Celebrating the Beauty Legacy of Clueless 30 Years Later

When Clueless hit theaters in 1995, I was a teenage girl with a Caboodle filled with Bonne Bell Lip Smackers and dreams of having my very own Contempo Casuals credit card. I thought I was obsessed with Mona May’s costume design but was just as enamored with the makeup and hair—the beauty looks were just as iconic as the clothes. Cher (Alicia Silverstone) had the most enviable, glossy blowout, while Tai’s (Brittany Murphy) grunge-to-glam transformation spoke to me. I’m also convinced Dionne’s (Stacey Dash) signature red lips sank deep into my subconscious, causing red to be my signature shade, and don’t get me started on Amber’s (Elisa Donovan) penchant for hairstyle variety. She’s an underrated beauty legend!

As Clueless turns 30, there are plenty of ways to celebrate this beloved film. You can stay at the brand-new “Clueless Suite” at L’Ermitage Beverly Hills (which comes with a $100 Bloomingdale’s gift card, a makeup consultation with Dior Beauty, and a custom facial at Joanna Czech Studio) or shop May’s edit at The RealReal. Or you can come with me to revisit the beauty and brilliance behind the film that still inspires makeover montages to this day.

Keep reading to get the scoop on what makeup and hair products were used on our favorite Beverly Hills teen beauty icons, straight from the film's makeup artists and hairstylist.

How Clueless Perfected '90s Beauty One MAC Pencil at a Time

While the fashion world has long documented Cher’s plaid sets and Dionne’s funky hats, Clueless makeup remains the underrated star of the show. Who doesn't want Cher's soft, radiant complexion? “Her makeup was designed to just be clean and pretty,” Alan Friedman, the film’s makeup supervisor, tells Who What Wear. “Since there were only one or two times when the makeup was to communicate something, i.e., she's going to a party or out on a date, I just kept the makeup simple/the same for everything, leaving time for the hairstylists and wardrobe to do their thing.”

Indeed, Cher’s makeup was all about minimal glam. Her makeup was all about “brows, grooming, concealer, and mascara, good skin. That fresh, young [look],” Geri Oppenheim, assistant makeup artist, tells Who What Wear. As for product, there’s definitely one thing we know: The girls of Bronson Alcott High School really loved their MAC. Friedman used MAC Malt lipstick and Raizin lip liner for some of Cher’s scenes. Though, you won’t be able to copy the look exactly, since they’ve long been discontinued.

Oppenheim also confirmed what I always suspected but could never prove: They used the iconic MAC Spice lip liner in the film, on both Cher and Tai! “For Brittany, I’d sometimes just fill her whole mouth in with Spice and then throw Chapstick over it,” she says. "I still do it on people nowadays, when you want something to look natural, but with a little moisture.” It’s that '90s holy-grail combo—Spice and shine. The good news is MAC released Cool Spice, which is closer to the original, cool-toned Spice liner.

Oppenheim also shared that Murphy “washed all her makeup off during lunch” on her first day because she didn’t know she wasn’t supposed to. “I was like, what happened?” she laughs.

For Dionne’s red lip, Oppenheim remembers using MAC Chili. “That was really popular back in the '90s,” she says. She also remembers Dash being apprehensive about the makeup at first, but Oppenheim, who had worked on several Black sitcoms, like The Parkers and Moesha, and the Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It, was prepared. “I used a lot of Iman’s makeup on Stacey. … She was thrilled when I took it out of my kit. I also used Naomi Sims,” she says. Pre-Fenty, these brands were essential in an era when most makeup lines didn’t cater to deeper skin tones.

Although the hottest MAC lip colors of the time made their way into the film, Friedman wasn’t chasing trends. He was more focused on creating makeup that felt timeless. Still, the film became a generational beauty staple, as he learned years later when he was had a destination wedding makeup business. “In way too many cases, the night before I arrived to get the bride and the ladies of the wedding party together for the big day, everyone had watched their prized/cherished DVD of Clueless! Some sort of rite of passage I guess,” he shares.

