What's your eye shape?

We've talked about the different face shapes there are and the makeup tricks you can use, to bring out the best in them. Knowing your eye shape is just as important, especially if you like doing loud eye looks and bringing focus to your eyes. So keep reading, to find out, what the different shapes are and everything else you should know about them.

You could have a combination of two or three shapes (more on that below) and small or big eyes with any of the following shapes.
To open up small eyes, use a white or nude coal eyeliner on your lower waterline. If you want to use black liner, apply it softly under the waterline, otherwise your eyes will appear even smaller. Still it's better to use black eyeliner only on the upper part of your eyes.
To lengthen small eyes, a subtle cat eye, is the best option. With a liquid liner start a thin line almost from the inner corner of your eye, going outwards. Once you get to the outer corner, slightly curve the line upwards and out.
If you want to "shrink" large eyes, do the opposite of everything I told you about small eyes. Black liner is your best friend. Apply it on your upper and lower waterline. You can also add more around that, for a heavier look.
To lessen the length of your eyes, use black liner on the inner corner.

Now what's your eye shape?

 Standard

Most people have a variation of the standard eye.
With this eye shape you can see the eyelid all the way across, when the eyes are open. The eyes are not too far apart and not too close together.
If you have a standard eye, you can do any eye look you want, because the shape of the eyes is balanced. Still it's always flattering, if you use a slight amount of a light shadow on the inner corner of your eyes.

Almond & Hooded

Almond (also called Asian) eyes are another shape you can do anything you want with. You can use shimmer, dark colors or anything else you want and go even as far as the brow.

A cat eye is very cohesive with almond eyes and really brings out their shape.

Hooded eyes can be very similar to almond eyes. With this shape, the lid is completely or partially covered. This can occur through aging, or be your eye shape since birth.
 The "rules" are basically the same they are with almond shaped eyes. You can extend the shadow all the way to your brow, but if it's hooded because of aging, it's better not to use shimmer in this area, because it will draw unwanted attention.
Another thing you can do is to use a light shadow on the inner corner of your eyes to open them up, because hooded eyes tend to look small.

Close set

Close set eyes means, that the eyes are closer together to the bridge of the nose.
They could also be any one of the two shapes above. For any pair - "close set-almond" or "close set-hooded" - use a combination of the tricks of both the shapes.
If you want to bring close set eyes further apart, avoid dark colors on the inner corner of your eyes. Also draw the eyeshadow or eyeliner out of the outer corner of your eyes, going slightly upwards.

Wide set

Wide set means that the eyes are further apart, to the sides of the face.
With wide set eyes, you can have any of the two shape pairs too - "wide set-almond", "wide set-hooded". Use a combination of the tricks of both shapes, to have the best result.
With wide set eyes, you can do whatever you want, but have in mind that the further you draw your shadow outwards, the more you'll pull the eyes apart.
To bring wide set eyes closer together, bring darker colors all the way to the inner corner of the eyes.

Down turned

If you have a down turned eye, it means that the outside corner of the eye is pulled downwards, sometimes looking sad.
For that type of shape, when you're applying eyeshadow, stop slightly before the eye starts to droop. Don't worry, it won't look weird, but when you apply mascara, it will give the illusion of a lifted eye. Another way to do that, is to do a cat eye with a liquid liner, or even just apply your shadow going upwards on the outer corner of the eye, giving a very subtle cat eye result.

Deep set

With deep set eyes the eyelids go way back, creating dark shadows over and around the eyes. There's also usually a big part of the lid exposed.
You can have a combination of deep set eyes and any one of the shapes already mentioned, except from hooded. You can even have triple combinations, like "deep set-close set-almond" eyes. The best thing to do is to use the middle ground of the tricks of the two or three shapes.
If you have deep set eyes, avoid dark colors on the lid - unless you're doing a smokey eye, which is balanced -, because they will enhance the shadows over your eyes and make it look like they are even further back. So try to keep the eyelid light and shiny, to bring it out.

 Protruding

Protruding eyes are usually large and tend to come out (protrude).
You can have all the different shape pairs with protruding eyes, except of course of a "protruding-deep set" eye. Like with the deep set eyes, you can also have triple combinations. Use the tricks of the two or three different shapes in balance, to get the best result.
With protruding eyes you can generally do anything you want, but if you want to minimize the effect of it, use mat dark colors on the lid. Light and shimmery colors would bring the eye out ever more.


Now that you know, have a great time doing your eye makeup accordingly, to bring out the best version of your eyes!