Why Beauty Mogul & Founder of KAYALI, Mona Kattan, Turns to Fresha for Beauty and Wellness Appointments

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 10, 2026--

MonaKattan has built a global brand around beauty, fragrance, and selfcare.

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As the founder of KAYALI Fragrances, one of the world’s most influential luxury fragrance brands, Mona has spent years helping shape consumer beauty trends while inspiring millions through her passion for wellness, confidence, and personal expression. Her recommendations are trusted by beauty enthusiasts around the world, making her one of the industry’s most recognized voices. That’s why the platform she uses to discover and book beauty and wellness appointments matters, and for Mona Kattan, that platform is Fresha, the world’s leading beauty and wellness booking platform.

For Mona, the appeal extends far beyond convenience alone. As a global entrepreneur who regularly travels between Dubai, London, New York, Los Angeles, and international beauty events, discovering exceptional beauty and wellness businesses has become an important part of her lifestyle.

Whether she’s searching for a trusted facialist before a major launch, booking a wellness treatment while travelling, finding a highly rated hair specialist in a new city, or exploring the latest self-care experiences, Mona values platforms that make discovery simple, transparent, and trustworthy.

That is where Fresha stands apart.

The platform is home to one of the beauty and wellness industry’s largest and most extensive marketplaces, bringing together premium salons, spas, clinics, medspas, barbershops, fitness studios, and wellness destinations in a single destination. Whether booking a haircut, colour appointment, facial, massage, laser treatment, injectables consultation, manicure, wellness experience, or fitness class, consumers can discover and compare thousands of businesses, browse imagery, read reviews, and book with confidence.

Whether returning to a trusted favourite or searching for somewhere entirely new, Fresha gives consumers everything they need to make informed decisions within a seamless booking experience. For beauty enthusiasts like Mona, discovery is often just as important as the appointment itself.

Rather than relying solely on recommendations or endless online searches, Fresha allows consumers to explore highly rated businesses, uncover new experiences, and find trusted professionals wherever they are in the world. With verified reviews, transparent pricing, real-time availability, and instant booking, the platform has become a trusted companion for consumers looking to get more from their beauty and wellness journey.

“I’m always looking for incredible beauty and wellness experiences, especially when I’m travelling,” said Mona Kattan, Founder & CEO of KAYALI. “What I love about Fresha is that it combines discovery and convenience in one place. You can browse reviews, explore different businesses, compare options, and book instantly. It gives you confidence that you’re finding the best experiences wherever you are. Fresha is the most popular booking app for beauty and wellness in the world.”

For William Zeqiri, Founder and CEO of Fresha, Mona’s use of the platform reflects a broader evolution in how consumers discover beauty and wellness services.

“Beauty consumers have more choice than ever before,” said Zeqiri. “People aren’t simply booking the closest salon anymore. They’re researching, comparing reviews, exploring services, and actively seeking out the very best experiences. That’s exactly what Fresha was built for. We want to help consumers discover incredible beauty and wellness businesses while helping those businesses reach more clients than ever before.”

Annabelle Taurua, Beauty Expert at Fresha, believes Mona’s use of the platform reflects the growing importance of discovery within the modern beauty journey.

“Beauty discovery has changed dramatically over the last decade,” said Annabelle. “Consumers don’t just book the first salon they find anymore. They’re saving inspiration on Instagram, watching treatment videos on TikTok, reading reviews, comparing results, and doing their research before making a decision. Beauty has become incredibly visual, personal, and experience-led. Mona has always been at the forefront of those trends through KAYALI and her broader influence within the beauty industry, so it’s no surprise that she gravitates toward Fresha because it brings discovery, trust, reviews, and booking together in one place.”

As beauty and wellness continue to become increasingly digital, consumers are looking for more than just a booking tool. They want a destination where they can discover new businesses, explore treatments, compare reviews, and find trusted professionals wherever they are in the world. For Mona Kattan, Fresha has become exactly that.

About Fresha

Fresha is the world’s leading AI-powered booking platform for beauty and wellness, trusted by over 130,000 partner businesses across more than 120 countries. Its fully integrated ecosystem spans scheduling, payments, marketing, team management, and a global consumer marketplace, giving beauty and wellness businesses everything they need to operate, grow, and scale. The Fresha Marketplace connects millions of consumers with salons, spas, barbershops, and wellness studios worldwide, with over one million monthly downloads and more than $1.4 billion in monthly transaction value. To learn more, visit fresha.com.

