The Makeup of Euphoria Season 3 Is Bigger, Bolder, & More Devastating Than Ever

When Euphoria premiered in June 2019, the reigning beauty aesthetic was understated, stripped-back, and centered on a “your skin but better” vibe. Makeup was devastatingly minimal and barely there — the beauty world was basically deep in its clean-girl era before the clean-girl era even had a name. Then suddenly, Euphoria showed up with iridescent glitter tears, rhinestone brows, and bold graphic liner, courtesy of makeup department head Donni Davy.

What would quickly become the show’s signature maximalism changed beauty trends overnight, sending fans scrambling for rhinestones in a gem-studded frenzy the beauty world hadn’t seen since the early aughts. Now, five years later — both on screen and off — Euphoria is back for its third and final season, and Davy is doing it all again, albeit in a register that is harder, glossier, and more emotionally loaded than the earlier seasons. “There’s big eye looks, big lip looks, full body glam, incredible nails,” she tells TZR. “It’s more glam than I’ve ever done before, ever, on anything.”

Where Season 1 gave us chaos and color and Season 2 refined the chaos into something more pointed and even introverted, this season arrives at something new entirely. “It’s not experimental glam,” says Davy. “It’s cheeky — there’s sparkle, frosty eyes, frosty lips, tight-lined eyes, gems, glitter, big wings… all the familiar ingredients that I’m known for. But the characters are all using makeup with very specific intention, reflecting what they’re going through, how they need to show up in the lives they’re currently navigating.”

Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) has always been a character who performs femininity at maximum volume, and Season 3 turns that dial up even more. Now that she’s engaged to Nate (Jacob Elordi), with her high heels firmly planted in suburban life (and at least one stiletto dipped into OnlyFans), her look pulls directly from Pamela Anderson’s early aughts aesthetic. With her frosty eyeshadow and lips, a peroxide bleached blowout, a deep tan, and press-on nails, she’s fully channeling Y2K tabloid girls as she ventures into risqué content creation. “She’s pulling all the hot girl levers,” explains Davy. Her wedding makeup alone deserves its own close read — the reception look shifts to a sparkly blue shadow, a callback to a shade Cassie has worn in the earlier season. “There’s definitely going to be a moment in Season 3 where people are going to really get their Season 1 makeup itch scratched,” says Davy.

Working for a high-powered talent agent, Maddy (Alexa Demie) is in her boss-bitch business era, though as Rue notes in a voiceover, her life “appeared more glamorous than it was.” Inspired by Sophia Loren and ’90s supermodels, her look Davy describes as “more old Hollywood.” Gone is most of the color; in its place is matte, moody, smoky drama. Dark lips, strong lip liner, very little shimmer — though she does have a standout scene, a reunion with Cassie, where she comes in wearing a fur coat. “Her look is so dramatic,” says Davy. “It’s like drag queen, mob wife, double wing [eyeliner]. It’s so theatrical and dramatic. It’s absolutely amazing.” Demie, who has worked closely with Davy on Maddy’s look since the beginning of the series (her mother is a former Mac makeup artist), was especially involved this season, which also probably explains why Maddie’s transformation feels so precise.

Aside from Maddy, another character whose makeup has become more muted is Jules (Hunter Schafer). Five years later, she’s an art-school-dropout-turned-sugar-baby, and her makeup reflects the life she’s fallen into. “Her looks are very much more for the male gaze, but also, you see that there’s not a lot of color in her life,” says Davy. “She’s dressing differently; her clothing is a lot darker — she's really in a different place,” she explains. “There’s not a lot of light and joy. She doesn’t have that whimsical kind of spirit that she had before.” For fans who fell in love with Jules’ wild experimental Season 1 looks, like the graphic liners and bursts of neon, the loss is very much intentional. “It’s not experimental and playful,” Davy says. “They’re more restricted and caged.”

Not every character is draped in full glamour. Aside from Season 1’s iconic glitter tears, Rue (Zendaya) has always been the show’s barefaced counterpoint (and with everything she gets into this season, who has time for makeup anyway?). Meanwhile, Lexi (Maude Apatow), now a writers assistant in Hollywood, still keeps her makeup subtle overall — save for a signature red lip.

Then there's the new blood. Rosalía makes her acting debut as Magick, a strip club queen with an “exaggerated chola” inspired aesthetic that is one of Davy’s all-time favorites. “It was the most fun I’ve ever had with a look on Euphoria,” she says. Magick wears deliberately darkened brows — “not a 2016 blocked brow,” as Davy explains, but her natural arches painted in with a “severe and really aggressive” black line, designed to look like she’s been doing it since she was 15. They’re paired with a high-contrast lip liner and a bedazzled neck brace, which she carries with complete IDGAF energy. “Being 100% unapologetic and her fierce, full-of-attitude vibes are very much a part of her queendom,” says Davy. There’s also Kitty, a new character played by Anna Van Patten, who gets something slightly different from the rest: a makeup arc. She starts relatively understated and accumulates over the season — more liner, more glitter, more lip gloss, and more drama.

No Euphoria beauty breakdown would be complete without the nails. “The nails were a big deal,” says Davy, who brought in nail artist Caroline Cotten to create elaborate press-ons for most of the characters. Rosalía’s are the most theatrical: 2-inch-long square talons loaded with scorpions, dollar bills, oversize gems, and hot-pink rhinestones that help define her entire look. Cassie’s are equally amped up, and Maddy, whose overall look was restrained this season, has press-ons that make a statement.

If you're now inspired to recreate the looks, Davy has you covered. Her makeup brand, Half Magic Beauty, is launching a limited-edition Euphoria Season 3 collection on April 29, available at Ulta — and it's very much designed for die-hard fans. "Every single shade name is a quote or a moment from the show," says Davy, including a new Euphoria Eyeshadow Palette and a B*tch Ur My Soulmate Extra Plush Lip Gloss. The nine-piece collection's packaging is loaded with film stills, script excerpts in courier font, and Davy's own handwritten notes from the scripts — including, apparently, her original product development ideas for this very season. "It's really meant to be like these artifacts," she says, "where you're reading part of the script and then seeing what I wrote." For the fan who has watched every episode twice and noticed every graphic liner look, it's essentially a beauty museum in a makeup bag.

Season 3 marks the end of Euphoria as we know it, and Davy has sent it off in the most glamorous way possible. But as always, beauty is never just beauty. “They’ve always worn makeup to navigate their lives, but their motives are completely different now, because their life circumstances are different,” she says. Seven years later, that’s still the show’s secret weapon — and it’s never hit harder than it does right now.