Noor Stars loves the night sky. Her Syrian refugee status meant she didn’t know where she would be in the world during her childhood, but she always had the stars to look up to. There, she found peace in dreaming. Her name is fitting. Her mother gave her the name that would become her identity to millions. “I love stars, and I remember thinking, ‘What should I call my channel?’ She said, ‘Stars, stars,’ and it stuck with me.”
And she is nothing less than a star with over 17 million followers on Instagram, the host of Stars Podcast and recipient of the 2025 Woman of the Year Award. Four years have passed since she last graced the cover of Cosmopolitan Middle East, and the transformation is palpable.
“I used to take everything so seriously,” she tells me, her eyes reflecting the weight of experiences that have reshaped her. “Now I’m like, let’s have some fun as well.” It’s a philosophy born from a traumatic health scare involving her mother that fundamentally altered her relationship with life itself. “It showed me that life’s not that serious. We just make it so serious, and we think we control things when in fact we control nothing.”
The power of choice
While she practices surrender, she still governs her life with self-agency and actualisation. “I love Noor Stars more than my actual name because I got to choose this name for myself,” she explains. “It’s always possible to choose your own name and build the life that you want. You don’t have to stick to what you were born with.”
Choosing Noor Stars over the name she was born with becomes a metaphor for her entire journey. She was born in Iraq, raised in Syria and the United States, and now calls Dubai her home. For someone who faced a lot of uncertainty in her upbringing, the act of self-definition feels romantic. She admits to romanticising her life so vigorously that it became real.
Now, she is focused on growing her fragrance brand, Nafas. “When I finally launched it, I stopped for a second and thought, it was all worth it,” she remembers. “It was a surreal moment.” The launch almost didn’t happen when she wanted it to, victim to her own perfectionism and the endless details that come with building a brand from scratch. Then she encountered a quote from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid that changed everything: “60% today is better than 100% tomorrow.”
“It doesn’t mean when I launched it was only 60%, it was 100%. I was ready. But I wanted to take more time to perfect it. When I heard that quote, I thought, ‘You know what? I’m ready. Let’s launch.”
Building worlds through Nafas
Nafas represents everything she’s learned about building worlds rooted in emotions. Each scent is designed to create what she calls “core memories”, those profound sensory experiences that transport you back to a moment in time, a feeling, a version of yourself you want to remember.
What sets Nafas apart in a crowded fragrance market is its intentionality. “It’s not trend-driven,” Noor explains. “It has its own identity. It’s emotion-driven because I believe fragrances are emotions bottled.” The brand itself is a bridge between worlds, much like Noor herself. Made in the UAE with a French perfumer from Grasse, Nafas carries the soul of the Middle East with the technical excellence of French perfumery. “I wanted the brand to be international but with the soul of the Middle East because we’re known for our fragrance, perfumery, and craftsmanship,” she says. “France is known for the best flowers, juices, and alcohol for fragrances. I wanted both of these worlds in Nafas.”
Her creative process is delightfully visual and specific. When developing a scent, she doesn’t speak in notes and accords; she speaks in personal memories and feelings. For one fragrance, she told her perfumer, “I want a scent that reminds me of Dubai Mall Fashion Avenue. When you enter, you get hit with a mix of fragrances, but the core is oud.” For a summer scent in development, the brief was even more evocative: “When I smell this scent, I want to feel like I’m on the beach breathing, tanning. It’s summer, it’s beautiful with a very cold drink, just chilling.”
“It’s crazy how you can picture an image and turn it into a fragrance,” she marvels. “That’s such an art, a very difficult art, but once you’re in it, it’s beautiful.”
All her scents are her babies, she remarks, but right now jasmine is her favourite. Jasmine is one of those sensory scents that have always followed her from the streets of Syria to her family home in Michigan.
Love should feel like peace
In Michigan, she bonded with her siblings while playing PlayStation games. Her gateway game was Genshin Impact, where she began building a community of gamers.“I was sitting way too close to the screen and completely locked in,” Noor remembers. “I forgot about the world around me. When she started sharing her unfiltered reactions while gaming, it would go viral. People were drawn to her authenticity and vulnerability. “I related to a lot of my audience. Gaming in general is a space where I can be myself and build a real community, even away from social media and fame.”
Even now, after long days filled with business meetings, photo sessions, and panel moderations, she turns to gaming for pure fun. Noor looks forward to playing with PlayStation’s new vibrant Hyperpop collection of DualSense controllers set to launch in March 2026. She already knows she will be matching the Techno Red, Remix Green and Rhythm Blue controllers with her moods. As an adult, she still plays with her sister and brother.
Her brother is the one who introduced her to her fiancé, Kareem Al Sharif. After declining numerous invitations from her brother to join their outings, she finally agreed. “I rarely remember meeting people the first time, but with [Kareem], I remember seeing him for the first time. He does too, so I believe it was meant to be.”
“Don’t wait for it,” she counsels. “Don’t chase, just let it be. It will come, I swear. It’s good to know what you want. It’s nice to write down the qualities you’re looking for – everything down to the looks. Once you write it and detail it, it will happen. It’s crazy, but you will find that person you wrote about because words have power.”
Before meeting her fiancé, she had a clear list: understanding, supportive, and communicative. Most importantly, she emphasises “go for the love that makes you feel calm, not anxious. Love should feel like peace, not confusion, anxiety, or stress.
A season of growth
Her partner helps bring her ease when she has to balance her role as a founder, content creator, podcast host, and fiancée. This can be challenging, but she says, “each part feeds a part of me. The content creator keeps me connected to my audience. Hosting a podcast sharpens how I listen and communicate with people and has built a side of my personality that I love. Being a brand owner forces me to think long-term and strategically. I’ve learned so much from having and building my own brand.” Instead of seeing them as separate roles, Noor lets them complement each other.
“This is a season of growth, both personally and professionally,” Noor explains. She’s busy planning her wedding; after considering locations all over the world, she chose the UAE. For Noor, Dubai has always felt like a homecoming – the city where all her dreams come true and where she will spend Ramadan.
“There’s a touch to Ramadan that we wait for every year: the family vibe, friends, prayers,” she says. “We go back to a lot of our traditions like the food, soups, desserts, outings, and fashion.” Noor looks forward to reflecting during the holy month. “I also like to plan during Ramadan because I believe it’s good energy with good timing.”
As all Muslims who celebrate look at the night sky, awaiting the new moon, you can find Noor doing the same. Though she’s no longer the yearning child wishing on a star, but now the woman she dreamt about under those very stars.
Photography: Ben Cope at MMG Artists
Art Direction: Haya Al Sharif
Styling: Marguerita Christoforidis
Executive Producer: Steff Hawker
Hair: Sebastian Iskander
Make-Up: Kenza Bia
Nail Artist: Ginza Beauty Ladies Salon Dubai
Fashion Assistant: Rim Najd
Lighting Assistants: Scar Salario and Jaypee Hardin