by Zara Mustapha

People have addictions to different types of foods around them but eating make-up could be ruled as borderline strange.

22-year-old Brittoni from Toledo in Ohio has a strange a strange addiction to makeup, instead of putting it on her face, she prefers to eat it finishing 15 – 20 compact and eyeshadow.

She says the taste varies by brand and colour, with metallic eyeshadow in light brown, white and grey having the nicest flavour.

‘I cannot live without eating make-up,’ she explains. ‘You can imagine it just coating your insides with whatever colour you’re eating. It’s just like craving your favourite candy bar,’ Brittoni says.

She confesses that the unusual habit began when she was just five years old, intrigued by the colors in her mother’s makeup, she decided to taste.

‘Seeing all the colours made me want to taste it,’ she remembers. ‘Once I tasted it, I just could not stop eating make-up.

‘My favourite type of eyeshadow to eat is usually the metallic colours,’ she continues. ‘My favourite colours are grey, white and the light colour browns. Light colours usually taste a lot cleaner than darker colours.’

Brittoni says her family does not know of her bizarre addiction and goes the extra mile to keep it a secret.

‘I hide make-up everywhere around my house,’ she explains. ‘Under the couches, in the flower vases, the freezer… My hair is long so I like to use it to conceal the make-up I would like to bring.

‘I keep my addiction to make-up hidden because I’d rather not go through the hassle of explaining it to people.

‘My mother doesn’t know but if she knew, I’d never hear the end of it and it would go on for hours and hours every day.’

Due to her habit, Brittoni spends up to $200 a day and even though the ingredients used to produce makeup are quite harmful and does no good to her body, she says she tries not to look at the adverse effects.