I know, I know. Everyone I meet is SO envious of the vast amounts of space I have on my lids – NOT. I’ve always had hooded eyes and not only that, they’re asymmetrically hooded too. It’s not glaringly obvious unless you spend a good few seconds looking into my eyes but hey, it’s one of my little quirks and I’ve learned to embrace it. I am a massive fan of playing with eye makeup and over the years, I’ve learned to adjust things to flatter my eye shape as well as what to avoid. Here are some of my favourites.
Keep dark eyeshadow to the outer half of the eye for that lifted look.
This made a world of difference when I first learned to navigate eyeshadow – the dark colour at the outer corners make the eyelids appear to recede, giving you that eye-opening effect that we all desperately try to recreate with winged eyeliner.
Eyeliner doesn’t have to start from the inner corner.
In fact, starting your wing a little way further along your lash line helps with that wide awake look and gives more depth to the outer portion of your eye. Don’t be afraid to thicken the flick where your lid droops over your lash line a little more.
Keep your eyes open and look straight ahead every so often when doing your eye makeup.
This one revolutionised my eye makeup game – it honestly took me from god awful to slightly less awful. Prior to this, I’d be happily blending away, feeling all proud of myself for the eyeshadow look I’d just created. But once I looked up to see how I was doing, it was as if I’d put nothing on. What’s more, everything creased within a few hours and all evidence of my meticulous colour placement was gone. Don’t be afraid to blend above the crease, people.
Stop creasing in its tracks with primer and a nude powder eyeshadow.
I’ll be honest, I still have plenty of lazy days where I want to look extra… well, extra, but I don’t want to go through the full procedure that comes with it. Well, if there’s one thing you don’t skip – make it your eyeshadow primer. Our eyes spend much more time open than closed during the day and with hooded lids comes a much higher chance of everything rubbing together and creasing big time. (It doesn’t exactly help that I have oily lids!) Primer is your best friend. If not, use a non-greasy concealer or foundation to create your base. Go the extra mile with some matte powder eyeshadow in a nude shade or setting powder all over your lids before applying your coloured eyeshadow, this helps with oil control later in the day and makes blending extra seamless.
Conceal those dark circles.
I usually try to get away with this on a daily basis but I haven’t exactly had a choice recently with life and all. Brighten up those undereyes to keep that tired look at bay, especially if you haven’t done much to the rest of your face. Set with powder if you’re oily like me.
Pull those brows up when you’re applying mascara.
No matter how small my mascara brush is and how careful I am, I almost always end up with mascara on my top lid. Doing this saves you a lot of cleanup and it’s so much easier to see what you’re doing when trying to achieve that curl and separate every lash. Mascara is hard if you aren’t blessed with cow-like lashes, guys.
If you’re a fellow hood-eyed lass, I’d love to hear if you do any of these things or if you have others that work for you (I need all the help I can get). Hit me with those cheats. You go girl.
– J
Pin it!
J’s Hooded-Eyed Picks:




Disclaimer: Featured image is the work of Joanna Kosinska, obtained from Unsplash. All other photographs used in this post were obtained from Pixabay under a Creative Commons License and edited on canva.com by J, exclusively for thenellybean.
My eyes are a bit hooded as well (one more than the other) and the starting my liner not in the inner corner really is the way to go! Thanks for sharing your tipps! S. xx
Haha sometimes the smallest things work the best! Thanks for sharing xx
Some great tips here, one of my friends has always had some trouble with this so will share your post with her!x
Thanks Grace, hope she finds it helpful! Hope you’re having a lovely Sunday xx
I really love these tips and tricks for hooded eyes 🙂 And I love your pictures ! Thank you for sharing 🙂
xoxo Annaleid
Thank you Annaleid! xoxo
Such a clever and informative post! ?
Thank you Ingrid!
Haha, I Also didn’t realise my eyelids were assymetrically hooded until I tried cat eyes and selfies (damn you selfies!).?
Hahaha those two are a tough combination to get right! xx
Yes yes yes! I have hooded eyes too, one more than the other. It’s so frustrating sometimes, but I think I notice it more than other people do. I agree with all of these tips. Another valuable one is that when you inevitable get mascara on your top lid or brow bone or wherever else, let it dry and then wipe it off with a qtip so as not to mess up your hard work. I also agree with starting your liner closer to the middle, and I never take it too far in on the bottom.
Oh I ALWAYS get mascara all over my upper lid, it’s the worst thing.Thanks for stopping by! xx
Some great tips here, and although my eye lids are not too hooded, as I get older they are becoming a little. A tip I was given once, is where people apply darker shades along their crease line, with hooded eyes, you look straight forward, and put the darker colour just above the crease line to give the illusion that the crease is further up. Im not sure if that makes any sense! Anyway, fab post xx
It does make sense! Thank you for sharing lovely xx
Nominated you for The Versatile Blogger Award. I’d be delighted if you accepted, I’d completely understand however if you didn’t ?
https://lemonzest2402.wordpress.com/2018/02/02/the-versatile-blogger-award/
Thank you so much, that’s so kind! xx
You are very welcome ?
Hey lovely, I’ve nominated you for The Sunshine Blogger Award.If you want to take part here is the link with my questions for you.X
https://newlifefreshyou.wordpress.com/2018/03/11/the-sunshine-blogger-award-4-5/
Thank you so much! xx