HBO’s new show, Euphoria, starring Zendaya, has become increasingly popular. The show follows the lives of a group of eclectic students, one of them a recovering drug addict fresh out of rehab, one transgendered girl, another girl exploring her sexuality and experimenting in the sugar daddy world. Those are just a few of the characters, but just from those few it is clear that this show is different than the typical high school drama series.
One of the most recognisable aspects of show would be the bold pictorial makeup looks that Daniella Davy, the show’s head makeup artist designed. Many of the looks use bright and bold colors, with sharp geometric eyeliner shapes. One of the characters, Jules, was known for bright multicolor looks, whereas another character, Maddy, was known for bold colors but even more for her gems. Many of her looks involved faux pearls splashed across her eyelid or along her eyebrow. While these looks are unique and beautiful, they are not necessarily practical for everyday wear. So naturally, I wore these looks for everyday wear for five days. This is how it went:
Day One:
I decided that I would full send and pick one of the boldest looks for the first day. I chose one of Jules’ looks that features yellow eyeshadow covering the entire eyelid up to the brow bone, with an arch of white eyeliner across the lid and a small baby blue dot just under the eye. I had a class in the morning, so I woke up extra early just so I would have time to accomplish the look. Even waking up early, I was running late as the white eyeliner didn’t really cooperate with me. I first used the shade “Bee” from the Morphe x James Charles eyeshadow palette for the yellow eyeshadow covering the eyelid. For the white streak, I used the SUVA Beauty Hydra Liner in the shade “Space Panda” and this took a lot of trial and error. For the blue dot, I didn’t have blue eyeliner so I ended up mixing some of the shade “Playground” from the same James Charles palette with the same white SUVA beauty eyeliner to make a baby blue liner.
Now once the look was finally done, I was running late for class. Being the first day and being that the look was so bold, I ended up feeling self-conscious and throwing on a pair of sunglasses before hopping on my pink Razor scooter and going to class. When I stumbled into class a minute before it was supposed to start, I sat in my usual seat and my friend looked me up and down — still wearing my sunglasses indoors — and asked if I was hungover. I simply responded by taking off the sunglasses and her response to seeing the makeup was to immediately start laughing.
Nobody said anything in my next class, not even my professor when I went to speak to him at the end of class. He seemed completely unfazed and I had completely forgotten that I even had the makeup on, so I felt somewhat embarrassed when I realized that I had gone to talk to him looking like that.
Throughout the day I got a few compliments from strangers and many stares. A guy who lives on my floor said, “Uhh… why do you look like an alien?” There was a music festival the day before, so some people asked if I just had makeup still on from the day before. But as the day went on, my confidence grew. This may be a bit narcissistic, but the way that people stared and turned their heads made me feel empowered. I felt more ready for the next day.
Day Two:
On the second day, I didn’t have much going on since my class got canceled. I only had a two-hour lab so I chose something somewhat bold but still easy to do. I chose another Jules look, but this time with a red eyeliner along the bottom corner of the waterline and pink glitter on the eyelid. I used the SUVA Beauty Hydra Liner in the shade “Cherry Bomb” for the red eyeliner and used the Ulta Beauty Face & Body Glitter in the shade “Bronze” for the pink glitter. The red eyeliner was somewhat difficult as it kept moving and transferring lower on my waterline than I wanted. I didn’t like this look as much as the previous day but went still wore it to class.
One of my classmates who had also seen me the day before commented that they didn’t like this look very much and they liked the previous day’s look more. After class, I went to my room and studied so this look didn’t get much exposure. That night I had a work meeting at a somewhat fancier restaurant and ended up cheating. I took off the makeup and redid my face with my usual everyday makeup
Since I cheated I felt bad, but I didn’t like this look very much and it didn’t look as good as I was hoping. I went to bed hoping the next day would be better.
Day Three:
I picked something subtle for today, and of course, it was another Jules look. This look had soft blue eyeshadow in the crease connecting the brow and the arch of nose, and a small white triangle under the arch of the eyebrow. This was definitely the easiest look to do and I liked that it was subtle but still somewhat bold. I didn’t get many reactions or stares, though a couple of friends asked why I had triangles on my eyes.
Since the look was lowkey, there isn’t much to report, but I liked this look a lot and felt confident going about my day.
Day Four:
For the fourth day, I chose what is probably one of the most iconic Jules looks. Her cloud look uses white eyeliner to create bubble-like clouds around each eye. I used the SUVA Beauty Hydra Liner in “Space Panda” again and doing the eyeliner ended up being less difficult than I expected. I went to class as usual and a lot of people stared, but I also got quite a few positive comments. After class, I had an interview for an internship and since it was a very lowkey interview, I decided to leave the makeup and do the interview with it. He asked about the makeup and when I explained that it was for an article he said that he just figured I was feeling “festive” that morning. I was offered the internship so the look didn’t seem to scare him off.
I kept going about my day and I ended up really liking the look and feeling very confident. It was bold but at the same time very subdued and pretty. I got dinner with a group of friends that night and being that they were all guys I assumed they would just say that it looked “weird” or like an “alien,” which is how they had responded for the previous days, but they said it looked “cool,” which was a big compliment coming from them.
Day Five:
For the last day, I wanted to pick something bold, so I picked what is probably the most recognizable look from the show, which is Rue’s glitter tears. While Rue typically went bare-faced in the show, in this scene she was on a drug trip and appeared with glitter tears running down her cheeks. In order to achieve this look, I used the same Ulta glitter from day two and mixed the loose glitter with water in order to get it into a consistency that I could apply with a brush. It was pretty easy to apply, though getting the desired teardrop shape was somewhat difficult.
I had a three-hour-long lab and another hour of the lab right after, so I would see plenty of people throughout the day. Immediately upon walking into my first lab, a girl in the back saw me and audibly gasped and said, “Woah.” This caused everybody to turn and look and another girl pointed at my face and said, “I like your… that.” The reactions were mostly positive, but as usual, there were lots of stares.
At one point in the day I was told that I looked like a “crackhead drug dealer, but hot.” One of the boys liked it so much that I even did it on him, although he washed it off before actually going out.
Overall Experience:
I started off the week extremely self-conscious, but as the week went on I started to really love the looks. The makeup looks were unique and different and while I typically don’t like to stand out I somewhat like the attention it got me. While that may sound bad, it just felt empowering to stand out and not care what others thought. At the beginning of the week, all the stares made me embarrassed to be in public, but towards the end of the week, I was really starting to feel myself in the makeup looks and stopped caring that others were staring and judging me. I honestly think that everyone should try this, or at least something like it — stepping out of my comfort zone has made me more confident in myself and more willing to try newer and bolder things.