Bigger More Expressive Eyes

[Sally Stone]

I am a makeup technique junkie, so I am always trying new techniques to enhance my makeup ability.  I'm pretty good overall, but making my hooded eyes look bigger and more expressive has always alluded me, even after watching hundreds of tips and tricks videos for hooded eyes.  Not finding a technique that seemed to work, I took it upon myself to come up with my own technique.  After lots of trial and error and a bit of of an epiphany, I realized that the key was to place eye makeup on the parts of the eye where it can actually be seen.

 

I plan to do my own tutorial with pictures in the near future and I'll post it here, but basically, I put a dark shade of shadow in my eye crease and then a brighter shade outside the crease out past the outside corner of my eye.  This results in eye shadow that doesn't disappear when we girls with hooded or deep set eyes open our eyes.  All those hooded eye tutorials kept recommending eye shadow in areas where it won't be seen after opening your eyes.  Think about it, we usually close our eyes to apply shadow, but we certainly don't walk around afterwards with our eyes closed, so keeping the makeup on areas where it will be seen with eyes open makes more sense.  With the right shade choices this technique really makes the eyes pop.

[Drayse]

I have hooded eyes so I'd be interested in seeing this technique. I'm curious though, wouldn't lighter colour at the outer corners of the eye make the eye look smaller as it would appear to draw that end of the eye in towards the center of the face?

[Heather Shay]

I'm a mess at trying to do make-up I do have hooded eyes and about all I do correctly now is eyebrows. Any techniques to enhance my eyes would be appreciated and light enhancing lip gloss suggestions.

[Sally Stone]

Dayse,

 

I think the shade is dependent upon a lot of factors, so experimentation is the key.  I think the key to making the eye look bigger is to keep lighter shades adjacent to the crease color and depending on the particular shape of your eye will determine how far out at the corner you go with the brighter shade.  Another factor is to avoid darker shades on the lid itself. 

 

Again, tutorials are a good starting point, but the thing about makeup application techniques is that they are specific to the individual, so you have to find something that woks for your unique issues.

[Red_Lauren.]

I work with a hmong Asian ladies. They normally don't have the slanted eyes. They  typically have a larger brow bone, so they have hooded eyes. On top of having smaller eye lids. They put on eye liner only on the top, and their eyes really open up. 

 

I know when I was playing around with makeup. I learned that very quickly my self. That liner on the top alone with shadow. Really opend my eyes, and made them seem really sexy. 

[MelanieTamara]

I have hooded eyes. I hate them. I literally have to apply eyelashes first, before eye makeup. If I had any skill whatsoever, I would cut them in pieces and apply them one by one. But I have no patience. The solution appears to be 25G for the browbone shave and lid lift. Yikes.