How to Make Your Eyes Look Bigger

So this is my very first "how to" tutorial post. My equipment is extremely amateur so please don't hold the horrible yellow lighting and my iPhone camera against me (or my lovely model Orit who in fact doesn't look bright red in real life)!

I wanted to do a step-by-step with pictures for people who have hooded eyes, smaller eyes, or for anyone who wants to try a dramatic eye shadow technique that really emphasizes your eyes. This technique is called "cutting your crease" (which I think sounds a little gross) but what you are doing is quite literally outlining the crease of your lid with a dark color. The line remains harsh (I repeat DO NOT BLEND) in order to give a very defined lid - this is especially helpful for people who have hooded eyes and therefore their crease gets lost all together. So without further ado, here are the horrendously low quality pictures to demonstrate:

1. Apply an eyelid primer so that the shadows will go on and stay put. It's important to use eyeshadows that don't bleed or have lots of "fall out" for this look since the lines are intended to be sharp.

2. Apply a light but pigmented shadow on the lid. Here I'm using a matte peach color by Lancome. Best to use a flat shader or concealer brush and pack this shadow on layer by layer. Do your best to stay beneath the crease - just cover the lid.

3. Using an angled liner brush, outline your crease sharply with a dark colored eye shadow. You want to keep this line as defined and sharp as possible so take your time. To get the right angle from your lash line, it helps to hold a brush up to the outer edge of your eye and line it up with the end of your eyebrow. That is the angle that you should use to connect your crease line with your lash line.

 And here's a close up:

4. Blend the outer edge of the line but do not touch the inner edge (the one along your lid that connects with the lighter shadow).

5. Use your favorite eye liner, curl lashes, and apply mascara. Then apply your foundation and use your foundation brush to further sharpen the angle of your eyeshadow. You can even apply some concealer on your brow bone as a highlighter and blend it to make sure that the dark eyeshadow from your crease isn't too high (a dark crease color shouldn't go all the way up the brow bone).

6. Add some blush and lip gloss and Tada!

The effect is a large, open eye with a very defined crease. It's a great technique because it works with all different shadow colors. The only rule is something light and bright on the lid and then something dark and not glittery or powdery for the crease. I definitely recommend YouTube-ing this technique (cutting your crease) as there are many talented people out there with great color scheme ideas for this look. I hope this was helpful! Have a wonderful day!