How the Hair in Clueless Became a '90s Beauty Blueprint

There’s no overstatement in calling Cher’s hair one of the most recognizable blowouts in cinematic history. It was sleek, soft, and had that effortless toss one could only find in that very specific pre–flat iron era of the '90s. “I knew I wanted Alicia’s hair to look like spun gold,” Nina Paskowitz, the lead hairstylist, tells Who What Wear. As “Miss Natural Nina,” she used organic, vegan, and eco-friendly products, turning to plant oils, serums, and even skincare products to keep Silverstone’s hair looking soft and shiny. “Keep in mind, this was 30 years ago—there weren’t nearly as many hair products available, so I was using things out of the kitchen, like avocado oil,” she explains. (These days, Paskowitz's faves include Jillian Dempsey Roomie Hair Pomade and Love and Snow Restorative Hair and Scalp Serum.)

“I wanted her to feel like the girl next door but elevated and ethereal with a sense of sass and finesse, approachable but mysterious, and playful and funny,” says Paskowitz. The result was a soft, natural blowout that “always had a little bevel of a bend at the bottom.” That signature Cher hair had a natural part that was so versatile it was almost mythical. (Seriously, she could flip it around, add volume, and sport a center part with almost no effort!) Cher’s hair worn down was Plan A, and from there, Nina would have options at the ready since sometimes a look wouldn’t be finalized until moments before a take. “We had hundreds of Ziploc bags filled with hair ornaments,” she laughs.

The Cute Connection Between Clueless and She's the Man

One of those hair ornaments has its own Hollywood legacy. In the scene where Cher goes to the club, she’s wearing a rhinestone barrette that she later sticks onto her dress. “There's a moment where she's dancing and wants to be a little bit more flirty and playful and not so perfect, so I said to [Silverstone], ‘What if you just stick it on your dress?’ And she was like, ‘Oh, I love that,’” recalls Paskowitz.

Years later, when she worked on 2006’s She’s the Man, she lent the same barrette to Amanda Bynes: “When we were getting ready to do the final scene, I had that hairpin and I knew she loved Clueless, so I said, ‘Do you want to wear it in the scene?’ And she's like, 'Oh my god, can I?’ And she did the same thing and put it on her top. It was really sweet.”

For Tai's makeover scene, when Cher and Dionne dye her hair a maroon-red shade, Paskowitz kept a case of spray-on color on hand. “Someone else may have put a wig on her just to save time, but I wanted it to feel very authentic that this would be something she would have done herself,” she explains. “Girls that age, at that time, wouldn't have necessarily gotten their hair colored; they would have used some fun spray color that rinsed out.” Murphy also had naturally curly hair, so depending on the scene, they’d air-dry and diffuse it or add more ringlets with a curling iron.

As for the teen queen of camp, Amber’s sculptural, ultra-styled looks weren’t just costume-driven; they were instinctive creations in the moment. “I looked right at Elisa and said, ‘Are you open to us doing some interesting fringe bangs?’” Paskowitz recalls. “It wasn’t something I discussed with Amy [Heckerling] ahead of time. I just saw her, and it all made sense, especially after seeing her clothes.” The perfectly rounded-under bob she wears underneath the red sailor hat was all Donovan’s real hair—not a wig!

For the more theatrical moments, like the iconic Pippi Longstocking pigtails, Paskowitz credits her team member Yvonne Depatis-Kupka, who specialized in dramatic, high-impact styling, to execute that memorable look. "My attitude is that hair supports whatever the actor is doing to create their character. That was a lot of fun," says Paskowitz.

From Cher’s silky blowouts to Dionne’s red lips and Amber’s sculptural hair statements, Clueless made being a total Betty a lifestyle. It's unsurprising why 30 years later, its influence still lives rent-free on our mood boards and in our makeup bags.

Celebrate 30 Years of Clueless and Shop These Beauty Products