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Mona Kattan says she is ‘obsessed’ by perfume to ‘almost a borderline insane level’. And I don’t doubt her.
The co-founder and global president of Huda Beauty and star of reality TV show Huda Boss has more than 4,000 fragrances in her basement – a bespoke library that fills floor-to-ceiling bright-white shelves like a department store in a fever dream.
‘I’m trying to build the world record for the largest library but there’s a woman in Greece with 6,000 bottles, so I’ve got a long way to go,’ the 37-year-old says as she shows me around, via Zoom. This space, below her home in Dubai, used to be her gym before the perfume collection became too big to house in bathroom cabinets.
Each scent is, she believes, a work of art and tells a story. When she travels, perfume shopping is her number one priority. ‘I love perfume beyond words,’ she says. ‘Ever since I was a kid I would always spend pretty much all my money on perfume. I think I spend more than I make on perfume.’
It’s no surprise, then, that Mona’s career is fragrance-focused. Her brand, Kayali, has nine lines and she’s about to launch the latest – Vanilla Royale Sugared Patchouli 64 – which boasts notes of vanilla, oud, brown sugar, jasmine and golden rum.
Mona, who runs a YouTube channel and has 2.8 million followers on Instagram, has succeeded in making Kayali a cult brand largely on social media marketing alone. She’s come a long way from the 14-year-old who bought her first fragrance (Liz Claiborne’s Curve), from a Massachusetts pharmacy.
Mona was born in Oklahoma, US, the daughter of Iraqi parents, before moving to Dubai in her late teens. Here, her passion for perfume ‘skyrocketed’. ‘If you like perfume, it’s a candy land,’ she says of Dubai.
‘People here use it as so much more than an afterthought. It’s not something you do just when you go out. It’s something you do as part of your rituals: it’s how you start your day, it’s how you celebrate important moments, it’s part of your identity, it’s so much more than just a fragrance. I fell in love with the rituals that are part of my culture.’
Even then, at 17, seedlings for her future were taking root. ‘I thought, if I ever have my own brand one day I would love to create a perfume that celebrates Middle Eastern culture and makes it more global.’ Everything about Kayali, which launched in 2018, does just that.
The name means ‘my imagination’ in Arabic and speaks to the power of Mona’s emotions and memory. The bottles feature multiple diamond references and motifs typical of those found in souks across the Middle East. ‘They feel like treasure and made me feel like a princess,’ says Mona. ‘That’s what I wanted for my brand.’
She admits that she never tires of people telling her she smells amazing (‘I love it!’) but concedes it’s time-consuming and something of a skill. Indeed, she once told Hello! Magazine that thanks to her layering technique, fragrance can take her 20 minutes to apply.
‘When I go anywhere I always put on my perfume before,’ she says. ‘It’s a part of this generosity that we practice here in the Middle East – in our culture, it’s so important to be generous. For me, if I didn’t ‘t make the effort of smelling nice, I’m not giving…’
Mona has an encyclopaedic fragrance knowledge, but success took time. She has a degree in finance and has worked in investment banking and PR. In 2010, way before Huda Beauty – which she launched with her sister, make-up artist and uber-blogger Huda – became a billion-dollar business, Mona started working on a fragrance brief. She was meeting investors and her first samples are from 2012. She bid her time – her dedication and interest only growing.
She admits to being nervous with every perfume launch. ‘I know it’s right when I have tested it on my skin repeatedly and I can’t get enough of it,’ she says. ‘I want that smell and I need it.’
This is how she feels about Vanilla Royale, although she describes it as a ‘risk’. ‘It’s strong: a very different take on vanilla,’ she says, citing the inclusion of sugared patchouli. Our retailer said, “Patchouli is polarizing, are you sure you want to do this?” But I don’t want to create something like everyone else.’
The new launch will complement the existing Kayali fragrances – the ‘bouji big sister’ to Vanilla 28 (the numbers represent how many times the fragrance was modified before being finalized) – and is designed for layering.
Mona is a massive advocate of layering perfume – using as many as 20 at any one time. ‘I’ve never found a fragrance that I haven’t been able to layer,’ she says. ‘Layering ends up being so much longer lasting – the complexity of mixing so many together makes it so much more powerful.’
She thinks this technique will feature heavily in the future landscape of fragrance, which she believes is ever changing.
‘People are a lot more open to experimenting and using perfume as a form of expression rather than just wearing the same fragrance for ten years,’ she says.
Mona also notes that in years gone by, commercially popular fragrances – those with a Hollywood A-lister fronting the advertising campaign – were what the masses aspired to. But this is not the case any more, especially with younger customers.
‘Gen Z do not want to be reminded of anyone else. They want to be unique – and I feel the same way.’
Vanilla Royale Sugared Patchouli 64 launches tomorrow.
Buy it for £79 from Cult Beauty.
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