After its unprecedented success in 2019, HBO Max began streaming the second season of the award-winning show “Euphoria” on Jan. 9. Based on the lives of students at Euphoria High, also known as East Highland High School, Euphoria gained storm in its highly controversial spotlight on the perils of drug addiction and the more reckless aspects of adulthood. 

On a near equal level of popularity, Season One’s iconic makeup and wardrobe have set off trends of various sorts, one, in particular, being the #Euphoriamakeup on social media platform TikTok. Beyond social media, this whimsical makeup style won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Contemporary Makeup in 2020.

Known for her utilization of glitters and colorful, abstract eyeliner in Season One, Euphoria makeup designer Doniella Davy spoke with Allure magazine in 2020 on the inspiration behind the characters’ rhinestone-adorned faces. “Sam [the writer of Euphoria] wanted the makeup to be its own full expression of what was going on with the characters. If they’re experiencing different emotions and circumstances in all these scenes, then the makeup had to be different,” Davy said. 

This thought process has clearly been reflected in recent Season Two’s execution of the characters’ makeup looks in accordance with the new storyline. As the plot matures and the youthful excitement of Season One fades into a more sinister theme, in accordance, playful pastel liners assimilate to neutrals. “Season Two is like Season One’s more introverted sister,” Davy said. 

Cassie Howard, played by Sydney Sweeney, is a prime example of the merge with her delicate rhinestone eye look in episode one of Season 2. In a recent Instagram post on Davy’s page, Cassie’s photographs depict her rhinestone liner, bare skin, and flushed cheeks, an indication of her intoxication and stylistically vulnerable persona. “As the night goes on, her anxiety-terrified-totally-freaked-out eyes are framed by this delicate, like innocent, twinkle,” Davy said.

Perhaps the most significant makeup and wardrobe moment of the season starts in episode three: “Ruminations: Big and Little Bullys.” This episode highlights Cassie’s internal thought processes and anxieties through her rapid switches between her own style, Jules’ style, and then Maddy’s. Her switching between Maddy’s trademark bold eyeliner and Jules’ dreamy hot-pink eyeshadow are clear indications of her feelings of inferiority to Nate in comparison to the two girls.

Episode Six: “A Thousand Little Trees of Blood,” highlights Cassie’s coping mechanisms and ongoing struggles through the use of a strategic clay face mask. Tear tracks down the clay scream the despair Cassie is feeling, and the use of a face mask implies not only Cassie’s obsessive reliance on her physical beauty to get herself through turmoil but also her refusal to ‘let herself go’; her abidance to beauty standards are ever-present, representing the insecurity she feels in her physical appearance. In turn, Cassie’s attribution of physical beauty to her self-worth is evident.

Euphoria’s glamor is essential to the show; so essential, in fact, that the lack of makeup on a character is out of the ordinary and extremely noticeable. Euphoria’s makeup team has utilized this in both seasons, leaving Maddy bare-faced for the first time in the entire season when she is faced with Nate’s abuse accusations. This out-of-ordinary look’s purpose serves to emphasize the degree to which the vulnerable, broken-down state Maddy is facing.