If you’ve ever watched your screen in awe of the beautiful people who whisk you from futuristic utopias to Regency-era ballrooms, you have their on-set hair and makeup artists to thank. In Behind the Beauty, we take a peek inside the glam trailer with the experts who track each mascara-stained tear and carefully placed curl for continuity, wake up at 3 in the morning for early call times, and shape your favorite films and shows into the moments that define culture. Beauty is its own character, and here, we give it the stage.
Psychedelic glitter tears on 35-millimeter film. Rhinestone-studded eyes under stadium lights. Vivid flicks of eyeliner in geometric and organic shapes. There is precisely one show that comes to mind with these visions of glamour, so let’s say it together: Euphoria.
The lauded HBO drama is back after a four-year hiatus, impacted by industry-wide strikes, the hectic filming schedules of an in-demand cast, and the tragic passing of Angus Cloud, who portrayed Fezco in seasons 1 and 2. As of three weeks ago, the show has officially returned to its regularly scheduled programming (Euphoria Sundays, as the internet so lovingly calls them), and viewers are abuzz with the one thing that may be more alluring than the twisted plot and A-list actors—the makeup, headed up by Doniella “Donni” Davy, celebrity makeup artist, Half Magic founder, and Emmy Award winner.
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(Image credit: Courtesy of Donni Davy)
Davy recognizes that she, along with her crewmates Kirsten Coleman and Tara Lang Shah, made history by deepening storylines and inspiring entire makeup movements in past seasons. “[Fans] were like, ‘I’ve never worn makeup before, but I am doing it for the first time now, and I’ve never felt more like myself [than] in green sparkly eye shadow,’” she says with a grin. “And that is so fucking cool. It is life-changing shit to find a new version of yourself that feels so much like you.”
Though gripped with the fear of following her magnum opus, Davy chose to welcome this anxious rush ahead of season 3—letting that twist in her gut drag her down familiar rabbit holes and thought spirals in pursuit of feral creativity.
Davy taking a mirror selfie in the locker room of the Silver Slipper on the set of Euphoria season 3
(Image credit: Courtesy of Donni Davy)
“I obsessed so much during season 1,” Davy tells me over a crackly Zoom call. Now, seven years later, I ask her what season 3 Donni wishes she could tell season 1 Donni. She chuckles softly in response. “Your obsession and your fixation on all of this is exactly what it needs to be. It’s not a defect,” she replies. “There’s not something wrong with you. This is going to make history, so just keep obsessing. It will not be for nothing.”
(Image credit: Future)
With full abandon, Davy plunged into the dark-sided world of Rue Bennett (Zendaya), Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie), Cassie Jacobs (née Howard after this week’s episode, portrayed by Sydney Sweeney), and more, manifesting the “feral head-to-toe glam” of season 3, as the MUA describes it. Below, get an exclusive look behind the beauty that makes Euphoria, well, euphoric.
Davy’s workspace inside the makeup trailer on the set of Euphoria season 3
(Image credit: Courtesy of Donni Davy)
Here’s the thing about those aforementioned glittery thought spirals: They often place Davy in a pressure cooker of creativity. Good—it helps her. She admits that it isn’t the framework for the most organized process (a lot of dreaming up looks in the car on the way to set, a few face charts and test runs after seeing the wardrobe), but it jives with showrunner Sam Levinson’s workflow and leaves room for cast collaboration. Demie, for instance, prefers a hands-on approach, helping curate mood boards and source imagery for her HBIC character. Sweeney is more laissez-faire, allowing Davy to take full control without many requests. Hunter Schafer (Jules) is “always positive and down for anything,” resulting in the character’s eccentric eye looks that thousands of fans have tried to copy. Since starting to work together nearly eight years ago, Davy and the cast have built trust in each other to get these characters camera ready, even if they don’t know where they’re starting that morning.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Donni Davy)
“There are a lot of eyes on the glam. There are a lot of eyes on the show, and I’m just trying to stay true to what the characters are going through this season,” says Davy. She knows that the audience wants the bright-blue, blinged-out eyes that Maddy and Cassie sported on the football field as high school cheerleaders. She also knows fans might be upset, even at her, to see less of that now. However, the story has jumped five years into the future in Euphoria time, and those high school juniors are now working adults. You don’t wear the same makeup you did at 17, do you?
“That is the secret sauce. … It has nothing to do with trends. It has nothing to do with my own wishes for each of the characters,” she adds. “They’re not meant to just be cool makeup looks. They’re meant to be a total insight into what’s going on with the character.”
