Despite having a small budget, students still have the money for beauty buys
Students may be known for their love of cheap drinks and bargain food, and it would seem it's all in aid of paying for their beauty addicions.
Despite claiming to be cash-strapped students, they're spending more than £1,000 a year each on beauty products, according to new figures
Females at Lancaster University are spending £1,109 each on make-up, fragrances and skin products in the last year. They topped a league table of beauty spending at more than 200 colleges in the UK.
The high spending comes despite new figures showing that undergraduates starting university this academic year will leave with debts of £53,000.
The second highest spenders are at the University of York - with an average yearly spend on beauty products of £968. Durham University was third with spending of £895.Cambridge University - the UK’s number one ranked university - was 16th in the table with students spending £278 a year. âªOxford University was 25th with spending of £155.
Online beauty retailer Escentual.com assessed spending patterns at all higher education institutions in the UK. Traditionally, students spend far more online than other shoppers - preferring the convenience of online retailing.
The spending at Lancaster University equates to £370 per term, and roughly 20% of their £5500 yearly student loan.Lancaster students’ £37 weekly spend on luxury beauty for each 10-week term at university is more than enough to fund a week’s worth of food, almost 6 gallons of diesel, or even a TFL weekly travelcard for travel within London zones 1-3.
Furthermore, a double room near the Lancaster University campus can be rented for £65 per week, or £3,380 per year, meaning Lancaster students are spending up to the equivalent of one-third of their yearly rent on luxury beauty and grooming.
Students from The University of York and Durham University followed Lancaster in the vanity stakes, with average beauty spends of £323 per term and £298 per term respectively. They favoured more high-end brands than Lancaster, splashing out on luxury products from Clarins and Dior. The most popular beauty product across all universities was the Avene Eau Thermale Spring Water Spray, with students spending a total of £14,382 on the French pharmacy product in the past year.
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. Popular products purchased include La Roche-Posay’s Effaclar Duo – renowned for targeting spots and blemishes – and the cult favourite Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micelle Solution.
The high levels of online beauty spending indicate a heightened interest in beauty and grooming amongst UK university students – particularly from students in the Russell Group of elite universities. All bar three of the top 10 spending universities are in the Russell Group, and five other Russell Group institutions made the top 20.
Escentual chief executive Rakesh Aggarwal 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.
“Students are the businessmen and women of the future; we will one day be relying on them to keep our economy afloat, so it’s refreshing to see they’re taking an enterprising approach during their university years and aren’t solely relying on their student loans.”
Aggarwal added: “The number of students shopping online is on the rise, too. Students have busy lifestyles and don’t always have time to go out to department stores to purchase beauty products – for them, buying online is a quick and convenient alternative.”
Students at Derby and Bath Spa universities were among the UK’s lowest beauty spenders.
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