Here’s a quick tip for my ladies with hooded eyelids, because mine are getting more and more hooded every day! Here’s what you can do to make your eyes and your lid real estate look a little larger.
You’ll need two things…
- A slightly shiny liner in a shade lighter than your natural skin tone. Mind you, it doesn’t have to be sequinned diva-caliber glittery. An essence of pearl is ideal, and apply this along your upper lash line.
- A darker liner with which to tightline, and a dark brown or inky black will work, but you could go with a dark purple or navy, too. Tightline your upper waterline with it, and really try to get in between the roots of your lashes.
With these two liners working together, the darker one will make it look like you’re wearing dark liner on your upper lash line (it also has the added bonus of making your lash base appear thicker, which is always a plus), and will also make that area look further away in 3D space, i.e. more recessed, while the shimmery lighter liner will catch light along your upper lash line and make it look more pronounced, completing the overall illusion of making your lid space appear larger than it is.
I’ve been doing this a lot lately with dark brown MAC Coffee and light, shimmery bronze Urban Decay Scorch, a combo that works well with my NC42 skin, and I think it makes my eyes look much less hooded than they do when I wear a straight-up black or brown liner on the upper lash line alone.
If you have a lighter skin tone, try a very light, shimmery peach like ESUM Dual Eye Pencil in Rose and Aubergine, and use the shimmery peach on your upper lash line and the dark purple to tightline.
Urban Decay has a bunch of colors that work for this technique, including a super pretty light, shimmery pink called Heartless, and a light silver called UD Cuff. A white like UD Yeyo would also work, but with Yeyo, I would definitely smudge out the edges to make it look a little softer.
UD Goldmine would also be great! Any of these colors would be good options to use for this trick.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. TGIF!!! ?
Do you have a photo to show this technique? I’m interested in trying, but need a visual!
Me too!
Thanks for the feedback. I just added a pic!
Thanks for adding them, it really helps! So you’re tightlining your upper lash line and using a light liner where we’d usually line? It totally makes a difference!
Here’s a variation that was a game-changer for me: when tight-lining, stop a couple of millimeters from the outside corner. Gives a big lift to the area, and makes me believe I look like Elizabeth Taylor. (I don’t, of course, but believing it is fun.)
Yep, we need to see it; that was the title of the post!
L
❤️
Just added a pic to the post!
I’ll have to try this!
I have several friends w hooded eye lids . Going to pass this hack along .
Gurrl! I’ve lurked on your blog for more years than I can count. I’m so excited by this post! Could you recommend a lighter shade/upper liner for my NC35 skin??!! I’m so excited to try this out! I have MAC Teddy that I plan to try to waterline. Also, can you give me a tip to get the tightline to stay put. Mine always goes away within hours, which is why I generally don’t use it. But I’m sooo looking forward to seeing your results on my 55 y/o hooded eyes! Thanks for staying strong all these years! You ROCK!
I second this hack! I’ve been doing this with my hooded eyes for a while now and I am hooked. I can’t go back to black eyeliner now lol. My eyelids are a little darker so I use MAC teddy but I absolutely love the effect!
Hi Sharon,
MAC Teddy is a classic color, and one of my faves, too! 🙂
This just made my day! I have a light liner in my kit and never knew what to do with it. Thank you!!!
Oh, that is interesting. My lids are not (yet) hooded, but I notice them growing smaller in space.
Thanks for the pic comparisons! I do this with shimmery eyeshadows, and it produces the same effect. I didn’t realize how big of a difference it makes until I saw your pics.
You’re welcome! 🙂 Happy New Year!