The makeup artist grew her audience by helping people overcome their beauty issues.
Image credit: Adam Browning-Hill
In this series, Instagram Icon, Entrepreneur speaks with the individuals behind popular Instagram accounts to discover the secrets of their success.
When Huda Kattan quit her nascent finance career to become makeup artist this year 2010, she immediately noticed a disconnect between two worlds. Celebrities and folks with money could hire specialized help to pin them up or teach them beauty tricks, however the person with average skills didn’t have the data or resources to reproduce those flawless looks.
She made a decision to start a blog to instruct the masses how makeup artists were utilizing cosmetics behind the scenes.
“People [don’t] really realize just how much they could transform with makeup,” Kattan tells Entrepreneur . “Celebrities have beautiful skin — many of them do, however, many put foundation on the legs, and you may do this too, as a consumer.”
From boob contouring to handle shaving, Kattan sometimes receives feedback from her audience that she went too much. But she knows there’s an audience who will dsicover themselves with a once-in-a-lifetime event on the calendars, such as for example their big day, and want to use those tricks to accomplish their desired appearance.
Kattan began using Instagram in 2012, together with her blog and other social media channels. Her Instagram account, @hudabeauty, now has 24.8 million followers worldwide. Kattan was created and raised in the U.S., but she moved to Dubai after college. In 2013, she launched a business, Huda Beauty, which sells a number of cosmetic products.
Social media and blogging have helped increasing numbers of people become beauty experts, Kattan explains. “It used to be, you’ll know when somebody really was important by how good their brows were,” Kattan says, “and today everywhere I go, everybody has amazing brows.”
Folks have more usage of information today, which does mean, Kattan notes, that they’re “paranoid” that others want to sell what to them whatever the product’s quality. Subsequently, people’s expectations of beauty brands and influencers are high — rightly so, according to Kattan. She refrains from monetizing her Instagram account with sponsored posts, instead using it more as a community hub for beauty lovers and fans of her brand to relate with one another’s beauty issues and passions.
Kattan says her favorite thing about Instagram may be the level of information users can consume on the platform, given the amount of posts they can take on their screens at onetime.
“It’s an overload of content, which is ideal for millennials and another generations to come, because we’re so content hungry,” Kattan says.
Read on to understand how Kattan sees the prospect of that “content overload” to become financial chance of all users, rather than mere feed of beauty and fashion inspiration, soon.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
1. How did you get your focus on Instagram? When Instagram came around, it became a constant way to talk about, multiple times a day, through pictures. I thought that really was genius, because you can get so much, so considerably faster. You could see things so quickly and get yourself a glimpse of a person’s aesthetic and opinions.
I became enthusiastic about Instagram and started posting daily. Initially, everyone was racking your brains on Instagram, so I will be like, this is exactly what I’m eating , that’s where I’m going . It began to change as Instagram became popular in the wonder community, and it became more informational. People had to understand or gain something by arriving at you.
2. Just how much of your energy do you may spend on a post and what does that entail? In terms of the original content that people do, I’ve a big involvement for the reason that. Videos take us the longest. Sometimes I really do them with my hubby, who’s a character in them, or sometimes with a colleague. Often, I’ll direct, then sit back with this video editor. Last time, I edited the complete thing with them. When I’m traveling and we’re trying to edit a video, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the very best, because I’m unable to sit there and become like, “dim it here,” “cut that frame by 0.1 of another.” I make an effort to get as clear on the idea as possible, because that means it is easier in post. It might take six hours, minimum, in shooting and editing.
People probably don’t know the extent that it requires to do each one of these things. We’re owning a company, there’s so much going on, there’s product development. Right now, our team is just about 150 people, so it’s an excellent size, but also for a makeup brand and content brand in a single, it’s smaller.
3. What’s your articles strategy? How will you decide what so when to post? For reasons uknown, I don’t really get the ideas at work. Maybe I’m just too busy. So, usually when I’m in the home and I’ve alone time, whether I’m in the bubble bath, or if I’m in my own closet rearranging things or cleaning my makeup brushes, I get weird ideas then. It’s whenever I get that moment to reflect that everything will come in.
