Students are spending a colossal average of £1,109 on beauty products, with Lancaster topping the polls as the vainest university, It has been revealed.
York University appears in second place, spending an average of £968 per year and Durham features third with a whopping spend of £895.
New figures suggest that undergraduates starting this academic year will leave with debts of £53,000 but the steep rise in tuition fees has clearly not put students off splashing the cash on non-essentials. Some students have spent up to 20% of their yearly £5,500 student loan on items such as make-up, fragrances and skincare.
The 'hard up' students of Britain are purchasing luxury brand items from Clarins and Dior, with the skincare product Avene Eau Thermale Spring Water Spray proving the most popular beauty buy.
Students at the University of Southampton (£741 per year), the University of Manchester (£691 per year) and the University of Bristol (£653 per year) were also in the top 10 of luxury beauty spenders.
Assessing spending patterns at all higher UK institutions, beauty retailer Escentual.com also discovered that students spend far more online that other shoppers - preferring the convenience of buying from home than heading to the high street. It was also noted that all bar three of the top 10 spending universities are in the Russell Group and five other Russell Group institutions made the top 20.
Chief executive Rakesh Aggarwal of Escentual said: "Gone are the days of student life meaning living on ready meals and lying-in until past midday.
"Despite their reputation for being cash-strapped and lazy, more and more students nowadays are taking the initiative to find part-time work alongside their studies, so they have more funds to spend on the little luxuries."