Beauty BuzzWhat’s the Secret to Flawless Eye Makeup? Applying Eyeshadow Based on Your Eye Shape!
Life & Style’s How To: Beauty Buzz will cover the latest in makeup trends while answering all of your beauty related questions — step by step! Stop by each week for the latest update!
Wait, you mean there are different ways to apply eye shadow? Um, yeah! Just like there are differently-shaped lips and faces — full, round, bow-shaped, heart, wide — eye shape is totally something you should be considering when doing your eye makeup.
So what’s the point of knowing your eye shape, anyway? Is it really that beneficial? Well, it’s actually a lot like dressing your body. In the same way we style our clothes to accentuate the body, recognizing eye shape can enhance the natural shape of the eye. Applying it correctly can make your eyes look brighter, bigger, and ultimately creates a huge difference in your appearance!
Sound appealing? Keep reading to find out which eye shape you have and read our tips for the best way to work your eye makeup!
Round
The way to determine if your eyes are round is to ask yourself this question: Are the whites of your eyes visible around the iris? If you answered yes, congratulations — you have the round eye shape. Add some color to the top of the lid. Extend your eyeshadow out to the outer corner of your eye in a V-shape. This will create the illusion of elongated eyes and make eyes appear even bigger.
Another staple of the round eye shape is big, falsie lashes. Round eyes can support the weight and take on an extra bold look when lashes are added into the mix.
Monolid
If there is no crease above your eye, then your eye shape is called monolid. God’s gift to the monolid is flawlessly-applied liquid liner that will result in a bold look. Since monolids can often wash out the eyebrows, making them less defined, a gradient effect is recommended for eye makeup. Use a light color to highlight the inner corner of the eye, while blending it outward. Use a medium and darker shade in the middle of the lid, blending out the shadows in a round motion. Keep all of the shadow concentrated in the center of the lid and allow the liner to elongate the eye.
Down-turned
A handy trick for determining if you have the down-turned eye shape is pretending to run a straight line directly through the center of your eye. Do the outer corners of the eye point either upwards or downwards from the mid-line? If the outer corner of the eyes point down from the equator of the eye, then your shape classifies as down-turned.
Most often, people with down-turned eyes have a goal of making their lids appear more lifted. In order to do that, stay away from dark, smokey eyes that will unfortunately, create the illusion of a much smaller eye. The best trick to keep down-turned eyes looking lifted is to keep eyeshadow minimum and do expertly accentuate the brown bone by highlighting it with illuminator. This draws attention to the top of the eye rather than the droop of the down-turn.
Additionally, winged liner isn’t usually the best look for people with down-turned eyes. It’s totally possible and you should wear whatever kind of makeup makes you feel good and empowered but a thickly winged liner can highlight the droop of the outer corner.
Almond
The almond eye shape is certainly the most versatile as it can pull off many types of eye shadow looks. The goal with almond eyes is most always to accentuate what’s already there. Do this by adding a champagne color shadow to the tear ducts and inner corner. On the lid, you want to use a warmer color that will really draw the eye to the areas of the eye enhanced with the champagne shade.
Hooded
With hooded eyes, it’s best to focus on the bottom half of the eye, rather than the top crease. Hooded eyes are naturally top-heavy and most often do not really support the application of dramatic fake lashes.
To downplay the top-heaviness of the hooded eye, use a bold eyeliner pencil on the bottom lash line to really add the drama and more evenly distribute some of the weight. You can also add more dimension by packing on the mascara. And don’t be afraid to go pitch-black with your mascara. Though you may feel tempted to use a lighter shade, like brown, to keep things softer, all black bottom lashes will make the bottom feel more congruent to the top of the eye.
