Makeup for Hooded Eyes: 5 Steps So Your Eyeshadow Actually Shows

Your eyeshadow might be going on the one spot nobody can see.

On hooded eyes, a fold of skin covers the crease as soon as you look straight ahead. So crease shadow and thick liquid liner vanish.

The fix is placement, not new products. This guide to makeup for hooded eyes gives you 5 steps from pro artists at MAC Cosmetics and the fashion house Dior, plus the eyeliner styles that stay visible.

What Are Hooded Eyes?

Hooded eyes have a fold of skin under the brow that hides most of the eyelid when your eyes are open. Who What Wear beauty editor Eleanor Vousden, who has hooded eyes herself, calls it having less eyelid “real estate” to play with.

That’s why the usual advice lets you down. Color pressed into the crease disappears, and a wing drawn with raised brows changes once your face relaxes.

Not sure you have them? Look straight into a mirror with a relaxed face.

If you see little or none of your lid between your lashes and the fold, your eyes are hooded. Eyes that sit back under the brow are deep set eyes, a different shape.

Each shape changes where eye makeup should go, so the steps below are for hooded lids only.

How to Do Makeup for Hooded Eyes Step by Step

Makeup for hooded eyes takes 5 steps, all done with your eyes open and looking straight ahead: matte shadow on the brow bone, a straight blend, shimmer only mid-lid, a tightlined waterline, then curled lashes and lighter brows.

Dominic Skinner, global senior makeup artist for MAC Cosmetics, sums it up: “You can do any makeup for hooded eyes, but it’s just about adapting it to your eye shape.”

Step 1: Find Your Shadow Spot on the Brow Bone

Eyeshadow on hooded eyes goes on the brow bone, above your natural crease, not inside it. Skinner told Who What Wear how to find it: look straight ahead in the mirror, picture the shadow, then tip your head back.

“You’ll see that actually where you want it to go is where your brow bone is,” he says. “This lifts and opens the eye.”

Tap a little matte shade on that spot with a small brush first, so you have a target. It will feel high, and that’s the point.

Step 2: Blend in a Straight Line

Matte shadow on hooded eyes should be blended outward in a straight, flat line, not swept up in a curve. Dior pro artist Jamie Coombes calls it the straight-line technique.

His guide for how far to go is a sheet of paper. Hold its edge from the corner of your nose to the end of your brow, and keep the blend inside it.

Anything past the paper is blending out too far. A neutral eyeshadow palette with a few mattes covers this step.

Step 3: Use Matte for Shape and Shimmer Only Mid-Lid

Hooded eyes look best with matte shadow for shape and a little shimmer only in the center of the lid. Coombes warns that bright and reflective eye shadows above the crease or on the brow bone emphasize the hoods.

So where does the shine go? Skinner suggests an iridescent shade “the same shade as your skin tone or even one shade lighter,” patted just above the iris.

That small patch of light makes the lid look bigger than it is. Coombes adds that shimmer on the moving part of the lid gives flashes of color when you blink.

Step 4: Tightline Your Upper Waterline

Tightlining means putting eyeliner on your upper waterline, at the roots of your lashes, and it’s the liner Skinner recommends for hooded eyes. “With a hooded eye, you have a very little amount of eyelid space,” he says.

So he brings the liner onto the waterline instead of covering the lid. Vousden uses a soft kohl pencil for it.

Your lash line gets definition, and your visible lid stays free for shadow. If lining is new to you, practice applying eyeliner first.

Step 5: Curl Your Lashes and Lift Your Brows

Lashes and brows lift hooded eyes when lashes are curled up and brows stay light and brushed upward. A good eyelash curler opens the eye, and a curling mascara holds it all day, Vousden writes.

On a budget, I’d start with a drugstore curling mascara. Then move to your brows.

Coombes suggests filling brows two shades lighter than usual and brushing the hairs up to open the eye. He also warns that overdrawn brows look heavier and close the eye.

So go light with the pencil or powder when you fill in your eyebrows.

Best Eyeliner Styles for Hooded Eyes

The best eyeliner for hooded eyes stays off the small visible lid: a tightlined upper waterline, a mini wing at the outer corner, a bat wing, or reverse liner on the lower lashes.

A mini wing lets you wear liquid liner without covering the lid. Vousden applies liner “from the very outer corner only, winging out to lengthen and elongate the eyes.”

Reverse liner starts below. Celebrity makeup artist Lan Nguyen-Grealis says to “draw along the lower lash line and wing out.”

Then soften it with an eyeshadow brush, connecting it to the edge of your upper lashes. She says this adds definition while lifting the eyes.

Set it with a little shadow so it lasts. You can compare more eyeliner wing types before you pick one.

How to Do Winged Eyeliner on Hooded Eyes

Winged eyeliner on hooded eyes works best as a bat wing, drawn with your eyes open. Here’s how:

1. Mark the lower edge of the wing and draw outward from your outer corner.
2. Draw the upper edge back toward your lid, stopping where it meets the fold.
3. Fill in the small triangle.

With your eyes open, it looks a little like a bat wing. With your eyes rested, it looks more flattering.

A Simple Everyday Look for Hooded Eyes

A simple everyday look for hooded eyes needs 3 products: one matte shadow on the brow bone, an eyelash curler and mascara. Vousden’s lazy-day rule: “When in doubt, leave your lids bare and go for a lashing of mascara.”

Want more definition? Smudge a little liner under your lower lashes for a soft smoke.

That whole look is Step 1, Step 5 and one pencil. For more relaxed ideas, try these natural eye makeup looks.

Makeup for Hooded Eyes Over 50

Makeup for hooded eyes over 50 uses the same 5 steps, and they matter more because eyes can become more hooded with age, Who What Wear notes. Hooding is usually genetic, and the fold can deepen over time.

The best eyeshadow for hooded eyes over 50 is a matte shade for the brow bone plus an iridescent shade near your skin tone for mid-lid. Keeping shine off the brow bone matters even more when the hood is larger.

Let the matte shade do the lifting. For product ideas, see these eyeshadows for mature hooded eyes and this list of eye makeup for older women.