Beauty blogger Huda Kattan cancels Dubai Mall appearance over security concerns

Huda Kattan, a Dubai beauty blogger, was supposed to appear at Dubai Mall to release a new product in her cosmetics line.

Huda Kattan was due to appear at Dubai Mall. Courtesy Huda Kattan

DUBAI // Beauty blogger Huda Kattan’s appearance at a Dubai Mall cosmetic store was cancelled on Tuesday because of security concerns.

Ms Kattan was scheduled to appear at 7pm to release her new highlighter make-up palette at Sephora, where the first 40 people in line were promised Huda Beauty products worth more than Dh6,500.

Line-up for the meet-and-greet was scheduled for 5pm, but crowds started to gather at least five hours before the beauty blogger’s scheduled appearance.

Ms Kattan was continuously updating her fans via her social media accounts, saying that she and her team tried hard not to have the appearance cancelled.

“We had a little bit of an issue today with our highlighter launch and the appearance,” she said in a video uploaded on Snapchat. “I was planning on being there to launch it, and there’s been a crowd there since this morning.”

“The crowd started to get a little big and a little aggressive, and we started to get a little worried whether or not the crowd could be controlled.”

Ms Kattan showed a video on Snapchat showing thousands of people gathered at Dubai Mall at least two hours before the scheduled appearance.

She said that despite trying to hire more security, there were still concerns over the safety of everyone in the mall.

“I have a lot of security around me, but there’s really no security around the crowd to keep everyone safe, and Dubai Mall got a little concerned because safety, of course, is the most important thing for everybody in the mall,” she said.

“With crowds and people being a little aggressive and maybe even not being polite to each other, there was a lot of concern from everyone, myself included, just because we want to make sure it’s a happy event.”

Ms Kattan said she was upset that that the appearance was cancelled.

“I was literally almost in tears in the office, just thinking that people have been waiting to meet me. I would never want to let people down,” she said. “The event tonight has been officially cancelled and I’m so, so, so sad.”

Ms Kattan launched her blog in 2010 and her own cosmetics line in 2012. With an instagram following of 19.6 million, she was named by Forbes magazine as one of the top three beauty influencers in the world.