In the genius world of Mike White’s The White Lotus, every little detail serves a purpose. Just look at Jaclyn’s Erewhon bag, Rick’s stint at the snake farm, or the ubiquitous monkeys that pop up in every episode. Fans of the hit Max show have even taken to social media to theorize about season 3’s hidden symbolism, in addition to how the show might end.
Episode 5, which premiered on March 16, was no exception. When Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood)—who is consumed with worry over her boyfriend, Rick—finally lets a little loose at the full moon party, her Euphoria-style sparkly eye makeup hints at her state of mind. As she rages into the wee early morning hours alongside Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), and Lochlan (Sam Nivola), Chelsea dons a glitter-coated eye look to match her alien graphic T-shirt.
Courtesy of HBO
“I wanted Chelsea’s makeup to feel really girly and fun!” the show’s makeup artist, Rebecca “Bex” Hickey, tells InStyle. “I imagined Chloe and Chelsea in the bathroom putting on makeup like a couple of teenagers!”
Because Chelsea spends the first few days of her vacation cooped up with her complicated, anti-social 50-year-old boyfriend (played by Walton Goggins), Hickey wanted her makeup to feel more youthful during this big night out with the younger crew. “I wanted it to feel childlike, perhaps a nod to Chelsea being around some younger people her own age,” Hickey explains, adding that her glam most likely would have looked a little different if Rick had been there.
Hickey also blessed fans with some tips and tricks to achieve White Lotus party-girl glam with an Instagram tutorial. She explained that on the day of shooting, they only had about 15 minutes to switch up her makeup, which means this sparkly eye shadow is to master in real life.
“You only need a couple of products to recreate this,” she said in the video.
Courtesy of HBO
Hickey tells InStyle that she used the “pink and the purple eyeshadow from the Viseart Brights Palette and did a wash over the lid.” Next, she added “a few light coats of the Lemonhead Glitter Pro Artist Palette in Violet Hour to create an opaque glitter look.” Finally, she topped her lashes with MAKE Beauty Mascara.
“Voila!” she says. “Easy and wearable.”
Chelsea’s glitzy beauty look, while statement-making, wasn’t the only big conversation starter of the episode. True to White Lotus form, the evening ends in debauchery after the yachtgoers take an unnamed party pill. Chelsea and Chloe share a smooch before the latter pushes the brothers to exchange an incestuous kiss. After one peck, Lochlan goes back in for more, catching Saxon off guard. In an interview with Vulture, Le Bon revealed that the scene was a difficult one to film for Schwarzenegger.
Courtesy of HBO
“Well, obviously, they’re not brothers by blood, so that made it easier,” she told the outlet. “For Sam, he was kind of like, it’s whatever, let’s just do it well one time and it will be over. You know? Because if you don’t do it well the first time, then you have to do it over and over again.”
“Patrick’s reaction in the episode is his genuine reaction,” she added. “We all thought he was going to throw up. And Sam was like, ‘It’s fine, it’s just a kiss, calm down!'”