Kayali

Kayali is a fragrance brand based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, founded in November 2018 [4]. It began as the fragrance division of Huda Beauty and became a standalone company through a 2025 ownership change. The name comes from an Arabic word meaning "my imagination," and the house is known for sweet, gourmand scents and for promoting fragrance layering — wearing several perfumes at once to build a personal blend.

The brand is closely tied to Mona Kattan, a beauty entrepreneur who co-founded Huda Beauty with her sisters before launching Kayali. Sources differ on how the founding credit is shared: Wikipedia and a General Atlantic press release name sisters Mona and Huda Kattan as co-founders [4][5], while Kayali's own "about" page presents Mona Kattan as founder and chief executive [1]. Mona Kattan has remained the operating head of the company throughout.

According to the company, Kayali was inspired by Mona Kattan's Middle Eastern heritage and by the ritual of layering scents. She has described fragrances as "bookmarks to my life," pointing to scent's ability to carry a person to different places and moments. Before Kayali, Kattan's career included a public-relations consultancy, a beauty salon, and the co-founding of Huda Beauty.

The brand launched in 2018 with four fragrances — Elixir | 11, Citrus | 08, Musk | 12, and Vanilla | 28 [4]. From the start it built each scent around a shared base, the "KAYALI Signature Accord," intended to let the fragrances be worn together.

Kayali originally launched as a fragrance line under Huda Beauty, the cosmetics company the Kattan sisters co-founded in 2013 [4]. In 2025 that arrangement changed. On 17 February 2025, Huda Beauty announced it was selling its stake in Kayali to Mona Kattan and the private-equity firm General Atlantic, who would jointly own the brand after the sale, subject to regulatory approval [5]. As part of the same transaction, Huda Beauty redeemed the interest that the investment firm TSG Consumer had held since 2017. Mona Kattan continued as chief executive, and the deal was framed as Kayali's transition into a standalone fragrance company.

Kayali presents fragrance as personal and emotional, emphasizing craftsmanship, inclusivity, and self-expression. Mona Kattan has said her mission "from day one" was to build a fragrance brand that inspires confidence, creativity, and self-expression [5]. Much of the brand's identity centers on layering: combining multiple scents to create something individual, a practice it ties to Arab cultural tradition. Its campaigns have used the line "Own your Freedom."

The company positions itself in the prestige fragrance segment and is recognized for gourmand compositions — sweet, edible-leaning scents built on notes such as vanilla and musk, alongside an oud-focused Oudgasm line.

Vanilla | 28, one of the four launch fragrances, became the brand's best-known product; it is labelled a "Cult Fave" on Kayali's site and was called a "cult-fave" in a 2022 Harper's Bazaar profile of Mona Kattan [6]. The range has since grown to 27 fragrances, manufactured in France by DSM-Firmenich [4]. The line-up spans collections including Vanilla, Yum, Eden, Oudgasm, The Wedding, and Freedom, and extends beyond perfume into body sprays, hair mists, and bakhoor. A men's cologne line, Dapper Daddy, launched in January 2025, and the Freedom collection followed in November 2025.

The brand describes itself as cruelty-free.

Kayali won Fragrance of the Year in the Women's Prestige category at the Fragrance Foundation Awards [4]. Vogue Arabia credited the brand and Mona Kattan with introducing perfume layering to a global audience, and Harper's Bazaar profiled Kattan in 2022 under the title "Mona Kattan Is the Queen of Fragrances" [6].

Kayali is an active and expanding brand. By the end of 2024 its products were sold in 2,690 retail stores across 30 countries, through retailers including Sephora, ASOS, Harrods, and Boots [4]. The company employed roughly 130 people as of November 2025, the month it launched its Freedom collection.