Lebanese-born beauty entrepreneur Youmna Khoury Kiziloz, the founder and chief executive of Dubai-based Youmi Beauty, opened 2026 with a milestone moment that reframes how the region thinks about self-made beauty leaders. In January 2026, Forbes Middle East named Khoury to its annual 30 Under 30 list in the Commerce and Finance category, recognising her as one of the GCC's standout founders building a homegrown beauty empire from the United Arab Emirates.
From an orphanage in Beirut to the Forbes spotlight
Khoury's story is the kind of trajectory the Forbes 30 Under 30 cohort was designed to celebrate. Having grown up in an orphanage in Lebanon, she built her career without the safety nets that often underpin regional founder narratives. In 2017 she launched Youmi Beauty as a focused e-commerce destination for premium contact lenses, lashes and hair extensions, leaning on her social media credibility to convert followers into customers and customers into a long-term community of buyers across the Emirates and the wider Gulf[1].
A multi-category beauty business with double-digit growth
What began as a single-category storefront has evolved into a multi-category beauty company, with Youmi Beauty now spanning body care, skincare and fragrance alongside its founding lash and lens lines. The numbers behind the recognition matter. In 2024 the company recorded 12.8 percent revenue growth to reach 2.7 million US dollars, and across the first nine months of 2025 revenue climbed a further 60 percent, signalling sustained consumer demand rather than a one-off spike[2].
Next chapter: a Dubai clinic and Saudi expansion
With the Forbes nod confirmed, Khoury has set out the next phase of the Youmi Beauty roadmap. Plans now include the launch of a combined beauty clinic and salon, with the first location earmarked to open in Dubai and a follow-on rollout into Saudi Arabia. The expansion sits alongside continued product innovation and category extension, positioning Youmi Beauty as one of the fastest-growing beauty brands in the GCC and the wider Middle East and North Africa region[3].
Why the recognition resonates in the UAE
For the Emirates' beauty community, Khoury's listing is more than a personal accolade. It validates a model where founder-led, social-first beauty brands can scale into clinic-grade retail concepts without leaning on traditional luxury distribution. As Youmi Beauty moves from digital storefront to physical clinic in Dubai, her trajectory offers a template for the next wave of GCC beauty operators looking to convert audience trust into bricks-and-mortar revenue.
