OUR Mister Make-up, Craig Alexander Wilson, wowed the nation last week on reality TV hit Come Dine With Me.

One of five rivals entertaining guests over the course of a week on the hit Channel 4 show, our beauty expert won fans across Britain as he tried to win the £1000 prize for the being host with the most.

Craig, 33, didn’t win – music teacher Siobhan Daly came out top – but today he reveals the prize money would not even have covered his costs after he splurged £2700 – £478 on food and drink, £350 on flowers and more than £1500 on new furniture and tableware – for his “Glitz and Glamour” night, the most expensive dinner party in the show’s history.

Today Craig, who runs Wilson & Wilson beauty salon in Prestwick with his brother Greig, spills the beans on the behind-the-scenes secrets of one of TV’s biggest shows.

Craig, who was hailed by television bosses as “a legend” and one of their best contestants ever, tells HEATHER GREENAWAY how he loved his week of fine – and not so fine – dining, disco-dancing, rummaging, and score-carding.

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I hope people don’t think I’m off my head when they find out I spent nearly three grand on Come Dine With Me, but I don’t do things by halves.

It’s not every day that you have nine million people to dinner. When you think of it that way, I only spent pennies on each guest – a wee sausage roll for everyone.

I couldn’t have the nation coming into my home and seeing a shabby pair of curtains or a mismatched set of crockery.

I’m all about the glamour and that’s what I gave my guests – the full Craig Alexander experience, complete with £40 fake lashes.

The producers give you £125 to buy food. That’s OK if you want to serve up pie and mash but not when you want to lavish your new pals with edible gold glitter, scallops and bottles of pink Champagne.

My food went down well but the booze went down even better.

As well as three bottles of Champagne, I bought a litre of Grey Goose vodka, some Chambord liqueur, four bottles of Shiraz , four of Sancerre and a case of beer. By the end of the night, there wasn’t a drop left.

What you don’t see on telly is the length of time between courses.

There can be up to an hour’s wait, which gives everyone the chance to overdose on the Dutch courage.

It’s a wonder any of the guests were able to stand when they left my house. I, of course, was stone-cold sober...not.

The taxi ride is the funniest part of the whole experience. You get in, you give your score, the cab drives round the block, drops you off and picks up the next person. They drive round the block, come back and so on.

You are squished in the back with four of the crew and if there are noises outside or you make a mistake, you have to do it again.

You could be going round in circles for an hour. I was never in bed before 4.30am. It was a long week.

Am I gutted I didn’t win? Nooooooo – well maybe just a wee bit. I blame it on the fact I had to go first.

That can be a disadvantage as the other contestants still see it as a “competition” and don’t mark you as high as they should. It’s very rare for the first night’s host to win.

The mood does change as the days go on and the show takes over your whole life for a week. The crew arrive at 9am on the day you are hosting and start rearranging your home. They remove all the clocks and take down any prints or pictures, that might have copyright issues.

I’m a bit OCD and nearly had a heart attack when they started messing with my scatter cushions.

The crew spent several hours filming my preparation and deliberately let me burn my dessert because it would make good TV.

They then took me to my local beauty salon for an eyelash tint.

The director wanted me to have a fake tan and though I have no problem appearing on TV in a pair of paper pants, I refused as I would have ended up looking like a Cheesy Wotsit.

In the end, I had 15 minutes to get ready before the guests arrived and that’s when the real fun began.

You are not told anything about the other contestants until they rock up at your door.

It’s quite nerve-wracking. I entertain all the time but I have never thrown open my doors to strangers before.

The first to arrive was Caroline. She was blonde and bubbly with the most infectious laugh ever.

I gelled with her immediately and didn’t care what the rest of the guests were like. I had found a soulmate.

Siobhan arrived next. I found her very confident. Then came Paul, who fancied himself as a joker, and finally the glamorous Mandy

My cocktails broke the ice but conversation was difficult as, although they could ask me about my life, I couldn’t ask them. The producers don’t want to ruin the element of surprise about the nights to come, so you are banned from asking revealing personal questions. This makes for long silences.

They also like to keep the host in the kitchen. I now feel sorry for contestants who get slagged off for spending too long away from the table. I know now that it’s not their fault.

You also get to choose the rooms you want them to snoop in and can plant items. I just directed them to my product-filled bathroom, my vibra-plate and my designer luggage collection.

You don’t even get to know the theme for that night’s dinner party until the morning, which makes finding a costume a race against time.

Luckily I’m not bad at improvising and was able to pull together a few choice outfits for the 70s, Disco, 80s and Latin Fever themes.

Each of the nights had their high and low points. Paul’s food was good but the mankini-clad bloke in his bath was not.

Mandy’s dessert made me gag, but her colour-coded wardrobes were fab.

Siobhan made me cry, when she sang but I thought she was too competitive.

And my wee pal Caroline’s food was OK but her disco was fantastic.

Obviously the directors want good TV, but I wasn’t keen on being encouraged to bitch about the others.

Mandy was very direct and seemed a little apart from the rest of us at times. The crew had picked up on this and kept needling us for our feelings about her.

This made me feel uncomfortable. Although she was a bit different, she was fine. I wanted to be honest and true to myself but didn’t want to make hurtful, throwaway comments for the sake of it.

The highlight of the week had to be when I lifted Caroline above my head like in Dirty Dancing but her boob popped out. It was so funny.

All in all, I had one of the best weeks of my life. But even if I had won, the £1000 prize would not have covered the cost of the dinner.

It was exhausting and frustrating at times but I would do it again tomorrow.

I got a real insight into strangers’ lives and made a new friend in Caroline. Maybe the two of us could do Coach Trip next?