diff --git a/dev-python/mkdocs-material-extensions/mkdocs-material-extensions-1.0_beta1.ebuild b/dev-python/mkdocs-material-extensions/mkdocs-material-extensions-1.0_beta1.ebuild
index 1f0bb4b181..a2739644b2 100644
--- a/dev-python/mkdocs-material-extensions/mkdocs-material-extensions-1.0_beta1.ebuild
+++ b/dev-python/mkdocs-material-extensions/mkdocs-material-extensions-1.0_beta1.ebuild
@@ -20,8 +20,13 @@ LICENSE="MIT"
 SLOT="0"
 KEYWORDS="~amd64 ~x86"
 
+# mkdocs-material depends on this package creating a circular dep
 PDEPEND=">=dev-python/mkdocs-material-5.0.0[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]"
 
+# we still need mkdocs-material for test, but the circular dep can be avoided
+# by first emerging with FEATURES="-test"
+DEPEND="test? ( ${PDEPEND} )"
+
 S="${WORKDIR}/${PN}-${MYPV}"
 
 distutils_enable_tests pytest