Hooded Eyes: How to Tell and the Makeup That Works

How to tell if you have hooded eyes

Stand in front of a mirror in daylight, relax your forehead and look straight ahead. Then check:

1. Can you see your crease? If a soft fold of skin sits over it, so the crease is hidden or only shows at the inner corner, your eyes are hooded.
2. How much lid shows? Hooded eyes show a thin sliver of lid between the lashes and the fold, or none at all.
3. Close your eyes. If you now see a clear crease and plenty of lid that disappear when you open them, that’s the classic hooded pattern.
4. Watch your liner. If eyeliner you drew with your eyes closed vanishes, or prints onto the skin above when you open them, you almost certainly have hooded lids.
5. Raise your brows gently. If lifting your brows with a fingertip reveals much more lid, part of your hood comes from the brow area rather than the lid itself.

The hood can be slight (only the outer third is covered) or full (it rests on the lashes). It’s also normal for one eye to be more hooded than the other.

What makes eyes hooded?

The upper lid has a crease where fibers from the muscle that lifts the lid attach to the skin (StatPearls). Above it, skin and a small amount of fat sit under the brow. When that skin and soft tissue fold down over the crease, the eye looks hooded. How much depends on your natural lid anatomy, the position of your brow and the fullness of the tissue under it.

Age adds to it. Skin gradually loses elasticity and the outer part of the brow tends to drop over time (EyeWiki), so many people notice a hood appearing in their 30s, 40s or later, even if they never had one before.

Hooded eyes vs other eye shapes

• Hooded vs “normal” (visible crease): with a visible crease you see a clear band of lid between lashes and crease when your eyes are open. With a hooded lid, the fold covers most of that band.
• Hooded vs monolid: a monolid has no crease at all, so the lid runs smoothly from lashes to brow. A hooded eye does have a crease; it’s just covered. Close your eyes to tell them apart.
• Hooded vs deep-set: deep-set eyes sit further back under a prominent brow bone, so the lid looks shadowed rather than covered. The two often go together.

Hooding is about the lid, not the outline, so you can be hooded and almond, hooded and round, or hooded and downturned. The eye shapes guide shows how all four eye traits combine.

Makeup for hooded eyes, step by step

The golden rule is to look straight into the mirror while you work. Tilt your chin down slightly if you need to see the lash line.

1. Prime the lid. Hooded lids touch the skin above them all day, so a primer or a thin layer of concealer set with powder stops shadow from creasing and transferring.
2. Place the crease shade higher than your crease. With your eyes open, find where the fold starts and blend a matte, medium shade just above it. This creates a new, visible “crease” that the hood can’t hide.
3. Keep the fold matte. Mattes let the fold recede; shimmer on it makes it look fuller. Save shimmer for the center of the lid, pressed on with a fingertip.
4. Build depth at the outer corner in a sideways V, angled up toward the tail of the brow rather than down.
5. Highlight under the brow tail only lightly, if at all: strong brow-bone highlight can emphasize the hood.

Finish with lips that suit your shape: the lip shape detector shows whether to follow your natural line or overline slightly.

What not to do with hooded eyes?

Avoid placing your crease color in your actual crease, which disappears under the fold, and avoid thick liner drawn with your eyes closed, which can print onto the hood or vanish. Heavy shimmer on the fold itself can also make it look fuller, if that’s not the effect you want.

Eyeliner for hooded eyes

• Tightline first. Pressing a waterproof pencil into the roots of the upper lashes (the upper waterline) defines the eye without taking up lid space the fold would hide.
• Draw wings with your eyes open. Mark the tip of the wing while looking straight ahead, then connect it back to the lash line. A classic wing drawn with the eye closed often bends or breaks over the hood.
• Try a “bat wing”. Seen with the eye closed, it looks like a small notch; with the eye open, it reads as a clean, straight wing because the notch fills the space the hood covers.
• Choose smudge-proof formulas. Gel pencils and long-wear liquids transfer less onto the fold.
• Consider lower-lash definition. Smudging a little shadow along the outer lower lash line balances the eye when the upper liner is partly hidden.

Lash map for hooded eyes

Lashes are your best friend: they’re the one feature that reaches out past the hood.

• Curl well. A good curl lifts lashes up and away from the fold. Use waterproof or tubing mascara so the curl holds.
• Map longer lengths to the center and outer third of the eye if you wear extensions or strip lashes. Very long lashes at the inner corner can hit the hood.
• Keep the band thin. Thick strip-lash bands add weight to a lid that has little room. Individual clusters are often easier.

Eyebrows for hooded eyes

A slightly arched brow with a lifted tail gives the eye more room. Tidy the underside of the tail if stray hairs sit low, and avoid over-thinning, which can make the brow drop visually. If you use brow gel, brush the hairs up and slightly out.

Makeup for hooded eyes over 50 and 60

As the hood deepens with age, a few adjustments help:

• Switch to matte or satin shadows in soft, medium tones; heavy shimmer can emphasize texture.
• Use cream-to-powder formulas set with a light dusting of powder so they stay put.
• Go softer on liner. A smudged brown or charcoal pencil along the lash line often looks fresher than a sharp black wing.
• Curl and coat. Lashes can thin with age, and a lengthening mascara plus a good curl does more than heavy liner.
• Frame with brows. Filling sparse brows with light, hair-like strokes restores shape to the upper face.

Hooded eyes in men

Hooded lids are just as common in men. Keep brows tidy underneath without over-shaping, and choose glasses whose top rim sits at or slightly above the brow line, so frames don’t sit on the hood. Well-fitted sunglasses with a slightly deeper lens work well.

Myths about hooded eyes

• “Hooded eyes can’t wear winged liner.” They can. Draw it with your eyes open, or try the bat-wing shape.
• “Hooded eyes are a problem to solve.” They’re a normal, common eye shape. Makeup simply works differently on them.
• “Exercises get rid of hooded eyes.” Eyelid shape comes from skin, fat and muscle attachments, not a muscle you can train. There’s no good evidence that exercises change it.
• “Only older people have hooded eyes.” Many people are born with hooded lids; age just makes hoods more common.

Want to know your full eye shape, including whether you’re also almond, round or downturned? Try the eye shape detector.