"Sex Education" Season 4 Celebrates Queerness Through the Hair and Makeup

Throughout the show, Eric has been experimenting with his look as he explores his relationship with himself and his church, but that intensifies almost immediately in season four. "We wanted Eric to look like he was wearing makeup when he got to the new school, but it was still slightly more reserved," Bilverstone says. "He knew that he wanted to carry on wearing it, but he didn't necessarily know how the new students would be."

He barely gets a moment to park his bike before realising Cavendish is a whole different ball game. "There's just queerness everywhere," Bilverstone says. It's represented in the colour palette of the school with its stained-glass window and in the students' clothing. As soon as he gets home that day, you see him at his vanity playing with new products. "He's like, 'OK, I know what the school is like now, I know what I am going to wear tomorrow.'"

A particularly memorable moment occurs in episode 6 when Eric uses beauty to celebrate his queerness – and not just with products, but with packaging. He pulls out that viral penis-shaped lipstick by Isamaya as he takes a step further to becoming his authentic self. While the chapstick, or dickstick as is more apt, might have been a social media favourite when it was released in March, Eric yet again proves that it's more than a cheeky product, it's a powerful symbol of self-acceptance.

The beauty inspiration for Eric has always been Grace Jones, and Bilverstone was set on "finding a modern-day version of that." The new setting just opened the door for his character to completely transform.

Eric's experimentation is not just limited to his clothes and makeup. He plays with his hair colour a few times throughout the season, debuting purple hair in a dream sequence and green hair to go to a queer party with his new friends, but Bilverstone initially wanted him to try something completely different.

"I imagined seeing Eric with bleach-blonde hair," she says. "But it didn't really work in terms of his relationship with the church — he was still hiding that part of his identity from them, so he needed something he could quickly take off before he went to his baptism classes." Bilverstone ended up using the Mofajang Unisex Hair Wax Colour (£9) to make the colour change only temporary.

Roman is a member of the popular kids at Cavendish, and his hair, makeup, and nails reflect this status. Throughout season four, they're continuously playing with glitter, graphic eyeliner, and fun nail art. "Felix was already wearing nails when we met," Bilverstone says. "He brought that part of himself to the character of Roman."

But realistically, Bilverstone's team couldn't produce an entirely different manicure every time they shot a new scene, so they needed a workaround. They ended up having five different sets created by social-media-famous manicurist Fuego Nails so they could pop the tips on and off as needed.

Another element of himself that Felix brought to the character is his tattoos. "All of the tattoos that you see on Felix are his own," Bilverstone says. The only design they changed is the "2001" written across their chest in big numbers, signifying their birthdate. "We couldn't keep that, because Felix is playing someone younger." They brainstormed ways to transform the numbers into a different year that would make more sense before Felix was hit with an idea. "He was just like, 'Why don't we make it say Abbi? And it was the most obvious thing."

While Cavendish College is a haven for some characters, it leaves others struggling to find their footing, like Otis and Ruby. "From the beginning, she's very much the Ruby that we saw in season three," Bilverstone says.

Her wardrobe, hair, and makeup stay relatively the same, except for the one scene where she desperately tries to fit in with the cool kids by donning an LGBTQ+ pin and rainbow colours, right down to her eyeshadow. "The first time you see her trying to experiment a little bit more is for a very selfish reason," she says. "She thinks if she wears this colourful eyeshadow, she might fit in a bit more, but it's all completely coming from the wrong place."

There were a few key products used again and again on set, and we even get to see some of the characters using them on screen. Most iconically is Eric's blue lip gloss, which is the Glisten Cosmetics Ocean Glis Gloss Lipgloss (£12). He frequently can be seen with a metallic gold pigment in the inner corners of his eyes, which was created using the Lisa Eldridge Liquid Lurex Eyeshadow in Lauren (£19).

The entire cast also wore a lot of Glisten Cosmetics Wet Liners (£44 for set of 7) in bright, fun hues. "Whenever you saw any really sparkly eyeshadow, a lot of that would've been Karla Cosmetics Loose Eyeshadow (£21)," Bilverstone says. "I wanted to use products that I thought teenagers would be using."