This Beauty Blogger Now Makes Pizza in Maadi

Is the beauty industry among the most lucrative in the world? Unquestionably. But place a dense, oil-slicked slice of pepperoni pizza next to a USD 45 lip combo, and most people - honest people - will choose the pizza. Enter Hadeer Hameed: UAE-based Egyptian beauty blogger, social media mainstay, and now, unexpectedly but admirably, the woman bringing Cairo its first-ever pizzeria and brewery, Budz.

Yes, with a ‘z,’ because when you’re breaking ground, you need a little edge and a fondness for 2007-era branding.

A few logistical updates before you grab your makeup bag and/or pizza cutter: Budz is in Maadi, because naturally it is - Maadi is to new restaurants what Paris is to brooding artists. No, this is not a joint venture with a global beauty brand (although now that we’ve said that, someone somewhere is pitching a pepperoni-infused sheet mask). And yes, the pizza is legit. Not influencer pizza. Not food court pizza. We're talking full-on Italian, the kind that makes you forgive people for things.

So while the beauty industry continues to thrive on serums made of snail mucus, one woman is bravely following her carbs - and Cairo is better for it.