Just a year after re-assuming her role as chief executive officer, Huda Beauty founder Huda Kattan is tacking on “owner” to her title, too.

The super influencer was among the first wave of beauty creators to parlay her digital audience into a beauty brand — and later made waves when TSG Consumer took a stake in the brand in 2017. Retail sales that year were said to be around $200 million, as reported.

Now, Kattan has purchased back that stake from the private equity firm. As reported, in August 2024, the brand had done north of $300 million in sales year-to-date, industry sources said at the time.

Kattan didn’t disclose terms of the deal, but did say she paid “a pretty penny” to assume outright ownership. Since regaining the CEO title, she’s also been hard at work on the brand’s next chapter, which has included a rebrand and a suite of products catering to previously untapped consumers.

“We went through such a transformation,” Kattan said of the brand’s trajectory. “We’ve been fully focused on that and getting things in order. The products have changed, the branding has changed, and we changed the way we speak to our community. Even internally, the way we’re doing things has really changed.”

Kattan’s sister, Mona Kattan, recently bought her fragrance brand Kayali in partnership with General Atlantic. With only her namesake brand under Huda Kattan’s purview now, she’s ready to move with full independence again.

TSG Consumer did not respond to request for comment by press time.

“We are always told, as founders, that we have to do things a certain way. You have to go, institutionally, in a certain route,” Kattan said. “It’s all about money, but when you’re a founder just starting out, you start with a vision.”

Furthermore, “We were told we couldn’t do a brand from Dubai. We were told you have to sell your brand and you can’t buy your equity back from TSG. And we just proved them wrong.”

Huda Beauty’s next chapter is her brand, her way, she said. “People are so often after the dollar, and it makes beauty so boring. For me, part of us buying back Huda Beauty is we don’t have to worry about that. Money is important to me in that I care about creating a healthy business, but that’s the third most important thing.”

The first two? “Doing cool s–t for my community is number one,” she said. Second, “creating an environment for our employees.”

Kattan sees white space everywhere, and believes there is a dearth of innovation in beauty. “We need the beauty industry to be fun again. It needs to feel like that safe space that inspires you,” she said, noting she senses her community feels the same way. “People are not excited about makeup like they used to be.”

Huda Beauty took a multibrand turn when it launched into fragrance with Kayali, and skin care with Wishful and Glowish, in the years following its TSG investment. Don’t expect a new brand from the founder any time soon.

“I am hyper-focused on Huda Beauty, and I love this space,” she said. “I’m genuinely driven by trying to see what we can do, and how can we make this space interesting again.”

In terms of consumer interest, the appetite is there: According to Cosmetify data, which analyzed social media following, engagement and Google search volumes, Huda Beauty beat out Fenty Beauty, Nyx Professional Makeup and Dior Beauty as the hottest beauty brand in the first quarter of 2025.

Part of Kattan’s strategy is to cater to her core customer while broadening the the offering for different sensibilities, too. “We are for the glam lovers, but we want to expand our market a little bit. There’s an opportunity to get people into the brand,” Kattan said. “We believe Huda Beauty is a movement, it’s more than just the way that you look. It shifted my entire identity and also my self-worth. It’s more than just makeup.”

Tapping into the emotional resonance of the category has also dictated how Kattan communicates to her audience, which on her personal Instagram alone, is nearing 5 million followers. On Huda Beauty’s Instagram, that number is north of 56 million.

“We want to expand our community because I feel like we can be a little intimidating for people,” she said. “You’ll see that with our next launches. We’ve always been that super, ultra glam, and we still are, but I think we can make that less intimidating.”

Kattan, who believes “you should look like you’re getting married every day,” also thinks the brand’s evolution has dovetailed nicely with her own. “When we went through COVID, there was just this sense that people didn’t want beauty anymore. I felt like I was exhausted of beautifying myself for others,” she said. “We came to a point where we were at home, and we wanted to look good for ourselves. There’s an internal shift of ‘who are we doing this for?’ It all has to do with our identities.”