Hooded and droopy eyes can make you look more tired or aged than you actually feel. Fortunately, there are some incredible makeup hacks that can create a lifted effect, enhancing your natural eye shape and giving you a more youthful appearance. From strategic eyeshadow placement to simple brow tricks, these expert-approved techniques can help open up your eyes and provide an instant, refreshed look!
Smitha Deepak, a makeup artist who has over 3.6M subscribers on YouTube, shared her “incredible eyeliner hacks” for those with “extremely hooded eyes.” Read on for all her expert insights!
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YouTube.com/@SmithaDeepak
Hack #1
If you’re someone who dreads applying eyeliner due to excess skin over your lid, Deepak recommends these 3 hacks. The first hack for “droopy” eyes starts with the brows.
“You have that extra skin on top of your lid, and when you apply your eyeliner, it might look a little distorted or different because it interferes with the fold of the hood, but there are ways to work around every eye shape, including hooded eyes," she says. "A big part of working with hooded eyes is your brows.”
Using Aqua Resist waterproof eyebrow pencil in black brown, Deepak says to “create as much space as possible below the brows by pushing it all the way up and second by not overfilling it. I'm going to first brush my brow hair down so I can clearly see on top and just fill in the sparse areas, and then I'm going to brush my brow hair upwards so I can clearly see at the bottom and just fill in the sparse areas again.”
This can work even if your brows are low because it will “maximize” the space under your brows. Next, with the Elf Camo Concealer in Medium Warm, she says to clean up underneath for a clean slate.
“To avoid creasing, I'm going to lightly set it with the One Size Translucent Powder. If you have hooded eyes, avoid pulling or stretching your skin while applying eyeliner because once your skin goes back to its position, the eyeliner will look distorted," she warns.
Then with a flat brush and a black eyeshadow, look straight into the mirror and stamp it on your lash line. Because it's a thin brush, it shouldn’t be a problem to get a thin line over your lashes. Now for the wing, she wants you to "mark a point that's almost at the very end but not quite, and I'm going to pull out a wing that will go under the fold, and I will then slowly join it to the lash line to pull out the wing. A small liner brush like this will come in handy because the wing is going underneath the fold; it's not going to interfere with the fold, and because the wing is not at the very outer corner, it's not going to emphasize that fold, and it's going to give your eyes a beautiful lift.”
YouTube.com/@SmithaDeepak
Hack #2
The second hack is quite similar to the first but with some tweaks. Deepak says, “I'm taking some black eyeshadow with the smaller liner brush, and I'm going to stamp it connecting my top and bottom lash lines in the outer corner using a small definer brush. This one's from Folklore. I'm going to start smudging this. By smudging this, it makes it look really soft and smoky, which is extremely forgiving on hooded eyes, and then I'm going to further soften it by using this large ELF concealer brush by moving the eyeshadow outward and upward.”
For the final step, take some black eyeshadow and “deepen the outer corner with the small eyeliner brush, later pulling a wing with my finger that'll give a lifted, elongated effect in the very outer corner while still keeping the eyeliner soft and nice.”
YouTube.com/@SmithaDeepak
Hack #3
If you’re still not satisfied with the first two hacks, Deepak has one more trick for you!
Take some black eyeshadow with a flat, fine brush, look straight into the mirror, and extend the “lower lash line going over the fold.” Next, she says, “Join the tip of the wing with [the] lash line. I'm going to lift my brow, and you'll see a small gap in the line, so I'm going to join it using a little bit more black eyeshadow with a small shader brush. I'm going to start shading right under the tip of the wing while I do that. I'm going to push the eyeshadow towards the lid with a brush."
You want to soften this further towards the lid "so it's going to be deepest or darkest at the tip, and as it moves towards the lid, it becomes softer and softer, finally fading into my skin tone. I'm going to line the lash line by stamping some black eyeshadow using a small liner brush and then, to finish up, I'm going to curl my lashes," followed by a coat of mascara. "This is the Wonder Wand mascara by Seattle London, and while applying mascara, I'm going to push my lashes outward and upward to get that elongated effect in the outer corner.” We can't wait to try!