About Mona Kattan

Mona Kattan is a trailblazing Arab American entrepreneur and founder of KAYALI fragrances, recognized as one of the most influential women in the beauty industry and the Arab world. Known as the “Perfume Princess,” Mona has a fragrance library of over 5,000 perfumes and launched KAYALI in 2018 - meaning “my imagination” in Arabic - inspired by her Middle Eastern heritage and the art of layering scents. Under her leadership, KAYALI has grown into a globally recognized fragrance house stocked in leading retailers worldwide, with Vanilla Candy Rock Sugar | 42 named Fragrance of the Year – Women’s Prestige in 2025 and Yum Boujee Marshmallow | 81 recognized as Beautyworld Middle East Popular Fragrance of the Year. Mona has built a global community of over 8 million followers, has been featured in BoF, WWD, Vogue, POPSUGAR, Allure, Marie Claire, and Harper’s Bazaar, and was named one of the most powerful women in the Middle East by Forbes in 2024, also appearing on Netflix’s Dubai Bling and Shark Tank. Through KAYALI Cares, she champions humanitarian initiatives and women’s empowerment while continuing to mentor and contribute to organizations including YPO, Founders Forum, and The Fragrance Foundation.

Beauty Mogul & Founder of KAYALI, Mona Kattan

CAIRO (AP) — Yemen is moving closer to a return to civil war as Iran -backed rebels threaten a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

Here’s a look at the emerging conflict along the Red Sea that could tear the Arab world’s poorest country apart once more, and potentially send oil prices even higher above the $100 per barrel mark.

Yemen is home to over 40 million people who fear a return to the civil war that killed 150,000 and brought many others to the brink of famine in one of the world’s most sprawling humanitarian crises. A ceasefire with Yemen’s internationally recognized government and a wider coalition backed by the Saudis began in 2022.

Now that truce is buckling.

Yemen's troubles are in part because of its strategic location at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and alongside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. It's one of the busiest global shipping lanes and one that the world is turning to as Iran continues to target ships on the Strait of Hormuz.

The civil war left many Yemenis hungry and beyond the reach of aid. In a significant advance, residents said Thursday the Houthis have entered the key Red Sea port of Mokha, which has been held by Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

That endangers another crucial entry point for food and other assistance.

The Houthis' entry into Mokha puts them about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Bab el-Mandeb, creating further complications for shipping on the Red Sea — and not only for neighboring Saudi Arabia. The United States has shown signs of wanting to wrap up the Iran war and get oil-laden vessels on the move everywhere, not broaden the fight.

The ceasefire’s fragile calm held until weeks ago, when the Houthis tested a Saudi-led blockade of rebel-held areas. The Saudis struck the international airport in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, which the Houthis called an attempt to prevent a plane carrying Houthi leaders from returning home after attending the funeral of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Houthis already objected to the Saudis' backing of Yemeni government forces, which the rebels say have been pounding them this week with dozens of airstrikes after the rebels attacked several oil facilities and utilities in Saudi Arabia, wounding dozens of people.

Now, with the Iran war choking the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis have a new way to inflict pain on their neighbor by declaring a blockade against Saudi Arabia and targeting its efforts to ship its oil via the Red Sea.

The Houthis' backer, Tehran, doesn’t object to causing the U.S.-allied Saudis pain as it tries to limit oil shipments from the Gulf in service of its war aims.

This week, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the path was not closed to diplomacy but that his country would not hesitate to defend itself.

Among Iran’s armed proxies in the region, the Houthis have had a lower profile than Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. That, as well as their relative distance, has helped shield them from Israeli attack in the nearly three years since the war in Gaza began.

But the Houthis were quickly targeted with U.S. airstrikes when they tried to insert themselves into the regional conflict by targeting what they called Israeli-linked shipping on the Red Sea off Yemen’s west coast. Those attacks soon faded.

Now, the Houthis are back with a different target, aiming at ships and other assets of Saudi Arabia as it seeks to get its oil out to the world via the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait. That Red Sea corridor usually sees $1 trillion of goods move through it per year.

The Houthis are “no longer just positioned on the northern part of the western coast; they now control a much larger stretch of the coastline, bringing them closer to the areas around Bab al-Mandeb,” said Ahmed Nagi, a senior analyst on Yemen at the International Crisis Group.

For global oil consumers already worried about Iran’s attacks on vessels trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, the threat to yet another global shipping lane is a flashing danger sign, especially with the price of crude oil again trading above $100 a barrel.

Anna reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press journalist Ahmed Haj in Aden, Yemen, contributed to this report.

Yemen's Houthi rebels ride a motorbike during a mobilization campaign in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Yemen's Houthi rebels march during a mobilization campaign in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Yemen's Houthi rebels chat as they check their weapons during a mobilization campaign in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

FILE - Members of the Yemeni al-Houthi Shiite rebel group burn an effigy of a U.S. aircraft and a Saudi flag during a demonstration against U.S. and Saudi interference in Yemen, after Friday prayer in Sanaa, Yemen, on April 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed), File