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(Image credit: Future)
Though each character has their own beauty aesthetic, there are a few mainstays across the board: glowy, lived-in skin and hairline-sharp eyeliner. “I’m always adding rawness and realness back into the skin, especially over a hefty glam,” says Davy, who trusts Half Magic’s Dew Lock Set + Refresh Mist to diffuse camera-necessary powder. “And the winged liner has got to be sharp as hell. If it’s not, I can’t have it. It just looks so juicy on camera.”
(Image credit: Future)
Surprisingly, it’s the nail looks that influence the entire beauty operation. Celebrity manicurist Caroline Cotten, who also designed the nails for Zendaya’s 2025 Met Gala look and Chappell Roan’s MAC campaigns, headed up the nail department for season 3. Already, we’ve seen a bevy of colorful duck nails at the Silver Slipper strip club (more on that later), teal French tips for Faye Valentine, and abstract and artsy manis for Jules in the first three episodes. But on the Euphoria set, everything can change in a flash, which requires flexibility in the beauty department. “[Sometimes], they clash, but that’s fine. That’s also a vibe,” Davy says with a shrug. And so the show’s eclecticism lives on.
(Image credit: Courtesy of HBO)
We meet present-day Maddy as a corporate ingénue who manhandles her way into a job at a Hollywood talent agency. While some facets of her look remain from her past—the razor-sharp eyeliner and deep lip liner—she’s done a large overhaul in pursuit of trust and power. Davy classifies her look as “classic bitch” (a compliment of the highest approval), with a high-contrast pout defined with burgundy, brown, and gray lip liner and vintage-inspired eyes.
The makeup artist reckons Cher and Cleopatra would be beauty idols to fictional Maddy, as she likely strives to embody the beauty, power, and great eye makeup etched into their iconography. Demie worked closely with Davy on Maddy’s look and often referenced the Turkish actress and glam icon Türkan Şoray’s negative-space eyeliner and thinly arched brows, giving Maddy the Old Hollywood look that made her feel like she belonged in her industry.
(Image credit: Courtesy of HBO)
What might feel newest is her hair. Gone are the slicked-back updos and high ponytails. The newly minted businesswoman is toying with voluminous ’90s blowouts and retro ‘dos. We spot her on the beach in a half-up, half-down style that feels acutely Priscilla Presley; running around Los Angeles with choppy Rachel layers, and sitting with sculpted kiss curls by the pool à la Josephine Baker. If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that adult Maddy knows her references—just maybe not herself.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Courtesy of HBO)
If Maddy’s style evolution feels carefully edited but a bit lost, then Cassie’s is stranded on a desert island. The blonde fiancée has been staring down the barrel of her looming wedding (a tumultuous one, to say the least) and reinventing herself in every which way to raise money on OnlyFans for her expensive florals. Between twisting into unnatural shapes and leaning into exploitative fantasies, Cassie tries a new makeup look for each persona, but Davy implies that we haven’t seen anything yet.
Cassie’s looks in the first three episodes border on calm by Euphoria standards: a frosted eye here, a blushy pink cheek there, a flash of red lips once. Her shimmery lids in the wedding-planning stage feel symbolic of the starry-eyed view she still tries to have of her relationship and life—the nice dinners, the big house, the neighborhood pool parties. But as she undergoes a Kat-like (Barbie Ferreira) evolution as a camgirl, her look shifts into whatever fantasies her male followers want from her. It’s a grown-up version of the Maddy morphing she did in high school to “win” Nate. That’s not where things end, though.
(Image credit: Courtesy of HBO)
As she walks down the aisle, her mother whispering cautionary divorce tales in her ear, Cassie’s makeup feels symbolic. It’s our last look at the girl who used to be Maddy’s best friend, cried in a tub at a party, and abandoned herself along the way. Her version of wedding makeup teeters on classic, with a slight dusting of shimmer for levity, but ultimately darkens at the eyes with intensely lined waterlines. This doesn’t just overstate the sensuality of her gown; it leaves highly visible tear tracks when it all falls apart.
Davy says the best looks are still to come. “Cassie’s glam is very feral—opposite of clean girl,” she tells me. She elaborates that Cassie’s evolution gives Pamela Anderson vibes in the ’90s and ’00s, summarizing the look in a slew of buzzwords: “very frosty, tight-lined, piercing eyes; frosty lips; lip liner; tan; peroxide blonde.” I’m anxiously awaiting this makeover scene.
