Beauty mogul Huda Kattan, who has 38 million Instagram followers, says she turned down a $10 million brand campaign because it 'wasn't worth it'

Amanda Perelli

Aug 27, 2019, 20:37 IST

Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images

Huda Kattan at Beautycon Los Angeles.

Huda Kattan, the beauty influencer and self-made mogul behind the cosmetics line Huda Beauty said she recently turned down a $10 million brand campaign.
Huda has an estimated net worth of $610 million, according to Forbes, sourced primarily from the cosmetics company that she runs with her family.
In an interview with Business Insider, Kattan said the year-long deal "just wasn't worth it" and that accepting it would have derailed her focus from building up her own cosmetics empire.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Huda Kattan, the self-made beauty mogul, has 38 million Instagram followers and is one of the most successful influencers of all time.

The 35-year-old, who Forbes estimated is worth $610 million, told Business Insider that she recently turned down a $10 million sponsorship deal which would have been promoted on her Instagram because "it wasn't worth it." She declined to say which brand it was from.

Complimentary Tech Event

Transform talent with learning that works

Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

Although turning down the deal was "really painful," Kattan said that in order to build a cosmetics empire "as big as Estee Lauder," she needs to stay focused on her own brand.

Kattan's cosmetics company, Huda Beauty, which she started in 2013 with her two sisters (Mona and Alya) after quitting her job in finance, has become her main source of wealth.

While Kattan didn't share which brand this spurned campaign would have been with specifically, said she believed in the company and that turning it down had nothing to do with the product itself. She said that although the $10 million would have been nice, it wasn't worth it.

"Doing a deal for one year, even though it could be an amazing product and I could truly believe in it, is just going to derail my focus," she said.

"It depends on what your strategy is," she continued. "Our strategy is so long term. I don't want to be here for 5 years or 10 years. I want a legacy that lives beyond us."