1 day, I was in the bubble bath, and I took coconut oil and I rubbed it on my skin when I was getting away from the bath. I was like, oh my gosh, this may be a “lazy girl hack,” my sister Alya want this. So we made a lazy girls’ guide on our blog. Frequently, ideas result from real conditions that we’re having. I’ve a whole lot of beauty issues. Each of them found me for grounds, therefore i could overcome them and help people overcome theirs.
I don’t prefer to force content. If it doesn’t feel right, there’s no chance in hell I’m likely to do it. If it’s fake, you’re likely to know it in my own face. EASILY don’t really have a particular beauty concern, I’m likely to be lying, and it just won’t work.
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4. How can you leverage your Instagram account also to what extent do you monetize it? Personally, at this time, I’m not seeking to directly monetize our Instagram. Directly to be able to do shoppable links — when that occurs, sure, why not? However now, I don’t want to buy to feel just like it’s not real. In those days, everybody’s likely to be promoting whatever they’re wearing. And I believe it’s likely to be fine. You will want to give support to brands? And in addition, I don’t think you should feel shame earning money off that, provided that you’re carrying it out really naturally instead of a thing that is forced.
Once, I acquired offered $185,000 to accomplish one post, and I was so near carrying it out — I genuinely loved the merchandise. We were nearly to create it, and my team was like, “This is actually the caption,” with “#ad.” I simply couldn’t do it. I have been looking at an automobile I was prepared to buy, but I finished up turning it down. It had been painful for me personally and my hubby to reject it, since it was big money. I know you need to identify it as an ad, but I simply didn’t feel safe with it. I considered Oprah. I was like, would Oprah do this? No, she wouldn’t. Luckily, my hubby could support us financially, so we didn’t need to.
5. What advice have you got for others who want to build brands on the platform? It’s really important to learn who you are also to own who you are. There are occasions where people should come if you ask me and say, “you must do more of the, you must do more of this.” And I tell them, quite frankly, it is important to own your area also to own your audience. When you get messy, you begin to lose your DNA. You don’t have to be cookie-cutter like almost every other person. I usually say, “I’m cake face.” I wear a whole lot of makeup. I’m not ashamed of it. Frequently, people prefer to wear a whole lot of makeup, however they don’t want to appear to be it. You may be wearing layers of foundation, however your skin looks bare.
Be who you are. Don’t be apologetic, don’t be ashamed because of it. If people say, “You’re crazy and weird,” say, “Yeah, I am crazy and weird.” If people say, “Oh my gosh, that was just a little rude that you did that,” end up like, “Oh, was it?” Don’t be so closed off. Own who you are, but nonetheless be open to the proper criticism. You need to improve with the city. The community’s moving so fast. If you’re sitting idle and you intend to stay the individual you are forever, it may be really interesting at this time, it may be really interesting in half a year, however in a year, it may be less interesting, because there will be so a great many other interesting things. Pay attention to the city and be available to them while still being comfortable within your own skin — it’s about balancing.
6. What’s a misconception many folks have about Instagram? One of them is that if somebody offers you a raise your voice, you’re obviously likely to be Insta-famous. That’s not how it works. Even when you are Insta-famous for a day or two, life continues on. I really like Instagram. It’s transformed my entire life, it’s transformed my business. But After all, you don’t get yourself a raise your voice from an influencer and suddenly you sell so many products. You must have strategies in place in relation to all those things.
Click on through the slideshow to see five of @hudabeauty’s favorite posts.
video: How to be a Beauty Influencer
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“I was impressed by the response we got upon this post! We want to get our social family associated with the creation of our products, so that it was so heartwarming to see a lot of people sharing their ideas for might know about name our new foundation. Our community really and truly supports the creation of Huda Cosmetics — a lot more than they probably realize!”
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“This throwback to whenever we moved into our initial office is among the best posts. It’s a reminder of where we started and what lengths we’ve come. Anything can be done with effort, grit and an incredible support network!”
“My daughter, Nour, and I enjoy dress up and become silly together, which means this is definitely among the best photos! I am an operating mom, which is often really difficult, particularly when I am traveling, therefore i love looking back at photos such as this one.”
“We want to create funny videos that poke fun at the struggle of loving cosmetics! This nighttime routine generally is every one of our followers’, which explains why they engaged with it so well. Every beauty lover can relate with this video to some extent.”