— BEAUTY
— EYES
Great Makeup Tips And Techniques For Hooded Eye Shape
With the right makeup and mindset, hooded eyes can become your best facial feature. If you feel frustrated trying to make your eyes pop with makeup, only to be undermined by constant smudging and creasing, don’t be. You may just need to tweak your technique.
Read on for easy tips and strategies that’ll change your eye makeup game for good.
What Are Hooded Eyes?
Hooded eyes are characterized by excess skin that seemingly “droops” over the eyelid down to the lash line. Also referred to as hooded eyelids, the extra skin fold coming down from the brow bone can often make the mobile eyelid (and generally, the entire eye area) appear smaller.1
Do I Have Hooded Eyes?
Not sure if you have a hooded eye shape? Here’s a quick way to figure it out.
- Look at yourself in the mirror (or at a recent selfie) without any eye makeup on. Can you see the crease in your eyes? If it’s immediately visible, you don’t have hooded eyelids.
- Draw an imaginary line across your eyes and check the outer corner — if it doesn’t turn up or down visibly, it’s more likely you have hooded lids.
- No visible downturn or upturn at the corner plus no visible crease means you likely have hooded eyes.2
Hooded Eyes And Makeup
The extra skin fold can make it tough to apply makeup on your upper eyelid. Makeup tricks that make upturned eyes or downturned eyes look bigger may or may not work for you. And the excess skin from hooded eye shapes may lead to eye makeup smudging or creasing — preventing you from pulling off the makeup look you were hoping for.3
But having hooded eyelids doesn’t mean you’re limited when it comes to gorgeous eye makeup looks. Celebrities like Emma Stone, Blake Lively, and Nicole Kidman are known for having hooded eyelids. This hasn’t stopped them from rocking several beautiful eye makeup looks and looking bright-eyed and youthful at red carpet events.
You don’t need a pro makeup artist to do your eye makeup every time — with just the right makeup tips and best practices specifically suited to hooded eyes, you’ll be able to show off smudge-free and crease-proof makeup that really opens up your eyes in no time.
A Definitive Eye Makeup Guide For Hooded Eyelids
No need to trawl YouTube endlessly for tutorials — here’s everything you need to know about making your eye shape shine. Practice makes perfect, so make sure you try applying these techniques a few times to perfect your look.
From the right tools and makeup products to a careful application technique, here’s how you can open up hooded eyes and make them pop.
Invest In A Good Eyeshadow Primer
Eyeshadow primer isn’t just for oily lids, it’s perfect for helping makeup stay on hooded eyes. If you’re often discouraged by how eyeshadow and liner seems to just slide off your hooded lids and smudge everywhere, a good primer may help.4
Also, make sure you use a proper primer. Don’t just layer on more setting powder, concealer, or foundation — this can cake and make your creasing situation even worse.
Tightline Eyes Well
Tightlining refers to the technique of bringing your eyeliner as close to the lash line as possible, filling in between the gaps of the lash hairs. By keeping your eyeliner in this area (and not on top of your lids), you’re helping give the impression of larger eyes.5 This is a handy trick if you want to perfect winged liner — make sure you keep it tight on the lash line.
Stick To Matte Neutrals For Eyeshadow
When attempting a subtle smokey eye, stick to neutral matte shades to make it a little more foolproof. Since transferring and smudging can be an issue with hooded eyes, using warm browns, beiges, and grays to open up your eyes might be a little more forgiving.6
Give The Illusion of Wider Eyes
Even if you’re using mattes for your eyeshadow, it doesn’t mean you have to skip the shimmer entirely. It simply matters where you place it. A little dab of highlighter or gloss on the inner corner of the eye and on the lower lashline can help give the impression of bigger, brighter eyes.7
Apply Shadow With Eyes Open
You may be used to shading your eyes with makeup while they’re closed (so you can see the whole lid). But for hooded eyes, you might find that you can barely see what you’ve applied once you open your eyes. The trick is to keep your eyes open as you gently shade and create shadow around your natural eye socket — you can peer into the mirror as you would when applying mascara.8
Opt For Waterproof Makeup
When choosing eyeliner and mascara, choose budge-proof, waterproof formulas that can help limit transferring. Mascara is especially essential, as you want to maximize and fluff up curled, natural lashes to help open up your eyes for a feminine, youthful look.9
Keep Your Brow And Concealer Game Strong
A well-defined, well-groomed set of eyebrows can really compliment your striking eyes. Also, thicker brows may help give you a more youthful appearance.10
Don’t Be Limited By Hooded Lids
There’s absolutely no reason for you to feel held back by hooded eyes. Addressing the smudging and making sure you open up and brighten the entire eye area can help transform your eye makeup technique. Try these tips and tricks, and soon you’ll be moving on to more daring and experimental eye makeup looks.
Sources
1 https://www.beautylish.com/a/vcacj/whats-your-eye-shape
2 https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrissymahlmeister/hooded-eye-makeup
3 https://www.marieclaire.com.au/hooded-eyes
4 https://www.marieclaire.com.au/hooded-eyes
5 https://www.beautylish.com/a/vcacj/whats-your-eye-shape
6 https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrissymahlmeister/hooded-eye-makeup
7 https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/fashion-beauty/make-up-advice/a560824/hooded-eye-makeup-tips-tricks/
8 https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/fashion-beauty/make-up-advice/a560824/hooded-eye-makeup-tips-tricks/
9 https://www.getthegloss.com/article/the-makeup-maniac-makeup-tricks-for-hooded-eyes
10 https://www.getthegloss.com/article/the-makeup-maniac-makeup-tricks-for-hooded-eyes
