Do you have downturned eyes?

What downturned eyes look like

Downturned is the name for an eye whose outer corner sits level with or below its inner corner. Draw a line through the two corners and it runs flat, or slopes gently down toward the temple. The outline itself can be almond or round; the tilt is what defines the shape.

Three things go together. The lower lid runs level or dips slightly as it travels outward, instead of rising. The outer part of the upper lid looks a little heavier, because it meets a corner that sits low. And the eye's highest point is over the inner half of the iris.

The crease is usually visible, though on many downturned eyes the fold sits lower at the outer end, and some skin from the brow rests on it there. That is the beginning of hooding, a separate trait that keeps the shape company more often than not.

Downturned eyes read calm, soft and a little melancholy in the flattering sense, which is why they photograph so well in portraits. Nothing about the shape needs fixing. The makeup section below covers how to lift it visually, for days when you want that, and how to work with it as it is.

How to tell if you have downturned eyes

Stand facing a mirror in even light, relax your face and look straight ahead. Brows down, no smile, chin level. A tilted chin matters more here than anywhere else, because dropping it lowers every outer corner and raising it lifts them. Then check three things.

1. The tilt line. Lay a pencil across the inner and outer corners of one eye. Slightly uphill toward the temple is almond. Level, or downhill, is downturned.
2. The lower lid. Follow it from the inner corner outward. On a downturned eye it stays flat or dips rather than climbing toward the corner.
3. The outer corner. It sits at or below the level of the inner corner, often with the upper lid resting a little heavier there.

The test does the same job with numbers. It measures the angle from inner to outer corner on each eye, averages them and corrects for head roll, so a tilted head adds nothing. Downturned is the result when that angle is at or below two degrees. The typical face sits around seven.

Downturned is the first rule the test checks, before openness. That means a tall eye with a low outer corner comes out downturned rather than round, and a narrow eye with a low corner comes out downturned rather than elongated. The openness gauge on the result card still shows the height.

A downturned result on a photo taken from above is not a downturned eye. Phones held at forehead height, and most laptop cameras, look down at the face and lower every outer corner. Retake at eye level, at arm's length. If the reading holds, the shape is yours. The canthal tilt test reports the angle.

Downturned vs hooded and almond eyes

Downturned and hooded eyes are confused because they so often arrive together and because both make the outer eye look heavier. They are different things. Downturned is about the corners: the outer one sits low. Hooded is about the lid: a fold of skin covers the crease.

You can have either without the other. A downturned eye with a clear, visible crease is common in younger faces. A hooded eye with a lifted outer corner is common too. When both are present, the outer fold sits lowest exactly where the corner is lowest, and the two traits reinforce each other.

Downturned and almond eyes share an outline and differ in tilt. Almond eyes lift a little; downturned eyes do not lift at all. On the test the boundary is two degrees, and many eyes sit near it. If your tilt marker is just above the downturned band, both pages suit you.

Age moves eyes across this boundary. The outer corner descends as the ligament that anchors it loosens and as the cheek below it settles, so an almond eye at thirty often measures downturned at sixty. The shape has not gone wrong; it has moved along a scale that everyone travels.

Makeup for downturned eyes

Downturned eyes give you a choice that other shapes do not: lift the outer corner visually, or work with the soft, level line the eye already has. Most guides describe only the first. The second is the look many portrait photographers ask for, and it takes less product.

To lift, stop the upper liner a few millimetres before the outer corner and angle it up toward the tail of the brow, so the wing starts higher than the eye's own line. Do not follow the lower lash line into the wing; that traces the downward slope and repeats it.

Keep the outer third of the lower lash line bare, or very light. Darkness there weights the corner and pulls it down. Place the darkest shadow above the outer crease, blending up and out toward the brow tail, so the deepest tone sits higher than the corner does.

A highlight at the inner corner and the centre of the lid draws the gaze to the middle and top of the eye. Lashes longest at the outer third, curled upward, continue the lifted line. A brow tail that ends above the outer corner, never below it, does more than any of these.

To work with the shape, run a soft pencil along the upper lash line without a wing, smudge it slightly, and let the lower outer corner stay warm rather than dark. A wash of one medium shade across the whole lid, with no crease work, keeps the eye gentle and looks finished in a minute.

For men who want to look rested rather than made up, the lift comes from the brow and the concealer, not the lid. Brush the brow tails up and out, and place a little concealer under the outer corner where shadows gather. Shadow shades should follow your colouring; the color analysis test gives the palette.

Lashes, brows and glasses for downturned eyes

Lashes longest at the outer third, and curled firmly, are the strongest lift available without liner. For strip lashes, choose a set that flares up and out at the end rather than fanning evenly. Heavy lashes across the whole lid weight the eye and lower it.

Brows carry the shape more than on any other eye. A higher arch above the outer third of the iris, and a tail that stays level or lifts slightly to end above the outer corner, raises the whole eye area. A tail that droops below the corner follows the eye down and doubles the slope.

Glasses with an upswept outer corner, the cat-eye or browline shape, draw a rising line exactly where the eye descends, and are the frame most often recommended for downturned eyes for good reason. A frame whose lower rim slopes down and out repeats the tilt. The face shape guides cover the frame outline itself.

Hair frames the eyes from above. A fringe that ends at the brow suits downturned eyes; one that falls over the outer brow adds weight where the eye is already low. Side-swept fringes and layers that lift away from the face at the temple carry the gaze upward.

Downturned eyes and the rest of the face

Eye shape is one reading among several, and the others move how it looks. Downturned eyes on a heart face or oval face read soft and are part of the classic portrait look. On a square face or oblong face the level line echoes the straight sides and can read serious.

Spacing changes the picture too. Wide-set downturned eyes open the centre of the face and can take definition at the inner corner without looking crowded. Close-set downturned eyes suit shadow and liner that build outward and upward, away from the bridge of the nose.

Openness is measured separately. A tall downturned eye shows white under the iris and reads open and gentle; a narrow downturned eye reads sleepy in photographs and alert in life. The gauges on the result card show both numbers, and the label is only the category the first rule placed you in.

Photographs shift the reading more than any of this. A camera held above eye level lowers every outer corner; one held below lifts them. Hold the phone at eye level, at arm's length, in even light, chin level and face relaxed, and the test sees the shape you see in the mirror.

Frequently asked questions