The eyes are a complex feature of the face, but they also happen to be one of the most important for determining how attractive a person is. Not many people can determine what exactly distinguishes good-looking eyes from not-so-good-looking ones. In this article, I will discuss the salient parts of the eye which are most important in determining aesthetics.

Note: Although eyebrows play a significant role in determining how attractive eyes are perceived to be, I have excluded them in this article as they are not actually part of the eye itself.

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Attractive Eyes vs. Non-attractive Eyes

Attractive

Unattractive

I included both light and brown-eyed examples. Although many people consider lighter eyes to be more aesthetic, it actually has little to do with how attractive a person’s eyes are considered to be. Most of it has to do with the shape of the eye, the eyebrows, and the support the eyeball is given by the orbital bones surrounding them.

Eye Orbit Structure

The most fundamental structural component of the eyes are the orbits – the bones that surround your eyeball.

Youthful orbits are small and compact. Studies have been conducted that show an increase in aperture width and area in both female and male subjects with age. As we age, the bone of the orbits erodes, causing it to recede away, which leads to a loss of support around the eye. This has devastating effects on the aesthetics of the eye.

People with large or receded orbital bones tend to have less attractive eyes. A lack of support leads to sagging of the soft tissue encompassing the eye.

Eyelid Exposure

How “exposed” or visible a person’s upper eyelids are contribute to their overall eye aesthetics. On men, this is particularly more important. “Hooded eyes”, as they are called, show very little to no exposure of the upper eyelid.

Eyelid exposure is generally determined by the shape and positioning of the upper orbit, along with the fat deposits and soft tissue structure in that area. The latter most likely plays a greater role.

Taylor Kinney is an extreme example of a person with hooded eyes. He has absolutely no visible upper eyelid exposure (it’s completely covered by the upper orbital bone and soft tissue).

For the most part, this is considered attractive (more so on men) – however, it’s very possible for eyes to be overly hooded. As with most things, balance is important.

It’s a more masculine trait, so it appears less attractive on women:

Michael Emerson has no upper eyelid hooding, which contributes to his poor eye aesthetics (though, it’s definitely not the only reason):

High Palpebral Fissure Length (Width of the Eye)

On both men and women, horizontally wide eyes are considered attractive.

Compare the horizontally wide eyes above to horizontally short eyes:

Additionally, attractive eyes tend to be far wider than they are vertically tall.

Sweeping, Curvy Eyelids (Shape)

Perhaps the most important overall aspect of the eyes is the shape of the eyelids. Attractive eyes tend to have the upper eyelid shaped like a wide, stretching curvy hill. The lower lid appears to begin significantly higher than the inner and outer curves.

The sweeping inner curve is sometimes called a “downward-pointing medial canthus.”

Canthal tilt

Canthal tilt is the tilt the line makes drawn between the inner and outer corner of the eye.

Positive (pictured left) is considered more feminine and attractive on women. Neutral (pictured right) is preferred on men. Generally, either neutral or slightly positive is fine. However, when a canthal tilt is overly negative, it can appear unattractive:

Negative tilts make the eye appear to “droop” downward at the corners.

Deep-set

Attractive eyes are positioned deep within their sockets, well-supported by the bone around them. This is in contrast to “bug eyes” which generally look like they are popping out of the skull.

Thick, dark eyelashes

An important trait for both men and women, though arguably more important for women, is eyelashes. Eyelashes act as the frame for the eye, much like hair does for the head. They create a nice, thick dark lining around the eyelids.

Eyelash-less

Thick dark eyelashes (+liner)

Spacing (Inter-pupillary Distance)

Inter-pupillary distance (IPD for short) measures the distance between the pupils.

The spacing of the eyes is very important, and given otherwise nicely shaped eyes that are well-supported – if they’re poorly spaced, the face can be ruined.

Marko Jaric is an example of someone with a very small IPD.

However, his eyes are not nice to begin with. To illustrate the effects of eye spacing on perceived aesthetics, here is Matthew Noszka with differently spaced eyes, while preserving their shape:

Morphing an Unattractive Eye Area

To really get a feel for what makes certain eyes attractive, here is a GIF demonstrating the differences. His left (our right) eye is left untouched.

Upper eyelid exposure reduced by moving the eye closer to the upper orbit

Lack of under-eye support fixed

Higher palpebral fissure length

Canthal tilt made neutral

Medial canthus pointed downward

Slight eyelash thickening

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Conclusion

The perceived attractiveness of one’s eyes is rather complex and multifaceted. It’s not as simple as having a beautiful colour or thick eyelashes. There are many components of an eye that work together to create its overall appearance.