Jan 24, 2021
I Want to Glitter like the Characters in Euphoria
Glitter doesn’t discriminate
Who’s seen HBO’s Euphoria? If you haven’t seen it, a short summary about the show focuses on a group of high school teens going through their experiences of sex, drugs, addiction, identity, relationships, love, and trauma. The show captures life experiences that any family member can relate to. Aside from the intense and deep plot line, Euphoria has captured audience’s attention by their artistry through makeup and lighting. Giving the show a “Euphoric” look that is pleasing to the naked eye.
While watching the show I realized how in love I was with the the makeup design of the characters and how the show captured the creativity of today’s youth. There was a period where I went down a Euphoria rabbit hole where I discovered the ‘Euphoria Challenge’ on TikTok. The challenge consisted of the video starting with a bare face then transitioning in sync to the music over to a makeup look inspired by Euphoria.
Watching so many artists do this trend really got me wanting to find out what products these makeup artists used to create the looks from Euphoria. I then looked at Euphoria’s head makeup designer and discovered Doniella Davy. When Davy first got the job as head makeup designer for Euphoria, the creator and director for the show Sam Levinson gave Davy complete freedom when designing the looks for the characters. Davy wanted to capture what teens would want to look like in today’s society but also had the big challenge of wanting the makeup to relate to what the characters were going through emotionally with the colors, textures, shapes, and placement. Watching this interview made me realize how powerful makeup can be. Luckily, when I went to Davy’s Instagram page she posted a lot of her looks from Euphoria. She also provided descriptions of how she designed the makeup and what products she used.
I finally discovered the majority of the products that Davy used for her iconic glitter looks are from a company called Lemonhead.la. Lemonhead is a cruelty free and vegan makeup company based in Los Angelas, CA. Best known for their handcrafted glitter for adults, Lemonhead has created formulas that really shine. I really admired Lemonhead’s emphasis on their products being age and gender neutral. The wonderful thing about Lemonhead is they also list their products that were used in Euphoria. That way fans can get the exact look directly. They even provide a glitter set that provides all the glitter that was featured in Euphoria and also some additional glitter inspired by the show. If you are unsure or thinking that’s too much glitter they also provide a duet set where you can pick a highlight and a spacepaste. I was not too keen on buying the whole Euphoria set simply because I did not like some of the colors that were in the set. I instead purchased two duet sets consisting of Houdini (upper left) and Phantom (upper right) for the highlights and Groupie (lower left) and Private School (lower right) for my spacepaste.
I was shocked to see how brightly pigmented all the products were when they arrived. Because I have a yellow-red undertone to my skin I was worried the products wouldn’t be as bright as I would like them to be on me. I realized with these products they work with any skin tone and shine through regardless. I was eager to try them out and see how long they would last throughout the day. I decided to wear Houdini first since its one of their most popular products and was also used in Euphoria. I wanted to put this product to the ultimate test. I decided to wear it on a hot summer day in Florida while going to a theme park. To my surprise this product stayed on the entire day without reapplying and it stayed in place the whole time. That being said when I got home I was dreading to take off my makeup because in my past experiences I would need an iron sponge to get all the glitter off. This product came off with just a makeup wipe and a simple face wash. So overall Lemonhead exceeded my expectations. What’s nice about this product too is a little goes a long way. I’ve had my glitter since October of last year and it still looks like I haven’t made a dent.
Davy inspired me to remember no matter what age, race, gender, makeup skills etc., wanting to self express has no limits. So go ahead wear glitter. Wear neon eye shadow. Put rhinestones on your face. There are no rules to being your most authentic self.
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