Youmna Khoury isn’t your average mega-influencer, even with more than three million followers on Instagram. Her cosmetics brand, Youmi Beauty, is one of the region’s fastest growing beauty empires.
She has achieved all this by the age of just 26.
After co-founding one of Lebanon‘s first unisex salons, Youmna launched Youmi Beauty in 2017. Specializing in lashes, coloured contact lenses, clip-in hair extensions and other accessories that are designed specifically for the Arab woman, the collection continues to expand with each passing year.
In 2019, Youmna took a two-year break to completely rebrand her concept and relaunch it in Dubai. The brand’s rise has been unstoppable ever since, and her products are so popular that the majority are sold out.
But the makeup and business expert’s life hasn’t always been filled with glamour and nice things. She was raised in an orphanage in Lebanon, and has had to work tirelessly to get where she is today.
As Youmna, explains, never forgets where she came from. Around 25 percent of sales of her Youmi Beauty go straight to her self-founded charity, the Youmi Beauty Charity Foundation, an organization that works to help children and families in Lebanon and Syria.
She tells Livehealthy about the challenges of her childhood, her top tips for looking and feeling your best, and the pros and cons of being one of the region’s most famous influencers.
What was your childhood like?
My two sisters and I went to live in a Christian orphanage when my father died. I was four years old. My mom couldn’t take care of three children and in Lebanon, at that time, that was not an unusual situation.
We lived there for 12 years and I did my best to be happy, to study and survive. But to be a child and not have a family is not easy. You don’t have anyone to take care of you if you are sick or sad. It was hard to be alone.
Then when I turned 16 my mom decided that she was able to take care of us again. So we moved to live with her. But still it was a big change. We were used to seeing her for just two days every two weeks and we had our fixed routine. But then suddenly we had to adjust to living a normal life like other kids.
How did you cope?
I prayed a lot. I always say that you have to train your mind to see the positive side of every story. I think those 12 years made me who I am. With no family I had time to plan how I was going to change my life and take care of my sisters.
From day one I knew that I would be a successful business woman. I defined my path and my future. Those years taught me about discipline and self-motivation. I didn’t have a role model so I became my own role model. I created my own version of myself.
How did you get started in business?
I wanted to continue studying but also earn money. I have always loved makeup and hair, so I started by working in a salon for a few years until I had saved enough money to open my first beauty salon with my sister. It was really successful and it did very well. It was for women and men, which was something very different in Lebanon at that time.
After that, I created my own brand of beauty products. I started with lashes, but now we do extensions, contact lenses, hair products and perfumes. Every three to four months we launch a new product.
Why did you take a break for two years?
When I moved my business to Dubai, I decided to stop and make a clear plan first. I knew that opening in Dubai would be totally different to when we started in Lebanon. We have huge competition here.
So, I decided to use the pandemic as a chance to rebrand and rebuild. I changed our name, the packaging and added a few new products. I traveled to Italy and France to create products, too.
After two years we relaunched, and it went even better than I hoped. People were waiting and desperate to get their hands on Youmi Beauty products again.
Right now 80 percent of our range is out of stock. It helps that I’m a blogger and an influencer with a big platform that I can use to market my products. My followers are really loyal and they value my opinion. They love my brand.
Especially with Arab women, it’s not easy to convince them to buy a product without even smelling it first. But even with my diffusers and perfumes, they will buy them online because they trust me and they trust my products.
Why are your contact lenses so popular?
Most Arab women have dark eyes. And we all know that when you have dark eyes you want to go light, and when you have light you want to go dark. So I decided to create a way for women to change their look in one minute.
Our contact lenses are very high quality and they are designed for sensitive eyes. I have very sensitive eyes and I can’t wear any other brand. Our colors are really special too and we have ones that you cannot find anywhere else. They are hand-painted and we only use natural colors so that when you look at someone’s eyes you can’t tell if they’re wearing contact lenses or not. That’s what makes our contacts different.
What’s the one make up item you can’t live without?
Lashes. If you want to look good, the one thing to prioritize is your lashes. It completes your eyes and your makeup. Personally, I can’t leave the house without putting lashes on.
What is it like to have millions of followers?
Being an influencer has a lot of benefits, but at the same time you don’t have any privacy. For example, yesterday I went to the mall, but I didn’t look good. My hair was messy and I hadn’t put any makeup on. So I wore a mask because I didn’t want people to recognize me or take a photo.
But it is nice when you meet people that really love you. There are a lot of bloggers and influencers in the Middle East, but my followers are very attached to me. They feel like I’m their sister because I help them a lot with their life. I give them advice and they see me as the role model because they know my story. They know that I started with nothing.
Every time I get comments from people saying that I have inspired them or given them positive energy, I feel so happy and it makes my day.
Do you try to limit your social media use?
I spend too much time online but I try to take breaks from time to time. But it’s not easy. Even if I don’t post until twelve or three o’clock, people will be asking, ‘Oh, where are you, Youmi? Why didn’t you say good morning?’ They are used to me saying good morning and goodnight every day.
But for me posting is easy because I’m recording my lifestyle, like how I start my morning, how I go to the office and where I’m going if I have meetings or if I’m traveling. I don’t put pressure on myself.
How do you stay healthy?
I do yoga twice a week and I go to the gym three days a week. I eat very healthy.
I take care of my skin and my hair. Every day you can find me in a different clinic taking care of my skin. It’s nice to look after yourself because your body is the most important thing you have in life.
Are you scared of getting older?
No, but I have never acted my age so I’m not focused on age. I never really experienced being a teenager or a child. When people learn how old I am they can’t believe how much I have already achieved at such a young age. My plan is to stop working at 40 and focus on my charity work instead. I can’t wait to be 40.
Why is giving to charity so important to you?
For me, the most crucial part of my story is that I know what it feels like to have nothing. So, whenever I go to Lebanon I do charity work. It’s really difficult to see kids who have nothing. Last Christmas I went to one of the orphanages, and it was awful to see kids who don’t have any family at all. I always had my mom, but they don’t have anyone or even know who their family is.
There’s no electricity, no water and no food. The kids are cold and it’s really hard. The situation in Lebanon is really getting worse, day by day.
I also helped with food donations after the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey. I can’t stop helping people. God gave me a chance and so I want to give back to the people of Lebanon, and to the community that helped me.
The woman at the orphanage who took care of us all, around 150 kids, needed surgery recently and I helped her pay for it. Charity work is a huge part of my life.
How can every woman look her best?
Love yourself and believe in yourself. Write down what you need to do and put your plan into action. Don’t give too much to people that don’t really care about you. Surround yourself with business-minded people and ones that really love you.
Don’t spend your time on silly stuff. Use your time to build your future. Time is precious so you have to use it on the right things.
For more information about Youmi Beauty, visit youmibeauty.com.