(Image credit: Courtesy of HBO)
When we meet Jules in a very different place in the show’s third season, her character is experiencing a beauty evolution similar to Cassie’s. While the suburban blonde changes herself to pander to the fantasies of online men, the city dweller is experimenting with new looks on different dates as a sugar baby—lacquering her lips in deep-red gloss, sporting Twiggy-esque under-eye lashes, and dotting her lids in pale-blue shimmer and artfully placed black liner. This may sound like pops of color on anyone else, but it’s a stark desaturation for Jules.
“Jules is in a much darker place,” Davy explains. The budding artist is still using makeup as an expression of self, but her motivation is entirely different. “It’s not playful. There’s a little color, but it’s not colorful. There’s a little sparkle, but it’s not fun,” she adds. Davy’s task was to execute Jules’s optics as she grapples with the question, Is she the artist, or is she the muse? The bigger question was, What does that look like?
Davy revealed in an Instagram tutorial of Jules’s abstract blue look that she used Half Magic’s Sparklestik Eye Crayon in Cloud Kid (named after the late Angus Cloud) to create the stunning sky-like base before inking the lower lash line with spooky semi-circle eyeliner. The final step? A vivid, “disco blush” wash of Half Magic’s Beam Trap Skin Illuminating Balm from the limited-edition Euphoria collection.
(Image credit: Courtesy of HBO)
Rosalía, a chart-topping Spanish singer and actress, is one of the most notable new cast members to join the show’s third season, and Davy speaks of her character Magick’s glam as if it were a passion project. “I’m most excited for people to see Rosalía’s looks,” she says with a devilish grin. “Her glam is so aggressive, and it’s so fierce. Part of it really scratches that season 1 makeup itch.”
(Image credit: Future)
Though viewers have yet to see much of the dancer and her bedazzled neck brace at the Silver Slipper, we did get a first look at Magick’s beauty aesthetic. Long, brightly colored nails are her signature, and thin yet bold brows; thick, gem-encrusted eyeliner; and a high-contrast lip combo complete the look. I, for one, can’t wait to see more of the Lux songstress on my screen.
(Image credit: Courtesy of HBO)
Portrayed by Priscilla Delgado, the dancer Angel is already laying the framework for the religious undertones of this dark story, but when we meet her, the character seems to be a beam of light. “All the dancers are made up to be sort of goddess pop stars,” Davy explains. The camera often shoots them from below, putting them on a visual pedestal. “They’re all shimmering and sparkling. … They’re supposed to look luminous, light-reflective—like goddess creatures crawling around on the stages,” she adds. Angel wears Half Magic’s Magic Drip Glitter Gloss on her lips, and you can even spy her applying it in one of her first scenes.
(Image credit: Courtesy of HBO)
Lexi Howard is in the same boat as Maddy—growing up a bit in terms of style and putting on adult airs in an effort to be taken more seriously in the entertainment industry. However, Lexi’s intention isn’t to intimidate like Maddy, to seduce like Cassie, or to express herself like Jules. Her swipe of red lipstick is meant to grab the attention of her boss, who she admires (portrayed by Sharon Stone); to stand out to the actor she crushes on, on set; and to make a statement without saying anything. I am here! Acknowledge me!
(Image credit: Courtesy of HBO)
Doe-eyed and lips pursed, Faye Valentine (Chloe Cherry) reenters the Euphoria-verse decked out in lime-green, foiled eye shadow under some unpleasant circumstances. We continuously see a string of colorful eye looks against glowing, bare skin for a girl living in a trap house, but what else would we expect at this point? With a flurry of violet lids and pink lips, Davy and Shah tried to translate the childlike joy within Faye into makeup, paying extra attention to her colorful, often art-splattered nails.
To shop the exact products used in the makeup trailer for Euphoria season 3 and the limited-edition Euphoria x Half Magic collection, keep scrolling.
Euphoria x Half Magic
Glitterpuck Pressed Fairy Dust in Feel Something
HALF MAGIC
Dew Lock Hydrating Set + Refresh Mist
Euphoria x Half Magic
B*tch Ur My Soulmate Extra Plush Lip Gloss
Euphoria x Half Magic
Magic Flik Liquid Eyeliner
HALF MAGIC
Sculptitude 2-in-1 Lip Liner
HALF MAGIC
Magic Drip Glitter Lip Gloss
HALF MAGIC
Crystal Butter Lip Balm
Euphoria x Half Magic
Wing Magician
HALF MAGIC
Sparklestik in Cloud Kid
Euphoria x Half Magic
Self-Adhesive Face Gems
Euphoria x Half Magic
Beam Trap Illuminating Balm
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