All About Eye Shapes

Almond eyes
Our favorite almond-eyed beauties: Beyonce, Angelina Jolie, Katherine Heigl, Leighton Meister, Olivia Wilde, Emma Watson, Christy Turlington, Mila Kunis, and Eva Longoria

To all the almond-eyed ladies out there—wow, do you have it made.

Ultra-feminine and classically beautiful, Your Cleopatra-esque lids are an extremely desired eye shape. “Ideally, most women want to make their eyes appear almond shaped,” says MAC Senior Artist John Stapleton says. “Most techniques in makeup are employed to achieve this exact eye shape.”

QUIZ: Find The Best Eye Makeup Color for You

To accentuate your covetable eye shape even more, line your upper and lower lash lines and go as bold as you dare—jet-black liquid liners are an almond-eyed gal’s best friend.

We recommend:
Josie Maran Magic Marker Argan Liquid Eye Liner in Ink, $22

Narrow eyes
Our favorite narrow-eyed beauties: Carey Mulligan, Ellen Pompeo, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sandra Oh, Kirsten Dunst, Jessica Biel and Taylor Swift

In our opinion, narrow eyes don’t get enough props—there’s something so mysterious and sexy about them. Yep, gals with narrow eyes are the ones who keep us on our toes.

MAC Senior Artist John Stapleton suggests avoiding heavy, dark shadow and liner, which can overpower narrow eyes and close them up too much. Stick with light, iridescent shadows instead.

We recommend:
Stila Eye Shadow in Poppy, Cloud, Kitten or Shell, $18 each

Round eyes
Our favorite round-eyed beauties: Zooey Deschanel and Twiggy

When it comes to eye shapes, round is feminine and versatile—you can try out a lot of different makeup looks on round eyes.

Round eyes look very youthful, and you can exaggerate your eyes’ girly fullness by shading all around the perimeter with a smoky eyeshadow.

It’s also easy to make them appear more almond-shaped. The trick? Apply liner around the perimeter of the eye, and then extend the liner out to create a beautiful almond shape, says MAC senior artist John Stapelton.

If you have small, round eyes and want them to appear bigger, use the same technique with light or frosty liner shades to really open up the eyes.

We recommend:
Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Bourbon, $18

Hooded eyelids
Our favorite hooded-eyed beauties: Lucy Liu and Blake Lively

Hooded lids—very common among Asian ancestry, but seen in every ethnicity—require some clever makeup mastery.

With this eye shape, a piece of skin folds over the lower part of the eyelid, so dark shadows are best to make the lid stand out. No wonder bold makeup looks amazing on this type of eye.