Being a college student sucks for your bank account and being a make-up hoarder sucks for your already sad wallet.

I blame “RuPaul’s Drag Race” for two things; making me experiment with my face and my love of Nyx Cosmetics. In high school, I was never big into putting a lot of make-up on my face and stuck to eyeliner only. Sometimes I would branch out to lipstick and eyeshadow but both would end up smudging something fierce and making me look like I faced a hurricane head-on and lost.

Once college started, I found myself looking more into different primers for eyeshadow and ended up with a Sephora Beauty Insider membership due to the amount of money I was spending on two items at a time. My favorite was Too Faced’s Shadow Insurance Primer and Sephora Collection eyeliners. I was very into Kat Von D’s eyeshadow palettes but being a college student meant I had to plan when I would buy anything seeing as the cheapest item I would purchase was $20 if it was on sale.

College students don’t have that type of cash to toss around when one cheap version of a textbook costs $250.

In a neighboring town to my own, an Ulta Beauty was built and I consider it my make-up savior. In one section of their store was a Nyx display and, remembering the early days of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and the make-up provided to the competing queens, I made my first Nyx purchases because my rationale said, “if they’re drag queen approved then they have to be worth it.”

I haven’t looked back and I think my abandoned Sephora account is covered in dust and cobwebs.

Let’s break this down: a sale item at Sephora for $20 or at least five to ten regular priced items from Nyx for $20. Usually with cheaper brands you get what you pay for and what you’re paying for is a weak pigment and a smudge if you breathe wrong.

Complete opposite with Nyx.

I haven’t had a problem with the brand as of yet. I love the matte lipsticks and lip crèmes the most because of the wide variety of shades and the amount of time they last without a lip primer. I will say I managed to eat an entire meal while out with my mother and didn’t have the embarrassment of my lipstick wearing down to a line around my mouth. Instead, I had slight feathering around the corners but my purple lips were intact.

Speaking of lipstick, I’ve found my favorite shade and it may be my favorite until I leave this realm. The not-so-great part is many people really like this shade. “Siren,” a matte lipstick, has been worn nearly every day by me and when the tube started to get to a low point, I went to order more online but it was sold out. Yes, I panicked but calmed when I remembered I could just go buy it in-store. Nope, sold out there too. When it was finally back in stock I bought two tubes just in case. They currently reside nestled in my overstock case still nestled safely in their plastic wrapping.

For the most part, I keep the style of make-up I apply the same: darker color into the crease, lighter on the lid and a light shimmer to highlight below the arch on my eyebrow. I’m usually always wearing a dark lip, either “Siren” or the Simply Vamp Lip Cream in “Enamored.” My favorite palette is probably Love in Florence in “Prima Donna” and I have yet to try the Hot Singles eyeshadows ut have been eyeballing a few shades.

I would like to point out I’m not as bad as what I am making myself seem. I don’t sneak off to buy a new palette, though if I’m near a Nyx display chances are I will go home with something, and I don’t have make-up stashed around my house because I’ve run out of places to put them.

Admittedly there are times when I’ve stumbled out of bed early in order to at very least draw my eyebrows on, I’ve stared into the mirror and asked myself, “am I high maintenance?”

Answer: Nope, just determined.

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