Huda Kattan Is Disrupting What It Means to Be Beautiful

Huda Kattan, the founder of Huda Beauty—a global cosmetics line valued at $1.2 billion—is disrupting what it means to be beautiful. In 2021, the 38-year-old makeup mogul took a stand against promoting unrealistic beauty standards following the launch of her skincare line, Wishful—a campaign that featured company staff, including Huda, without makeup, filters, or editing. At a time when beauty has increasingly been defined by non-textured, blemish-free, and unrealistically poreless skin—a look often only achieved with the help of editing apps—Huda started a petition, calling on brands to stop capitalizing off of the insecurities of their customers by disclosing how they edit their images. With inclusivity and self-love at her company’s core—and a catalog with 30 foundation colors—the Iraqi-American entrepreneur hopes to make more people feel comfortable in their own skin. “I started doing things in the beauty industry because I felt ugly—it was me trying to get value from people outside in order to feel beautiful,” Kattan says. “ But I’ve done the work now, and [I realized that] all of us have a deficit that we’re trying to fill. And I just don’t think that that’s actually possible, especially with the pressures of social media.” With over 140 products from lip glosses to fragrances, the company is estimated to bring in $200 million in annual sales—money that regularly supports various philanthropic causes like Doctors Without Borders and Help India Breathe.

Write to Jenna Caldwell at jenna.caldwell@time.com.