A few years ago, I looked in the mirror and realized I now have hooded eyes. I have other problems I noticed as well. My eyelids are getting a crepey texture. And my eyelids have freckles now, thanks to a misspent youth in the sun, as well as dark patches that affect the color of any eye shadow I use.
What to do? Well, for starters, I needed to learn some new tricks for doing my makeup over 50. The routine I’ve developed over the years wasn’t working any longer. Time to learn how to do eye makeup for hooded eyes.
So, I spent a lot of time watching tons of makeup and skincare videos on YouTube to see what tips I could learn to help me feel a bit more confident in aging gracefully. In the end, I developed my own hooded eye makeup technique, which works for me and my eyes. I hope you find it useful.
What are Hooded Eyes?
As we get older, our eyes can become hooded, where the skin of our brow becomes heavy and droops over our eyelids, covering our eyelids partially, or in some cases fully.
This side-by-side comparison of me at 17 and then again at 50 shows what happens in painful detail.
As you can see, my eyes were always somewhat hooded, with very little eyelid showing. But as I’ve aged, my brow area (like so many other body parts!) has sagged and drooped.
As we age, we can also develop crepey eyelids which makes it harder for our eye makeup to go on smoothly.
We can’t regain our youth, but we can, at least, update our makeup to enhance our features as they our now.
Detailed Video: Update Your Eye Makeup for Hooded Eyes
Here’s a detailed video of the process and the steps are described in depth below.
Products Used in This Video
The eyeshadow palette I used in this video, Too Faced’s Chocolate Bar, has been discontinued! However, these palettes offer similar colors.
Eye Shadow Palettes Similar to Too Faced's Chocolate Bar
Why Eyeshadow Primer is Important for Over 40 Hooded Eyes
Eyeshadow primer is crucial when doing hooded eye makeup for several reasons:
It keeps your eyeshadow in place. I notice more and more that my eyeshadow can tend to slip around the day. Eyeshadow primer keeps my eye makeup in place throughout the day.
It helps create a smooth surface for your eye makeup. My skin on and around my eyes is probably the most wrinkled and crepey skin I have right now. Creating a smooth surface is a quick anti-aging technique.
If I put on eyeshadow without primer, it sticks to some parts of my eyelid and skips over other parts, leaving my eyeshadow looking messy and unfinished. I hate to use the word “spackle” in terms of the face, but primer really does act as a kind of spackle to even out the surface of the eye.
Primer gives your lids a consistent color and can brighten the eyelid. Like a lot of older women, my eyelids have freckles now, as well as other dark areas. Using primer helps keep my eyeshadow colors looking the way they do in the palette, rather than taking on an undertone caused by my uneven skin tone.
I like to use a primer that’s slightly lighter than my lid color it helps to smooth and brighten my eyelid.
Eyeshadow Primers I Love
How to Do Your Eye Makeup for Hooded Eyes: Step by Step
Start with Eye Primer
Apply primer with a concealer brush or even your finger evenly over the whole eye.
Cover the Entire Lid with Powder to Set the Primer.
You can use eyeshadow for this step (I used White Chocolate in the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette) or simply a translucent powder applied with a fluffy brush. This sets your primer and gives a nice smooth surface on which to apply the eyeshadow.
Redefine Your Crease so It Can Be Seen When Your Eye is Open
Apply a Transition Shade Slightly Above Your Natural Crease
Apply a medium eyeshadow shade with a small, flat eyeshadow brush slightly above your natural crease. Make sure you can see this when your eye is open! Extend it out only as far as the edge of your brow. Blend this down to your lid and up toward your brow with a fluffy brush.
Emphasize Your Lower Lash Line and Outer Corner of Your Eye
Using a flat, liner brush, take the same color you used for your crease and line underneath your lower lashes. When you get to the outer corner of the eye, bring the color up toward your outer brow for just the width of the liner brush.
Add a Lighter Color to Your Eyelid
Apply a lighter eyeshadow shade over the lid, up to your transition color. It’s good to use a lighter satin or even slightly shimmery color on your eyelids. This will reflect light off your eyelids, which in turn will make the fold above crease seem less prominent.
Don’t be put off by the myth that women over 40 can’t wear shimmery eyeshadow. A little bit on your eyelids adds a nice pop of light that accents your eyes. A shimmery eyeshadow place in the middle of your eyelid will not emphasize any eyelid or wrinkles or make your eyes look heavier, like it might if you placed it just below the brow, for example.
Define the Outer Edge of the Eye
Take a darker color and further define your crease and the outer corner of your eye by applying a darker shade slightly under your original crease-defining shade and using the same color to cover the outer third of your eye.
Add a Bit of Highlight to the Inner Corner and Brow Bone
Using a small brush and a bright, light color, highlight the inner corner of the eyethen just under the brow bone to add definition.
Eyeliner for Hooded Eyes: Yes or No?
Eyeliner can be tricky for those of us with hooded eyes. We have limited visible eyelid space so even a thin line of eyeliner can look too heavy and make the eyes appear even more downturned and heavy.
Instead, I use a dark eyeshadow color and apply it just along the upper lash line, pressing it into my lashes, give depth to my lashes and make them appear thicker.
Curl Your Lashes and Apply Mascara
Curling your lashes helps give a lifted look that helps combat the look of down-turned eyes.
The Finished Makeup for Hooded Eyes
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Other Great Tips for Eye Makeup for Hooded Eyes
I relied on these videos when I was developing my technique for hooded eyes. You might enjoy them as well.
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