How to do makeup for hooded eyes? Lisa Eldridge Answers.

A celebrity makeup artist IS a celebrity makeup artist.

This tutorial by Lisa Eldridge is a godsend, especially for people with hooded eyelids like me.

I wish this video was on five years ago, as it would have saved me a whole lot of time exploring, knocking and falling, and discovering my own best method of putting eyeshadow on my hooded eyes.

The most challenging part to do eye makeup for hooded eyes is definitely the hidden mobile lids, big fleshy hood, and for me, tapered lid on the inner corner. I can't tell you how many things I can't do because my lids are tapered at the inner corner.

In all earnest, it would be better if Lisa Eldridge could do this tutorial again on people with tapered lids are completely invisible mobile lids.

Apart from the video, here are some of my personal ways of working around hooded eyes that I discovered over the years:

- Eye primer (UDPP is another godsend).

- Forget inky black liners (not pencil, not gel, not liquid/marker are going to work) because they all print over from the lash line onto the part that is the crease (people with hooded lids do not have visible creases, they do of course still have socket line or orbital bone as some would call it). Go for drier ones. I very personally like M.A.C Pearlglide, Le Metier de Beaute, and DollyWink.

Even my favourite Maybelline Gel Liner does smudge and print over, but I am quite careful as I will apply lesser, apply lots of eyeshadow (so I can rub off the powder that has been printed upon), and use eye primer.

- Do the eyeshadow one step at a time, always put colour on your mobile/hidden lid first. Do this until you're happy with the intensity and whatnot, then only Open Your Eyes, Look Straight, and use a Blending Brush to add colour softly and slowly into the fleshy part over your socket line.

Using a shader brush like M.A.C 239, or a pencil brush, is just going to make your life incredibly difficult. Stiff brushes and pencil brushes are not good friends of hooded eyes at all.

- Let the lash line remain soft. Drawing harsh black or solid brown eye line is only going to hide that meagre amount of mobile lid that is visible, and you don't want that. If you have tapered hooded lids like mine, drawing eyeliner on the inner half is no use at all, so forget it. The inner lash line is so hidden under the fleshy hood that nobody is going to see anything.

I am not a pro at makeup, but I just find that after taking a lot of knocks, literally walking out the door with lousy makeup, getting criticised (too much, too little, too exaggerated, etc), I have found many tiny methods here and there that is good for myself (hooded eyes), and some of these coincidentally coincide with the tips Lisa Eldridge gives. These days, I find that people don't complain about how horrid my makeup look anymore, other than the occasional slip. =) 5 years ago, they do.

I think the one big tip I can say for hooded eyes is, Don't Overdo it. Any mistake, any bit more of makeup is going to become very pronounced on the face due to prominent brow and eye area because there is just more skin and flesh there.

That's why these days, my FOTD always feature thin eyeliner, and lighter, more sheer eyeshadows.

I do have a whole lot of FOTDs, so if you'd like to see how my eye makeup has changed over time, the FOTD tag is on the right-hand column. But here are two typical looks that I adore right now, both light, refreshing, yet makes the eye sparkle.
Burberry Antique Rose and theBalm Mary Lou-Manizer
Chanel Summer 2012
Canmake Perfect Stylist Eyes

PS: I am not sure if it's copy or in response to Lisa Eldridge (too much coincidence), but I just realised that the Pixiwoo sisters has just come out with a compilation of all the tutorials they did for real models with hooded eyes today. (I typed this blog post yesterday, together with the Lisa Eldridge video.) So yes, it's another resource to refer to for hooded eyes!