Enhancing Eye Makeup for Small Eyes

Ladies with small eyes need not fret...the key to applying makeup to small eyes is understanding principles of color and depth. Remember that having small eyes isn't a negative - its likely that small eyes gives you a very sharp look! There are many gorgeous celebrities with smaller eyes that know how to use makeup to enhance them, although some make common mistakes.

Case in point, Emmanuelle Chriqui has beautiful features - however, she makes her small eyes look even smaller by applying charcoal eyeshadow all over her lids. The dark color all over her lids makes her eyes recede and appear even smaller than they are normally.

On the other hand, you'll rarely see Gisele Bundchen, another beauty with small eyes, with tons of dark shadow on her eyes. In an Elle magazine interview (month unknown), Gisele gave the following advice on eye makeup, "If you're wearing smoky eye makeup, a little beige or gold pencil on the inner eye corners will open up the area, but you only want to do it if the shadow is really dark. Otherwise, light pencil makes your eyes look too far apart, like a fish. And I put black mascara on my top and bottom lashes because I have tiny little hamster eyes. With mascara, they seem larger."

True to her Elle interview, Gisele often keeps her eyes totally natural or if she does have eye makeup on, she applies light metallic shadows with tons of mascara. In the photo above, for example, Gisele has on a light gold shadow, black liquid liner on the upper lids only, a bit of brown liner on the bottom lids and black mascara.

Product Recommendations:

Eyeshadows: Stick with light colored, shimmery shadows that light up your eyes and bring your eyes forward rather than causing them to recede. Cream (MAC Shadow in Shore Leave), champagne (MAC Shadestick in Shimmersand) and gold (Bobbi Brown Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow in Gold) colored shadows are great neutrals to use for work or for going out. To add some color, peach (Bobbi Brown Metallic Eye Shadow in Golden Peach), light pink (NARS Shimmer Eye Shadow in Fathom), and lilac (NARS Eye Shadow in Night Fairy) colored shadows help break out of the neutral territory.

Eye Liner: Try using dark brown, gray or navy blue liner (try Bobbi Brown's Gel Eyeliner in Chocolate Shimmer Ink, Granite Ink or Cobalt Ink, for example) instead of black, as black tends to be a harsh color and surrounding the eyes in the black liner makes them look smaller. If you must use black liner, follow Gisele's lead and apply black liner on the upper lashline only and apply a dark brown pencil liner to the lower lashline.

Mascara: Any mascara that opens up the eyes works. Go with a formula that suits your lash needs, whether its lengthening, volumizing, or curling. Make sure to comb out your lashes to keep away any clumps and to open up your eyes.