What are hooded eyes? Do I have them?

I get asked all the time, what are hooded eyes? Do I have them? So I wanted to talk about them. Hooded eyes are eyes that have excess skin from the browbone to the lash line, which hides the crease and mobile eyelids space. Some people say these are called bedroom eyes. Some people have them all their lives, while other people only get them as their skin droops with age. I’ve had hooded eyes my entire life.

If you’ve ever struggled with an eyeshadow makeup tutorial on Youtube or from a magazine, you might wonder if you have hooded eyes. Most makeup tutorials are for almond shaped eyes or eyes that have a ton of visible lid space, unlike hooded eyes.

If you look straight into the mirror, does your skin hide the crease? If skin obscures your crease the way it does mine in the photos above, you might have hooded eyes. Famous celebrities with hooded eyes are people like Jennifer Lawrence, Taylor Swift, Blake Lively, Lucy Liu, Liu Wen, Emma Stone, Rashida Jones, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lauren Graham and Camilla Belle. You can also look at them to see if your eyes look similar.

My eyes are hooded eyes, slightly deepset and slightly downturned at the outer corner thanks to my hoods extending past the waterline.

It’s easy to tell if your eyes are hooded if they’re shaped like mine. When you look at my eyes from the side you can easily see where the loose skin obscures my crease.

How to Change Hooded Eyes

Want to change your eye shape? I get asked how to change hooded eyes a lot. There are a few ways to do that, but the number one answer that everyone throws out is blepharoplasty. I’ve had people tell me that my eyes were ugly and I needed to have blepharoplasty.

The second, but probably the most obvious answer, is with makeup. Applying dark eyeshadow strategically at the outer corner of the eye and light eyeshadow at the inner lid helps. My Book Hooded Eyes Makeup Manual has a variety of neutral and everyday looks in it, along with a few fun ones, to help you with eyeshadow color placement.

If surgery is too extreme for you, the third option is with eyelid stickers, aka lid correcting strips. In the photo above I’m wearing Contours RX Lid Correcting Strips in 7mm. It makes a huge difference in how my eyes look. I love them but they do have a learning curve for application. Additionally, I have never been able to apply makeup over them successfully, even with their special primer. And by learning curve I mean some days I can apply both eyes right on the first try, but other days I go through 4 or 5 stickers to get both of my eyes to look right.

Hooded Eyes Makeup Manual

If you have hooded eyes like me and you struggle with makeup, my book Hooded Eyes Makeup Manual is for you! Inside Hooded Eyes Makeup Manual you’ll find all the tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the last decade. It has a brush guide to help you find the best brushes for hooded eyes and all the tutorials list generic color terms so you can recreate any of the tutorials within it with what you have on hand. I put this book together with everything I’ve learned and a bunch of tutorials because so many of you had requested it over the years.

Thank you to everyone who has already purchased my book! Your support means the world to me. I wrote this book for you and I’m happy you love it!

To everyone who has not yet purchased a book, thank you for supporting me by visiting my blog, enjoying my content, sharing my articles and videos, and shopping through my affiliate links. I appreciate all the support! I’ve been doing this for 11 years and helping people through my blog is why I keep it going.

My book is an Amazon exclusive. It’s available in print format and kindle’s digital format. So if you’ve been waiting for one or the other type of formats (physical or digital) both are available.

My Current Top 10 Must-Have Eyeshadow Brushes for Hooded Eyes

While I talk more in-depth about eyeshadow brushes in my book Hooded Eyes Makeup Manual, I’m always trying new brushes too. Above is my current list of must-have brushes, aka the brushes I’m using the most.

So tell me, do you have hooded eyes? Do you have a good idea on what hooded eyes are and if you have them? If you’re struggling, let me know in the comments below. Or if you need help identifying your eye shape, ask in the PhyrraNyx Facebook group and I’ll be happy to help you!