Now, we think that there’s beauty in every eye shape and size. It’s not so much about how big your eyes look, but really about how you present yourself overall. However, there are many of us with smaller eye sizes who may feel left out because of pop culture’s general obsession with large, wide-eyed girls.
Here are some makeup tips from Korean beauty gurus who have used the power of makeup to create seamless illusions that their eyes are bigger than they actually are!
1. Extend the length of your eyes with brown eyeliner
If your eyes are narrow and you have hooded eyelids, try out Kim Da Yeong‘s technique. She uses a brown eyeliner along her lashline and extends it outwards along a natural tangent. This will create an illusion of depth, especially at the outer corner of your eye.
You can pair this with a soft, warm eyeshadow look, and you can also use an eyeshadow brush to gently smudge out the eyeliner (if you are using a pencil or gel liner) to make the look more natural.
DV tip: When creating a winged look, use the angle at which your bottom lashline connects with your top lashes on the outer corner of your eye as a guideline.
2. Fake the crease
If you’ve watched any eyeshadow tutorials on YouTube, chances are that you’ve seen those done by Caucasian YouTubers. Because their eyes are deeper set than most of us, they actually have a crease to talk about and play with.
But hey, makeup is here to help us fake it till we make it, right? Take a leaf out of Das‘s book: she uses a brown eyeshadow to create the illusion of a crease, which helps to open up her eyes and give them a lot more depth. With this trick, always make sure that you blend, blend, blend it out.
3. Create depth with brown eyeshadow
For beauty guru Yoo, the trick to giving her monolids more depth and character is in using brown eyeshadow to create a semi-smokey look that makes her eyes look deeper and bigger than they really are.
She concentrates the brown eyeshadow on the outer third of her top and bottom lashline, which gives the illusion of extending her eyes outwards. Yoo pairs this with soft warm eyeshadows and mascara on both top and bottom lashes.
DV tip: Avoid lining both your top and bottom lashes from inner to outer corners, as that may make your eyes appear more closed. If you have to, line your bottom lashes with a nude waterproof pencil liner (not white!) which will contribute to the illusion of bigger eyes.
4. Bling up the center of your lids
Hooded eyelids are a whole different ball game when it comes to eyeshadow application techniques. For one, using three progressive shades of the same eyeshadow colour is an indispensable step to making hooded eyes look larger and more alluring.
Korean beauty personality Estheris kicks her eyeshadow game up a notch by putting gold or some other light and shimmery colour in the center of her lids. This reflects light at the high point of your eyelids, which deepens the contouring illusion.
DV tip: Your fingers generally work best at picking up pigment, especially shimmery and glittery shades, than any brush. Pack it on with your finger, then blend it out with a fluffy brush.
5. Falsies exist for a reason
Korean influencer Sobong actually has slightly puffy monolids, so her natural eye size appears small. However, with the clever use of double eyelid tape and falsies, she’s completely transformed the way her eyes look.
She uses false eyelashes (more fluttery, natural-looking types rather than the densely packed ones) on her top lashline, as well as the outer corner of her bottom lash lines to really open up her eyes. Add a soft winged eyeliner and the illusion is complete.
6. Don’t be afraid to put eyeshadow on your bottom lashes
You may have monolids, but if your eye shape is naturally rounder instead of narrower, then it’s a pretty simple step to making them look bigger, as Korean makeup artist Hyeyeon proves.
Adding a subtle line of colour to your bottom lashes will help to create more definition to the shape of your eye, and give it more contour. Make sure you also add in the same colour on the outer portion of your top lashes and connect it with the bottom shadow at the outer corner.
DV tip: Do your lid shadows before putting on foundation so it’s more convenient to clean up any fallout from the eyeshadow powders. Apply foundation and under-eye concealer, and set everything before you put on the eyeshadow on your lower lashes.
If you’re new to lower lash eyeshadow, start with lighter shades that won’t accidentally look like under-eye darkness. You can experiment with darker shades when you’re more confident.
