How do I make my hooded eyes deep set?

Guys, I have breaking news.

It’s about eyeshadow application. I finally learned the trick on how to apply eyeshadow to my deep set/hooded eyes. My eyes have a very little of visible lid space. Just a small gap. So applying the dark eyeshadows on the ‘crease’, as typical, has never worked for me. Actually, the typical rules in general haven’t really worked for me. With deep set or hooded eyes – you have to do things a little differently.

And even though I’m a professional I’ve struggled with my own eye shape. Getting it sometimes right, but most of the time just kind of shooting in the dark, not understanding the logic behind my actions. Okay, I made it sound super serious. But it is! It’s life and death here – eyeshadow, life and death.

So let’s get to the visual part of it. I’m gonna teach you exactly how to apply eyeshadow for hooded eyes, deep set eyes, monolids or just for eyes, that have a little of visible lid space. This trick is also a bit universal, so it works for anyone, who wants to make her/his eyes appear bigger.

And might I just add, humbly of course, that this is the best eye shadow trick I have shared on my blog so far.

Forget about the crease

As you can see, with my eye shape, my crease is super low. Those grey dots in the first picture show you my crease. I’ve parted ways with it a long time ago – deepening my actual crease just makes my eyes look smaller and even though my eyes are just the right size, I don’t want them to be any smaller. So, forget about the crease.

Follow your natural bone structure

How to apply eyeshadow for any eye shape? Follow your natural bone structure – just like you do with contour and highlight. It’s no different from that really! It’s all about playing with the natural contours of your eye and putting the shadow where it naturally occurs. Which, in this case, forms right below my brow bone. These photos are a bit dark on purpose, because I wanted to show you the natural shadows that occur on my eyes. I marked it with grey dots in the second picture.

Find your natural shadow – it’s right below your brow bone

To get this absolutely right, you need to find the exact spot. You can find it with your finger – you can feel where the bone ends and the eye sinks a little. Or you can go to a room, where the lighting is a bit dim and see, where that shadow forms on your eye. You can see it super clearly that way, as you can see from these pictures. Lately I’ve actually taken my makeup brush, walked to our hallway (where it’s that dim lighting) and drew on that eyeshadow exactly where that shadow hits me. Then I’ve just gotten back to my makeup table – it makes the eyeshadow application so much easier, once I have those ‘boundaries’ on.

The reason this makes any eyeshadow look better, is because it looks more natural. Since we’ve been following our natural bone structure, the makeup kind of looks as if it belongs there. Right? Even the blending looks softer this way – almost as if the bone structure would give it an extra boost (spoiler alert: it does).

Here is a close up to show you exactly the trick. See how high you can actually pull up the eyeshadow? It’s nowhere near that natural crease or fold.

Now here is a very simple eye shadow tutorial using this trick.

Simple eye shadow tutorial for deep set & hooded eyes

1. Contour the eye by following your natural bone structure. Use a matte shade. Create the ‘crease’ where a natural shadow occurs. That is where your color should be the darkest. Fill in the color in the outer corner and blend well, so that the contour looks soft and nice. Apply some color to your lower lashline as well, but it keep it subtle (unless you like the drama).
2. Apply the lid color all over the lid all the way to the fake crease. Blend the edges carefully, so that, again, it looks soft and nice. But don’t let the shimmery color (if used) get to your crease area, because that color should be matte.
3. Apply the inner corner highlight, liner, and mascara. I did a soft blended liner with black eyeshadow.

The best eyeshadow palettes
*Norvina palettes
*Urban Decay Naked Palettes
*Too Faced palettes

The base for my eyeshadow is always*Urban Decay Primer Potion. It keeps the eyeshadow locked in place all day.

The best eyeshadow brushes
*Zoeva
Zoeva is my absolute favorite brand for brushes. They’re high quality and make blending so easy!
*Coastal Scents 22 brush set
There are also affordable brushes, that are great. This set is what I bought for myself as my very first brush set and I still use it a lot.

I hope this post was as helpful to you, as it was for me to figure out this thing. Let me know in the comments! 

And hey – happy Valentines’s day! I’m gonna do a little date night thing with Risto, eating dinner at home in a candle light. So cheesy, but so lovely.

Related Posts

• How to: Makeup for deep set & hooded eyes
• Do’s and Don’ts for deep set eyes (and lightly hooded eyes)
• How to: makeup for round deep set eyes
• How to: makeup for downturned eyes
• Video – How do I apply makeup on hooded eyes?