Bedroom Eyes
I have always had a love/hate relationship with my eyes.
To start off with, my eyes are a pale green/grey/blue color
that has a darker rim of color around them.
Cool, right? Even though part of
me has always wanted dark brown eyes (Always want what you don’t have!) I have
always been able to appreciate the uniqueness of the pair I was given. Anytime I’m given the decision to play up my
eyes or my lips, 9/10 it’ll be eyes – no contest. So what causes the “hate” side of this
relationship?
I have what you would call hooded eyes.
I didn't always realize this (obvious) fact. Until about a year or two ago, I just assumed
I had tiny eyes mixed with premature crows feet. Seriously.
I now completely understand all of the rolled eyes I was given, when I
was 18 years old(and younger) complaining about not being able to wear a winged liner
because of "my crows feet"!
However, about two years ago I realized that it wasn't
any type of wrinkle outside of my eye causing my issue, but rather just the
fold of my eyelid appearing to continue lower than it 'should'. I looked into it and sure enough, there was a
name for this – “hooded eyes”. And it
usually comes with a negative connotation.
A lot of people consider hooded eyes to be something that
develop when you get older, and the skin begins to sag – but that is not always
the case. In cases such as mine, it is
just bone structure. And it’s not
unusual.
But it was unusual enough to bother me. I have little “eyelid” skin to work with for
applying shadows, and if I want to do anything in my outer v or crease, I have
to go up and beyond to make it even show.
And creating a a winged liner?
Yeah, right. (Or so I thought at the time)
Realizing that it was just my bone structure kind of made my
issues with being self conscious about it worse, too. I even started to look into eyebrow lift
surgery techniques and the like. Until I
began to realize that hooded eyes… Aren't
such a bad thing. Why should they be? Who decided they are?
I want to seriously, completely thank a beautiful actress
for bringing hooded eyes into a new light to the public, too. A little actress by the name of Jennifer
Lawrence.
Why would people ever think hooded eyes are a negative
thing? I began to experiment with
different brushes and more opaque shadows, and found that while it may take
more effort, there are a lot of looks that one without hooded eyelids just can’t
create. In fact, do you know what name hooded
eyes also go by? Bedroom eyes! Many, many models and acresses who are seen as the
standard of sex appeal have hooded eyes.
Anne Hathaway, Blake Lively, Bridget Bardot, Carmen Electra, Gisele Bundchen, Lauren Bacall, Sienna Miller, Hayden Panettiere, Emma Stone... Just to name a few.
So I began the process to love my eyes, and not think of ways to reduce
the hooded look. If you have hooded
eyelids and are looking to start the journey of self-love, here is how I did (and am doing) it:
Eyebrows
You know how people will tell you that groomed and shaped
eyebrows are really important? Well, it’s
extremely true. I used to be serious
about (over) plucking, but began to put more thought into my brows and have now
combined plucking with filling in and shaping (in a dramatic, yet NOT overdone
way) my brows, and it immediately perks up the “bitch face” that hooded eyes
can give you. To compare:
I use a brow pencil by MAC and lightly fill in. That’s it! (I also got a little wiser about flattering hair styles. Eek)
PRACTICE
Just like learning anything regarding cosmetics, practice
makes perfect. You can’t expect to do a
full eye in 5 minutes when you’re just starting out; same goes for learning
something new. I suggest going to Pinterest and searching "hooded eye tutorial". SO many results!
TUTORIALS
Looking at tutorials made specifically addressing hooded
eyes helped me so much. You have a
different eye shape; you’ll need different techniques!
Learning to correctly make up my eyes, and to love them even
completely naked-faced has definitely upped my self confidence in my day-to-day
life. I no longer feel the need to raise
my eyebrows in pictures, or to whine about how difficult my eyes are to make up
to my friends when I do their shadows. I
have a different eye shape, one that is no worse (or better) than any
other. And I’m learning to embrace my “bedroom
eyes”!
The path to self love is never an easy one. But it’s always worth the journey.
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