As a person with hooded eyes, you’ve probably had a fair amount of trouble creating the perfect makeup. And it’s not as if you haven’t tried. You’ve watched countless makeup tutorials, you’ve seen a lot of designs that you’ve loved – and when you tried it out, you realized that you can’t even see the eyeshadow on your eyelid.

You applied it right; just like in the tutorial. The problem, however, is that unlike the girl in the tutorial, you do not have perfect round eyes with visible eyelids. No, you have hooded eyes – making your eyelids look almost inexistent.

So, how do you get around this thing – and actually make you look like you have makeup on? Well, in order to apply some intricate designs, you need to understand the physiognomy of your face.

What Are Hooded Eyes?

People with hooded eyes have a layer of skin beneath the brow, which covers the crease – like a hood. As a result, this makes their eyelid seem much smaller. Blake Lively is an example of a person that has this type of eyes.

Hooded eye shapes are generally the most difficult to apply makeup on – mainly because it ends up not being seen. Plus, since the skin is continuously sagging over the eyelid, the makeup becomes smudged – and is never long-lasting.

In these circumstances, the best way to apply makeup is to go up the crease. Smokey eyes are generally a preferred choice since they provide a rounder look to your eyes.

How to Apply Makeup on Hooded Eyes

You’ve made peace with the fact that your eyelids will never allow you to have that cool makeup look sported by women with round or almond eyes. Still, that doesn’t mean you don’t want to feel pretty every now and again wearing makeup.

So, these tips are a must-know for every woman with hooded eyes that loves makeup:

  • Get a Good Primer

Since the eyelid and the “hood” touch continuously, it’s very easy for the makeup to smudge and smear. This is exactly why you need to invest in a good primer that will prevent the makeup from running off your eyes.

  • Go Around the Crease 

Ideally, you may want to apply the eyeshadow with your eyes open – otherwise, it might be difficult for you to find the natural crease of your eyes.

Basically, what you have to do is “cut the crease,” and make it seem like it’s smaller than it actually is. Your eyelid is already small and hidden, so you need to use makeup as an attempt to make your eyes look bigger.

  • Apply the Eyeshadow Above the Crease

Most makeup tutorials show you how you apply the eyeshadow in the natural fold of the eyelid. With hooded eyes, however, you need to go a bit higher. To make the eyeshadow more visible, you have to apply it just above the crease. This way, the color won’t “hide” when you open your eyes.

  • Use Tape 

To give your eyes that round/almond shape, you need to somehow extend the corner of your eye – and it might be difficult to do that if you are a beginner. A good way to get around that is to grab a piece of tape and then place it from the corner of your eye to your eyebrow. You can also take a handkerchief and place it from your eyebrow to the outer corner of your nose.

  • Shadow Your Lower Lash Line 

If you add shadows to the lower lash line, you’ll give the impression of a bigger, rounded eye. This way, it will no longer seem like your eyelids are floating downward.

  • Use Matte Shades 

Metallic or glittery eyeshadow will highlight your upper brow bone – which is already big enough as it is. To minimize its effect and make it seem smaller, you might want to stick to matte colors. This way, it will not reflect the light – and it won’t bring any attention to the hood.

  • Invest in Waterproof Mascara 

With your hooded eyelids, chances are high that your mascara will rub against your “hood” and brow bone. If you don’t want any smudges to happen, you might want to invest in good waterproof mascara. Also, try to get one with a lengthening effect – because long lashes are a surefire way of opening up a hooded eye.

  • Use Highlighter Properly

Many women use the highlighter in a bad fashion, based on how they see it in tutorials: applied to the top of your brow bone, your cheekbone, and your nose. It’s still good to do so – but in the case of a person with hooded eye shape, you have to be a bit more careful with the highlighter.

For example, it’s not that tragic to highlight your brow bone.  However, for someone with hooded eyes, all the attention will go straight there – on the big, droopy brow bone.

Instead, take a small dot of your highlighter and dab it at the inner corners of your eye. This way, your eyes will look more enhanced, and the attention will no longer go on your eyelids. Plus, this is a great tactic to take the attention off your eye bags – making the highlighter a must-have after a long night.

  • Don’t Be Afraid of Bold Colors

When you have hooded eyes, the problem is that your eyeshadow doesn’t really stand out – not when it’s covered by your brow skin.

So, in order to make your eyes stand out more, going for some bold colors might not actually be such a bad idea. There was a time when colors such as electric blue were no longer popular – still, they are slowly but surely starting to come back. People want more color in their lives – and you see it in every part of their body.

Their hair, their skin, even their lips – glitter and bright colors are back. And they take away the attention from the lids… that don’t really want the attention.

