The Eyes Have It: How To Use Eyeliner To Enhance Your Face, Based on Your Eye Shape

“The eyes are the window to the soul.” We have all heard this old adage, and it’s true. Your eyes are not only the focal point of your face, they also help you communicate without ever speaking a word. But what are your eyes conveying about you?Makeup on and around the eyes, done well, can enhance your face and give you a more youthful appearance. But this is the one area where, done wrong, can add years to your face. Eyeliner is a wonderful way to enhance your eyes, but it’s important to consider the shape of your eyes when deciding how best to apply liner. 

Upturned Eyes

Upturned eyes lend themselves well to a slight liner “wing” at the outer edges. Start at the middle part of your lid, and make the line thicker as you go out. Lightly line the lower lid, and bring that line up to the wing on the upper lid. This technique accentuates the natural shape of your eyes, and gives them an added pop. For a more dramatic look, a liquid liner is a great option, and for a more natural daytime look, a soft pencil is a great tool because allows for some gentle smudging with your finger (we like Smashbox’s gel liners for this), to loosen up a severe looking line. 

Round Eyes

For Round eyes you can use the same technique, starting at the middle part of the lid, but extend the line out slightly past the eye, toward the end of the brow. It's important not to wing the line up with round eyes because that will make the eyes look rounder instead of elongated. 

Hooded Eyes

For hooded eyes, or eyes with a heavier upper lid, the goal is to open them up. For this eye shape, my trick is to line the inside upper waterline/lashline with a black or dark brown liner like Stila’s Kohl eyeliners that are specifically formulated for the waterline. Start your line about three-quarters of the way in and bring it out to the outer edge of the eye. Try to let the liner dry for about 10 seconds before blinking to avoid having the liner transfer to the bottom. 

Close-set Eyes

Close-set eyes call for eyeliner started mid-eye and, again, making a slightly thicker line as you move out. The trick here is a to add a little highlighter or shimmery shadow to the inside tear duct area to give the appearance of more space and openness. Brow Gal’s duo highlighter pencil works wonders here. 

Wide-set Eyes

Wide-set eyes look great with a liner started on the inner corner of the eye and brought out to the outer edge. Important here is to take care not to bring the line out further than the eye. You can lightly line the lower lid and bring that line to meet the upper liner. Eye makeup application is an art, but doing it right can transform your face and make you look polished and glamorous. Here at Bellacara we have professional makeup artists on staff who can help you identify what your eye shape is, and how to make the most of it. We’d love to help open your eyes to all the possibilities.