattan has perfumes

00:42so we're going to talk to her about her dream project, Khayali and her new fragrance

00:47which is laced with pistachio notes, so it'll be very interesting to see what she has in store for us.

00:52So we're in my perfume library basement right now in my house

00:57and it's my collection that I've been collecting forever, I mean I started collecting fragrances at the age of 14

01:03and I've become more and more obsessed over the years and especially during COVID

01:08I think I became crazy, like maybe borderline insane

01:13and I just started wanting to buy more and learn more and try more and smell more and also create more.

01:19During COVID that's when I had the opportunity of working on this project, Yum

01:24and through our fragrance house for Moniche I got to meet the amazing master perfumer Olivier Cresp

01:30and his son Sebastian who work together and they're an incredible duo and we worked on a masterpiece together.

01:37I met Olivier the first time at the Fifi Awards which are the Fragrance Foundation Awards in New York

01:43and that was in 2018 when he got the Lifetime Achievement Award

01:47and I met him and we took a selfie, I went up to him and I was like Olivier please I need a photo with you, I was like fangirling

01:53and I've always dreamt to do a fragrance with them, you know it's a dream for anyone

01:59there's not many master perfumers and you know he's one of very few

02:03so I asked for him and he shows like you know because I want to create a gourmand fragrance

02:08I would love to work with Olivier, he's the creator of Gourmand Fragrances

02:13and I didn't think he would want to work with me because I'm still very new

02:16and a small brand compared to what he works with you know the huge Dolce & Gabbana like the big master ones

02:22but yeah he was very humble, very down to earth, him and Sebastian are amazing

02:27they're such a great combination and I think with them it's funny because I had an idea in my mind

02:33but with them it became a journey and honestly where we ended up in the end I think is the best place

02:38and they helped improve my idea.

02:40As Mona said we met in 2018 and I saw Mona and her brand growing you see rapidly

02:49so I was curious and impressed you see because she was ranking in the first position

02:55with really nice fragrances and they were all a little bit around the Gourmand with some facets you know

03:04so that's why we wanted to work together and Sebastian loves also to work on Gourmand fragrances

03:11and the thing is our universe is the Gourmand of course

03:18and the thing is we said okay we're not going to follow the market

03:23we don't want to match the competition and we said we want something unique

03:28and we had a weird idea to work on this pistachio gelato

03:33I've always loved pistachio gelato ice cream I tried it for the first time in Rome in 2014

03:40I was on a trip with my sister Alia we went on a holiday

03:43and it was the first time I tried pistachio gelato and I fell in love

03:47and since then like any interview I ever had or even like friends asking like what would be your last meal

03:52I would always say pistachio gelato so it's my favorite dessert

03:56and you know because it's my favorite I was like why not create a dessert around you know pistachio gelato

04:03so yeah it's my favorite food

04:06the best challenge was to find the best idea and as soon as we've got it in a fun way because it has to be fun

04:13and that's what we've done with Mona the three of us we were working exchanging ideas

04:19adding some facets with drawing pushing up some ingredients

04:24and let's say with 40-45 experiments in a year time we have achieved something which is magnificent

04:34typically with the way it starts is like I will start with some ideas like a few notes a few ingredients that I really want

04:41and then they work and they share what they like and then they create these submissions

04:46and it's like a back and forth process and then in the final rounds it's like just add a little bit more of this a little bit more of that

04:53and then we smell together and we see what is the best final result so it's a very it's a very close partnership

05:00our style is a very figurative you know we try to create something that you when you smell it you see it as well

05:10we are working with a you know a simple style short formulas so then we are not lost you see we can still manage where we go

05:19and a few facets and then the consumers for sure are going to notice and smell the few facets

05:26it's a fun fragrance so here's our bottle

05:29it's beautiful

05:30and it's mattifying

05:32yeah this is the first time we mattify our bottle because we wanted to give you the element of like when you have a bowl of ice cream

05:38and it gets frosted from the coolness and we have a white matte cap which is also original we've never done that before

05:45the facets are as well

05:47I wanted to remind you of a pistachio gelato

05:49every time we launch something I'm so nervous and will it go well will we meet expectations will we meet the budget

05:56so it's always scary no matter what you know it's always scary and you never know like of course we sample with a lot of people

06:04we sample with our team, Fyr Manish does a lot of sampling, our beautiful noses do a lot of sampling

06:10but you also just never know will everybody like it and of course there's no fragrance where everybody likes it

06:15it just doesn't work that way it's a very personal thing so yeah there's always anxiety but it gives you energy

06:22the thing is if we have the right idea like yum and if we have a fragrance which is long lasting with lots of sillage

06:32you know already we have all the skills to make a huge success you see

06:40so it's the assets getting the right assets to make a huge success and that's what we have been doing

06:49I think we should always think about just the first step like starting something because the empire will happen after many years

06:56like 10, 15, 20 years staying focused and having a vision and staying in the right direction

07:02so I think for anyone it's not that hard to start what's hard is to keep going and to keep going in the same direction

07:10because a lot of times we get sidetracked by short term things or you know also by the market

07:16you know things change like you know my obsession with fragrances started when the fragrance industry wasn't on fire

07:22it was different it was like the established brands were doing well to do something in niche you need either a good budget

07:28or you have to start very small and grow very slowly over 10, 20 years

07:31now luckily we're so grateful that the fragrance category is very interesting it's hot right now

07:37it's growing especially because of social media but when we first started Kali it wasn't like that

07:42so I had to stay committed you know in the very beginning it wasn't successful it was not taking off

07:46it was like very stressful and then you know you just have to keep pushing yourself to keep going keep trying something new

07:52so I think start something anyone's capable of starting but to keep going you have to be very committed

07:57and just yeah yeah you have to just have good people around you too to like encourage you

08:02you follow your instinct yes exactly I only recently started following my guts probably three years ago

08:08because before that I was just almost not in touch with my emotions so after therapy that's when I got really in touch with my gut

08:15so now I've been following my gut for the past three four years and it's changed my life

08:20I guess it depends on how you define having it all I think I think we all need to be balanced to some extent

08:27and no matter what in life if you're fully focused on one thing something else will have to be sacrificed

08:33yeah so like you know I've been working so hard forever you know past 10 years

08:39but it means my personal life was also taking the back seat and so now I'm trying to be a little bit more balanced

08:44but it's so hard for me because I love working and when you are passionate you don't feel like you are working you know

08:51and so you're an entrepreneur and it's so exciting it's even more exciting than working as an employee

08:59but Mona you have it in your blood you see and you are following your instinct

09:07and of course at the beginning it's always difficult the first two years and so on you are always doubting

09:14but then you get some confidence and afterwards the success comes and it's easier

09:19I think there's two people in my mind very different people one Sheikh Mohammed

09:25his Highness Sheikh Mohammed I would die to create a fragrance for him and his family

09:29because you know something for their palace because that would be a dream I'm gonna manifest that now

09:34and Oprah because I love Oprah she's my role model

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