EASY Everyday Eye Makeup for HOODED EYES

Most of us with hooded eyes don’t need winged liner, dramatic eyeshadow, and false lashes on a daily basis. Yet most hooded eyes tutorials show this. This will show you REALISTIC everyday eye makeup for hooded eyes if you don’t have much time but still want to look your best.

While, this is pretty thorough, the full video tutorial at the end that contains all the steps. It’s fairly short and contains do’s and don’ts in a well-explained manner. It’s truly so much easier to learn makeup techniques by watching them than by seeing photos. I hope you take some things away from this post. But do head over to the video after to get each step because it’s already helped so many people in the short duration that it’s been up!

 Disclaimer

**The images in this post are taken directly from my short video tutorial at the end of the post. So if they’re not extremely sharp, that’s why! You can skip straight there to see it in action with easy to follow instructions or click to have it open up in YouTube so you have all the product links in the description as well. Whatever you choose, I think you’ll find it beneficial.**

DO I HAVE HOODED EYES?

Well, I know I have hooded eyes! But do you know if YOU have hooded eyes? It’s a common misperception that if your entire mobile lid (the eyelid that opens and closes over your eyeball) isn’t invisible and covered by the hood (the crease of the eye up to the brow bone), when looking straight ahead then you can’t possibly have hooded eyes.

That simply isn’t true!

There are many degrees of hooded eyes. You can have severely hooded eyes where you see no mobile lid when you look straight into a mirror, thus making it extremely difficult to line the eye (aside from tightlining).

And there are moderately hooded eyes.

Moderately hooded eyes come with several options. One can have all of these options or just one or two…

• The crease shade you just applied seems to disappear when your eyes are opened and looking straight forward.
• Your hood appears heavier towards the outside of the eye than the inside…you may have some visible mobile lid towards the inner eye and less towards the outside of the eye.
• Some days your eyes seem more/less hooded than others.
• The crease/fold extends down past the outside corner of your eye, often making flicked or winged liner difficult.

Let’s talk about what we can do no matter what type of hooded eyes you have…

The Forgotten Step

First things first…before we even THINK about shadow, we want to address concealer. One of the most common mistakes people make is NOT applying concealer (and corrector if you use that too!) underneath the OUTER corner of the eye. They concentrate on the dark circles and inner corner and completely forget about the outer part of the eye!

As we get older, we develop some redness and discoloration there. Neglecting this one tiny area can drag that outer corner down and make our already hooded eyes appear even more droopy!

Prepping the Eye

Primer. Primer. Primer. I cannot stress using eyeshadow primer enough! (This one is my favorite!) It not only evens out discoloration and disguises veins, it helps our shadows apply more smoothly and evenly, last longer, helps prevent creasing, and makes colors more vibrant! If you’re skipping this step and have hooded eyes, start today!!

STILLLLL Prepping!

Primer alone just won’t cut it! Priming and NOT setting that primer well with either a neutral shadow or a loose powder is a common mistake that leads to creasing, eyeliner, and mascara smudging/transfer or patchy eyeshadow application. Set that primer!

Where’s my shadow??

The most important thing you can do when applying shadow and liner is to

LOOK STRAIGHT AHEAD INTO A MIRROR.

There may be times when you need to look or glance down to do things. But always always always check back in that mirror to see what your makeup looks like with your eyes open!

Placing a transition shade that’s a shade deeper than your skin tone (it can even be peach or slightly pink!) into and above the crease (almost up to the brow bone) will create a shadow onto that hood so it’s not so pronounced and heavy. Light protrudes and darkness retracts.

We want that shadow there to make the hood like it’s receding instead of protruding. Even on minimal makeup days, I take 30 seconds to do this one simple step because it makes a HUGE difference in how awake and open my eyes look!

If I attempt to use just a crease shade, it all but disappears when I open my eyes and look straight ahead.

Shadow issues

Going back to that primer… If you didn’t take the time to apply and set your shadow primer earlier, you may have some blending issues when you go in with shadow on your lid and in your crease.

Highlighting

Another common shadow mistake made by many is with highlighter. Using a tiny brush and highlighting directly underneath the brow bone (and blending into that transition shade) is all you need to do when you have hooded eyes. Many people take a fluffy brush and place too much highlighter under the brow bone and down onto the hood, thus taking away any shadow that’s necessary for that hood to appear recessed. When you highlight the most pronounced part of the hood, it emphasizes the hooded eyes and drags the eye down even further.

Eyeliner: A Realistic DON’T!

This is my realistic “don’t” eye using a pencil and closing my eye, the way many do. Most people also reach for pencil to line. It’s not as subtle as shadow, takes more time and transfers more easily too. I smudged it along the lashline from the inner corner to the outer corner and extended it just slightly past my outer corner…

It looks pretty good when my eye is closed right?

But when I open it, you can see that the liner is slanted slightly down instead of out and the corner of the liner is below the outer corner of my eye instead of next to or slightly above it where it should be. This is a common mistake that pulls down the outer corner of the eye and can make the eyes appear more droopy, especially once mascara is added.

Do: Eyeliner for Hooded Eyes

This is the part where I’d say to go watch the video because I show two super easy methods for genuinely easy hooded eye eyeliner that’s easy to do in a rush or daily. I recommend using a good quality shadow and an angled brush. I have some other easy techniques on my channel using different types of brushes but this one is very quick and simple.

The first technique involves using your outer corner and brow tail as your guide.

Simply place a dot or a tiny dash in the same direction as your lower lash line as if it’s continuing on into infinity. Place that tiny dot/dash slightly above where the lash line ends. This gives more lift than placing it right at the lash line. (This is seen better in the video).

Next press and lightly smudge the liner brush against your lash line. I only do the outer 2/3 of my eye because it elongates and lifts my eye more so than when I go all the way to my inner corner. You’ll smudge and meet that dot/dash and blend the two together. It takes less than 30 seconds. Done!

There are some people that are simply too hooded for that dash/dot and that’s OK! If that’s the case, just do the smudging or tightline and you’ll get definition from that.

I continued (post-mascara) with a technique to show you what to do if you have a fold but want to do a flick or winged liner for your hooded eyes.

You can see here, I simply stamped the brush down directly over that fold.

When I closed my eye there is a gap.

I then fill the gap in and build that line up however thick I want that flick to be that day. This is my “professional” wing. Again…30 seconds and done!

The Finale

Curl those lashes! Nothing lifts the eye more than curled lashes! It truly does make a huge difference! Finding the right eyelash curler for your particular eye shape can take some trial and error, but it’s worth it.  I’ve tried a ton and this has been my fave for 20+ years. I also like this one. Other popular ones are curved too much, causing them to press too hard at my eye corners in order to reach the middle of my lashes.

Again, I highly recommend watching the video because it has a couple of more steps and is a little more specific than I can get in a blog post tutorial. I hope you enjoy it. I know hooded eyes can be so difficult to deal with! If you found this post helpful or the video helpful, please share it with people you know could use it or anywhere you feel it could help people! XOXO