Ideas to “Lift” the Hooded Eye

Easier said than done; you’ve received several inspirational tips, but your eyelids still don’t seem like they want to cooperate with you.

Some of these ideas can work with most eye shapes…

…but they complement the hooded eye shape particularly well.

1) Disconnected Winged Eyeliner

Eyeliner is most likely one of the best ways to change the shape of your eyes – but with hooded eyeliner, the chances are that the line over your lid will not be visible. Plus, since the edge of the line gets stuck in the crease, your “cat eye” will be crooked and looking strange.

To fix that, you might want to draw a regular eye line – and then fill in the blanks while you are looking straight into the mirror. You might get a little angle over the crease which you can tackle two ways: leave it just like that or run it along. Bear in mind that the latter will lead to a thicker line.

For a full tutorial of the technique, you might want to check this video.

2) Upside Down Cat Eye

Sometimes, a regular winged eyeliner won’t work – particularly in the case of someone that has hooded eyes. The line will get caught in the folds of the crease, looking like it was just broken down and seeming terribly uneven.

Rather than going for the classic flick of the brush, opt for the inverted version of it – the upside down cat eye. Instead of going upward, simply go downward. If you also work some eyeshadow around the crease, then you have the perfect makeup.

Inspired by Blake Lively, this method will allow you to look fabulous with your makeup – even if your anatomy does not really agree with you.

3) The Waterline Technique

One more eye-opening technique – literally speaking – is using black eyeliner on your waterline, along with the roots of your lashes. This will basically allow you to “extend” your eyelid, while also making your lashes look much thicker – without actually taking up any space on your eyelid.

Make sure that the eyeliner pencil you use is waterproof because it will immediately smear off if it’s not. Don’t be afraid to spend a few bucks on something high-quality if at least it’s going to be effective and long-lasting.

4) Long Lash Look

No matter if you are using eyeshadow or not, long lashes will always make it seem as if you have bigger, less droopy eyes. If you have long lashes already, congratulations; all you need now is a good waterproof mascara with a volume and lengthening effect.

However, if you haven’t been blessed with long and full lashes, then you might want to seriously give fake lashes a try. They’ll be able to hide that crease over your eyelid – and will give your eyes a bigger, more mysterious look. Top the look with some matte eyeshadow, and your eyes will look gorgeous.

Make sure that your eyelashes are comfortable and not too thick. The disadvantage with hooded eyes is that your brow skin will fall over your eyes – and over your eyelashes, consequently. If the lashes are too thick, it may become rather uncomfortable for you.

5) The Floating Eyeliner

There are two problem-cases in which the eyelid can’t be seen:

  • mono-lids and hooded eyes

In these cases, whenever you want to create a line right above your lid, it ends up being covered by the skin sagging from your brow.

If you can’t beat them, join them. Instead of drawing the line where people with “regular eyes” do, draw it where your crease starts. The “floating eyeliner technique” has become pretty viral on the Internet – and people with hooded eye shapes have learned to appreciate it.

Start by adding a base eyeshadow to your eyelid. The darker the eyeshadow – or the closer it is to the color of the eyeliner – the better it will be. This way, you’ll be able to mix your eyeshadow into the floating eyeliner without ruining your cat eye look.

6) The Fake Crease

Sure, you already have a crease – but that crease is nowhere close to where it should be. It’s dropping over your eyelid, hidden, nowhere to be seen. So what do you do if your crease is not visible?

You fake it, obviously. That’s the beauty of makeup. Take a brown shade, and bring up the crease to almost under your eyebrow. Fade it in with the highlighter, and use some matte eyeshadow on your eyelids.

Be sure to blend those colors properly so that it does not look odd. This is actually contouring, only that you are working on the eyes.

7) The Crease Smokey Eye

Generally speaking, when women do their smokey eyes, they end up filling the whole eyelid. However, when dealing with a hooded eye, that will just make your eye look smaller – and simply dropped. Now that’s something you don’t want!

To make your eyes look bigger, you might want to locate the crease of your lid – and start applying the eyeshadow from there up. Start by applying a lighter shade as a base – for example, a white or a beige – and “smokey” it up on the crease. This will give the impression that the eye is much bigger than it actually is – cutting off the droopy eye effect.

Concluding Remarks

When you have hooded eyes, make-up can be a pain. You can’t apply eyeshadow because it gets smeared and gathers at the crease, you can’t do a cat eye without it looking crooked – and you can’t wear eyeshadow without looking like you are still makeup free.

You can find a way around your physique; all you need to do is learn more about your eye shape. Most of these tips focus on contouring – but the right technique will certainly open your eyes. And we mean this quite literally.