Hooded Eyes

I have hooded eyes and only just realized this, like, literally about a week ago! Don't ask me what I've been doing all this time! I really, for the life of me, don't know how it never occurred to me before. All I can say is that it's most probably due to my new interest in eye makeup. Prior to this, eye makeup for me consisted of eyeliner, mascara and a swipe of eyeshadow and I was done. However, this year began my fascination with different eye looks, mainly the smokey eye.
I watched numerous videos out there on how to achieve that perfect smokey eye and I decided to give them a go. Now, I consider myself to be fairly good at following instructions but somehow, I just could not achieve the same look that those make-up gurus were achieving! I blamed the brushes, the eyeshadows, my skin tone, skin type and yes, even my amateur makeup skills for my numerous failed attempts.
And then on one particular enlightening day last week (maybe it was due to the proper arrival of spring and therefore, sunshine, and vegetation around me waking from hibernation!), it clicked somewhere in my frustrated mind that, wait a minute, these gurus were applying the shadows to their perfectly obvious creases! Where was my crease? These gurus had obvious eye areas beneath their brow bones that sloped into an obvious crease. Mine so did not!

That then led to a closer examination of my eyes and voila, realization - I have no crease! Well, not like those gurus had! How I went all my life not noticing this, I honestly don't know! But better late than never, I guess!

So anyway, this brought me to various internet searches and the discovery that I have Hooded Eyes and thus, this article, which I hope will also enlighten the probably few others out there who have the same eye type but aren't aware of it and therefore, like me, could not figure out why most of the mainstream eye makeup techniques out there just didn't really work out for them.

So, what do hooded eyes look like? Well, like or similar to mine below:

So, as you can see, hooded eyes are eyes that have the skin above the eyelids hanging or covering most and sometimes all of the eyelids when the eyes are open. That skin acts like a hood over the eyes, thus the Hooded Eyes label.
Sometimes, this effect is a result of age as the skin above the eyelids starts to sag or droop or, in cases like mine, this is just the eye shape we've been blessed with!

So if there are any Hooded Eyes types out there that couldn't figure out why alot of the eye makeup methods weren't working out for you, now you probably have an idea why.
With hooded eyes, the hoods hanging over the eyelids make it hard to apply eyeshadow to your crease compared to the other eyeshapes where the skin from the brow bone dips into a deep crease sort of behind the top part of the eye. The skin doesn't fold outwards like it does for hooded eyes.

So how do you make eye makeup work for hooded eyes?

How do you guys do it?

My numerous searches for tips and videos on how to apply eyeshadow to hooded eyes yielded very few useful results. Here are the best two I found:
This is for the more mature ladies who have hooded eyes due to age affecting the skin above the eyelids: click here
And this is for those of us who just have naturally hooded eyes: click here
Hope it gives you guys some idea of how to work your eyes.

Remember that hooded eyes don't dictate eye size. You can have larger (some might say longer) eyes and have hooded eyes. Also, I think it's important to note that there are different types of hooded eyes, as I have observed.
Some hooded eyes are more pronounced in that the hooded part is more prominent. And some, like mine, can be hooded and still have some kind of a crease area.

The biggest tip I got out of the 2 videos is that you should apply the crease colour with your eyes open. Other eye types might apply it with their eye closed or looking down and that works for them because they have the deep-set obvious crease. It doesn't work for us hooded eye types because when we open our eyes, the hooded part folds forward covering whatever colour you may have applied to your crease when you had your eyes closed or looking downwards.
I tried that technique and it definitely worked for me. By applying the crease colour with my eyes open, I was able to position the colour where it was needed and then I could look down and then blend the colour out to make more of a crease. Doing it with my eyes closed like before would have definitely resulted in me either putting the crease colour in the fold where it wouldn't show at all or too high where it would look more like a black eye than a smoky eye!

The following are some other tips I think might be useful.
Though I wasn't aware of it as I was doing it, I realized that so far, whenever I applied eyeshadow to my eyes, I've been concentrating the colour close to the lash line as this is the part that shows when my eyes are open.

                Putting the colour close to the lash line allows it to show when the eyes are open.

I think mascara and eyeliner are so important because they help define the eyes and lack of definition can be a big problem for hooded eyes. Mascara especially is a must for me because I find that it really opens up my eyes. Curling the lashes can give the added effect

For those with more prominent hoods, I've seen some looks where the eyes are defined with eyeliner and mascara and the desired colour applied to the hood itself, right above the fold and it looked absolutely stunning so that might be something you'd want to try.

I think the key here is to experiment and figure out what works for you.

Most important of all, while it's great to figure out the right make-up style for you, I think you shouldn't forget to have fun. Do what makes you feel comfortable and happy and beautiful :)

Finally, here are some celebrities with hooded or slightly hooded eyes. Who better to pick up tips from, right?! ;)

            Images Source: Celebs Central

Images Source: Celebs Central       
 

Hope they give you guys an idea of how to work those hooded or slightly hooded eyes! And be sure to share your tips below with others in the same boat! :)