Drag can be an expensive pursuit, and getting all glammed up for the opportunity of a lifetime, competing on RuPaul’s Drag Race, can really eat up all your cash and credit.

Other competitors have opened up about the money they’ve spent getting RuPaul-ready in the past, and now Kandy Muse is doing the same.

In conversation with Matt Cullen for Our Queer Life, Kandy admitted that jumping into the competition mid-pandemic, when nobody had been working for a minute, was unexpected. But she was fortunate enough to pull things together, and ultimately spent a whopping $26,000 prepping for the show.

“But it’s worth it, and it’s an investment into your future,” Matt said.

“It absolutely is. When going to Drag Race, I always said, if I go on there, I want to look my best,” the season 13 runner-up said.

Drag hasn’t historically been a pastime of the particularly well off, so finances seem like they could cause a big divide in what contestants on the show are able to pull off, and impact their chances to move forward.

While Kandy and Matt discussed the possibility of setting a cap for how much queens could spend, and Kandy acknowledged that some have more privilege than others that could keep the playing field uneven, she feels the show is ultimately about so much more than what you spend.

“That’s the thing with Drag Race,” she said. “We’ve seen girls in the show that have amazing looks, that have amazing outfits, that go out there and don’t maybe get the response from the fans as they want. As much as we all love to watch Drag Race for the runways, this is a personality-based television show.”

“Money can’t buy good taste,” she added.