Donni Davy Hopes 'Euphoria' Fans Continue to Embrace the Show's 'Anti-Clean' Beauty Aesthetic

The much-anticipated third season of HBO's Euphoria finally premiered over the weekend, and not even a four-year hiatus could put a stop to all the drama that's to be endured by all the show's characters over the next several weeks.

Season three doesn’t exactly pick up where we left off with the rambunctious group of former classmates. Instead, we jump five years ahead after everyone’s already graduated high school and experienced a few years of life out in the real world. Unsurprisingly, Rue (Zendaya) is now pushing drugs across the border for Laurie (Martha Kelly) to pay back that $10,000 debt that has now multiplied into the millions thanks to a gnarly interest rate. Maddy (Alexa Demie) is working a boring job at a talent agency and spending her days as a plus-one to an up-and-coming actor. Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) is a stay-at-home-wife-to-be dressing up in pup play in hopes of making fast money on OnlyFans to pay for an extravagant wedding to the reluctant Nate (Jacob Elordi), who’s taken over his father’s construction business and has plans to build a senior living facility in the area. Oh, and Jules (Hunter Schafer) is allegedly a sugar baby.

For the most part, everyone’s post-high school reality seems to be not so glamorous, and frankly, a little chaotic, which is something that the show's lead makeup artist, Donni Davy, attempted to highlight as she was putting looks together behind the scenes. "The characters are out of high school now, so we’re out of the dreamy electric dopamine makeup we had in season one," she tells Marie Claire. “I look to what the girls are doing in their lives, what the mood is, where they’re living, what colors are around them, and what they're wearing to guide my design decisions."

When it premiered in the summer of 2019, Euphoria’s first season had viewers in a chokehold for many reasons, one of them being the colorful, glitter-heavy hair and makeup looks each character wore that were equal parts whimsical and grungy. That each high schooler’s everyday glam—featuring glitter tears, rhinestones, and dark, graphic eyeliner—was the average adult’s makeup for parties and special occasions was the running joke on social media at the time, but according to Davy, that was kind of the point. She calls the makeup from previous seasons “experimental” and acknowledges that young people (like the ones depicted) often have more freedom to explore their interests through eccentric makeup.

“The motives for the makeup have changed,” she says. “Seasons one and two were about expressing, discovering, and experimenting with one’s identity—this season they are young adults and the motivation is to make money.”

But don’t take everyone's journey into adulthood to mean that season three will be lacking in terms of the dramatic and visually-pleasing makeup we know and love from the show. Davy has already teased via Instagram that the vibe for this upcoming batch of episodes will be just as “feral” as the plot lines themselves, adding that some scenes have called for the “glammiest glam” she’s ever done on television. Per Davy, this will be defined by “body shimmer, sparkle, and juicy lips, but the makeup is somewhat traditional and measured,” she adds, noting that her goal for the season was for the makeup to be "high contrast."

“Although it's often aligned with the cis male gaze, there’s a theatrical level to the makeup that creates a sort of exaggerated, cinematic effect that I thought would work beautifully with the epic visual aesthetic of this season,” Davy says.

In the months leading up to the season three premiere, searches for “Euphoria makeup” were already surging, but before that, makeup trends like “siren eyes,” “grunge makeup," and even “tired girl glam” took off on social media, signaling a much-yearned-for return to the maximalist, ultra glamorous trends of years past. It hasn’t gone unnoticed by Davy, and it’s something that’s been top of mind for her when designing looks for the show. “We’ve been in a clean girl makeup trend for years now and it’s soul crushing to see everyone look the same,” she says. “I’m inspired by non-conformist beauty and I’m glad shimmer and glitter is coming back. There are so many little things we can do with our makeup, hair, and how we dress that can highlight our individual points of view and inspire others to break their own molds as well.”

Now that the third season is underway, Davy is just hopeful that fans and viewers continue being receptive to its beauty aesthetic, which rejects the (mildly problematic) clean girl look altogether. "I hope everyone embraces this feral, unapologetic, anti-clean girl high glam, which is more of a full beat from head to toe," she says. "Think body shimmer, juicy lips and sparkly eyes that pop with tight-lined eyes for everyone."

Since heading the makeup department for Euphoria, Davy has released her own lineup of beauty products called Half Magic that she of course uses for the show. Read ahead to shop a few of her on-set go-to products.

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