Welcome to Take the Edge Off, a series that breaks down the beauty and self-care routines of influencers, CEOs, experts, and celebrities to discover how they unwind and decompress, while taking a closer look at the holy grail essentials they’re currently raving about.
If you source buzzy new products or beauty hacks from YouTube or TikTok, chances are you’ve bookmarked a trending video from influencer and Huda Beauty founder Huda Kattan. Kattan grew her massive present-day following—over 59.3 million across her three Instagram accounts alone—from the eponymous blog Huda Beauty, which she started in 2010. In 2013, she launched a false eyelash brand that has since grown into a full cosmetics empire, Huda Beauty.
“I like to do my own makeup,” Kattan tells BAZAAR.com, “I want to experience what our community is going to experience. I’m always doing the tutorials; I want to show people that. If we had a different strategy, maybe it would be right for our brand, but I like that, you know? It’s right for us.”
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Huda Beauty now offers over 140 different products including foundations, blush sticks, concealers, and the company’s culty liquid lipsticks. Kattan also added a new brand, Wishful Skincare, to her list of business endeavors in early 2020. As an OG influencer, she has a few thoughts on the current state of the internet. “Anybody can go viral, which I think is like one of the coolest things, like it really has democratized the influencer space, social space, and beauty space in many ways,” says Kattan. “But you kind of have to be careful too, because people will do things for clicks. It’s a great way to get more information, but you just have to be careful what you believe. A lot of it can be sensationalized.”
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As a wife, mother, and full-time entrepreneur, Kattan has her hands full but continues to rise to every occasion. As for what’s next for the beauty heavyweight and the industry as a whole? “I know that a lot of brands are working on NFTs already,” she says. “I’m a big player in the NFT space, just personally, not within the company yet. I think we still have a couple of years before it really starts to, you know, ignite, but it’s going to change the industry. Honestly, I haven’t felt this excited about anything since social media—it’s going to be so cool.”
Here, Kattan shares more about what keeps her feeling motivated, how she remains grounded, and why the power of a smile is underrated.
What are you reading these days?
Oh, I love to read. I like self-help books mostly, maybe because I have a lot of questions about mental and emotional stability and growth. I just started re-reading a classic, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Another of favorite is by Sean Stephenson. I like him because he’s also a podcaster who features a lot of women—I actually discovered a lot of interesting women because of him. His book is called Sleep Smarter.
What are some of your go-to bath and/or shower products?
I do love a nice bath, but I’m not like super over-the-top when it comes to them. I like to use the Wishful Glow AHA and BHA Facial Enzyme Scrub, pink Himalayan salt, and then I actually get green clay off of Amazon. I think it’s really great, and kind of pulls out all the the negativity—I just love it. (I also love the clay from African Botanics, but it’s so expensive. I only use that when I’m like really trying to spend time with myself.) So I do the pink Himalayan salt, green clay, and then I like to mix in Epsom salt. I put a lot of Epsom salt my bath—that I tried to spoil myself with—and then essential oils, like lavender, and bath soap to give it like a little bit of fluff. I guess I am fancy and over-the-top!
What beauty or self-care products do you use on a regular basis to help combat Zoom fatigue?
Where do I begin? For me, personally, concealer is one of the most important things—I’m a concealer person. Even if I don’t wear anything else, I might put on like a little bit of a lipstick, concealer, and brush my brows up, that’s it. I feel like if you have those things sorted, you’re kind of good. I also wear GloWish every single day, it’s amazing for Zoom, especially the Multidew. It looks like you’re not wearing any makeup, and that’s what’s so great about it.
Do you have a favorite hand sanitizer, soap, and/or cream right now?
I do have a favorite sanitizer, a really small one that fits in your pocket. I bought a three-pack and it smells so good; I’m currently using the bergamot scent.
Amazon
Do you ever light a candle or stick of incense to decompress? If so, what are some of your favorites?
Oh, all the time. I feel like people didn’t used to light candles because we never used to do those things to spoil ourselves. It’s like, you only light candles when you have guests over or somebody special, right? What was that? So, I started lighting candles for myself, and I definitely splurge on candles, too. My house always smells like FORVR Mood; different floors smell like different things, too. I love her candles—they’re kind of my favorite right now. And there’s obviously the ones from like the big fancy perfume brands as well. I don’t like to burn those as much because of the price, but also I don’t feel like they smell as much as Jackie’s do. They’re so good and smell delicious.
Sephora
What was the last beauty product you put on today?
I sprayed my face with Amorepacific’s Moisture Bound Skin Energy Hydration Delivery System—it’s incredible. What else did I do? Oh, I put on some false lashes and used our Luminous Matte Foundation. I did also use a lot of confidential products, to be honest, from Huda Beauty that we’re creating. There’s a lot coming over the course of the next few months, so I was playing with some of those products.
Neiman Marcus
Are you into bold makeup, no makeup, or no-makeup makeup right now, and why?
I’m into full makeup again. I was really hardcore into no makeup-makeup, but now I’m enjoying rediscovering my own relationship with makeup. I think beauty is an easy way to make you feel good, so I hope people find a way fall in love with themselves, take care of themselves, connect with themselves. You know? We need that right now.
What’s the last fitness class you streamed or attended in person?
I am a big fan of yoga, hot yoga in particular. But I haven’t attended anything in 2022 yet to be honest, just because of the new variant.
What’s one piece of self-care advice you’d recommend to our readers?
Things change so quickly; one moment you’re in quarantine and the next you’re out of quarantine. And you almost forget what happened and what the world has gone through—the way that economy changed, and everything made some people re-think the ways in which they were living their lives. The team has worked so hard on, you know, actually bringing smiles back to people, and they’ve had so many different initiatives to do so. But smiles are really underrated, they’re powerful. Wearing masks and not seeing people’s smiles, it’s like you almost lose half of who you are because you can’t share that body language.
I just hope that we take a moment to not miss what we’ve learned. I felt that like, all of a sudden, right before this variant took off, everybody forgot, you know? And it was back to normal, a little too fast. As terrible as the pandemic was, and continues to be, there are some things we learned from it. In my opinion, it’s good for people to be journaling right now to take the time to connect with themselves deeply. We might never be the same, in a good way. I think there’s a possibility for that for all of us.
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