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Huda Kattan Calls Dubai ‘Progressive’ in New Quibi Show

Huda Kattan Quibi

Instagram.com/Monakattan

There’s a new streaming service in town that goes by the name of Quibi. Even if you haven’t come across the platform yet, you will have heard about Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s new beauty series, About Face. For its second episode the host and model jets to Dubai where she interviews beauty mogul and Vogue Arabia cover star Huda Katta. “I am here in Dubai and I am really excited because I am going to be meeting up with a friend of mine, Huda Kattan,” Huntington-Whiteley says. “Huda is arguably one of the most famous and iconic YouTube make-up artists in the world. I am going to hear all about what it takes to run a $1.2 billion (AED/SAR 4.4billion) beauty brand from the Middle East,” she adds.

Meeting Katan at the Five Palm Jumeirah Hotel the pair embrace before sitting down to chat. “What is it like to run this billion-dollar beauty business in the Middle East?” Huntington-Whiteley begins. “We are lucky because we are in Dubai, and Dubai is super progressive, especially compared to other parts of the Middle East. And they love beauty here, [so] that is great,” Kattan explains. She then adds, “But it is challenging as a woman. When we first started, people treated me, constantly, like it was a hobby, objectifying [me], not making [me] feel like [I’m] capable of it, that was a hard thing, to be honest.”

Kattan who works with her husband Christopher Goncalo, who she’s been married to since 2008 says, “They would constantly make eye contact with my husband [and ask], ‘How do we do this?’ and my husband would be like, ‘Ask the big boss’.” During the six-minute episode, Kattan also talks about growing up in Nashville, Tennessee where she lived before moving to the UAE. Discussing how she often felt like an outsider as a child, she goes on to talk about how she has found her confidence. She also talks about her sisters, firstly Alya Kattan who she credits as being her early makeup inspiration. Her younger sister Mona Kattan who runs Huda Beauty alongside Huda Kattan then joins the pair with Huntington-Whiteley describing Mona as Huda’s “driving force, to see her own potential [and] talent.”

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