Do you have protruding eyes?

What protruding eyes look like

Protruding is a word about position. The eyeball sits further forward in the socket than average, so the front of the eye reaches or passes the line of the brow bone above it. The opening can be any outline, but because a forward eye shows more of itself, it most often reads round.

The first sign from the front is how much shows. A large area of upper lid is visible above the lashes, sometimes stretching smoothly up to the brow. In a relaxed gaze, a rim of white often shows around the iris, above, below or both. The eye looks big and awake.

The crease behaves differently from other eyes. On some faces it sits high, well above the lashes. On others it is faint or barely defined, because the lid is drawn tight over the forward eye and has little slack to fold. Either way the lid is on show rather than tucked away.

The lower lid gives the second sign. On a protruding eye it curves outward to wrap the front of the eye, and in profile that curve is visible below the lashes. Protruding eyes appear in every population, often run in families, and are frequently paired with a round outline on the eye shape test.

How to tell if you have protruding eyes

The check is a side view, because depth is the one axis a front photo does not have. Stand sideways to a mirror in even light, or have someone photograph your profile at eye level. Relax your face, look straight ahead, and do not widen your eyes.

1. Find the brow bone. Picture a vertical line dropping from the most forward point of your brow.
2. Find the front of the eye. On a protruding eye, the cornea sits level with or ahead of that line rather than behind it.
3. Look at the lower lid. It bows outward to cover the front of the eye, with a visible curve below the lashes.

From the front, two clues support the side view. A wide band of upper lid is on show in a relaxed gaze, and white is visible around part of the iris without widening your eyes. If the lid is hidden rather than shown, you are looking at the opposite trait; read the hooded page.

The test does not report position, on purpose. A front photo flattens the socket, and a forward eye and a large, level eye look the same to a landmark model. Guessing depth from visible white would confuse a wide-eyed expression with a stable feature, so the tool measures the outline and leaves depth to you.

What it gives you is still worth having. Protruding eyes usually land in the top fifth of openness and read round, sometimes almond if the outline narrows at the corner. The gauges show how tall your opening is for its width against 3,000 measured faces, and spacing shows where the eyes sit across the face.

Protruding vs round and deep-set eyes

Protruding and round eyes are the pair most often merged into one, and for a good reason: most protruding eyes are round in outline. The difference is the axis. Round is height against width, which a front photo measures. Protruding is front against back, which only a profile shows.

You can have one without the other. A round eye that sits level with the brow bone shows white above and below the iris but no outward curve in profile. A protruding eye with an almond outline shows a lot of lid and a lower-lid curve in profile but little white from the front.

Protruding and deep-set eyes are opposites on the same axis, and the advice for each is the mirror image of the other. Deep-set eyes want light brought forward onto the lid; protruding eyes want the lid to recede. If you find yourself following deep-set guidance and it is not working, check your profile.

Age moves eyes toward deep-set rather than protruding, as the fat behind the eye thins and the socket opens. A protruding eye tends to look less so over the decades. A protruding eye that becomes more so with time is the case to have looked at, which the next section covers.

When a change is worth a doctor's visit

Most protruding eyes are a stable feature that a person has had since childhood, and everything on this page is written about that. A change is different. If one or both eyes have started to sit further forward recently, or one eye protrudes noticeably more than the other, that is worth a medical appointment.

The same goes for protrusion that comes with pain, redness, dryness, a gritty feeling, double vision or any change in sight. Thyroid eye disease is a known and treatable cause of new protrusion, and an optician or doctor can check for it quickly. This page is about styling and is not medical advice.

Makeup for protruding eyes

The aim is to let the lid recede a little rather than come forward, which is the opposite of most eye-opening advice. A protruding eye has visibility built in. Shimmer, pale shades and strong highlight across the lid catch light on a surface that is already the most forward part of the face.

Start with a matte medium shade over the whole mobile lid, a tone slightly deeper than your skin, blended up to just above the crease. This softens the amount of lid on show. Matte finishes are the point; a satin shade in the same colour projects the lid forward again.

Define the lower lash line more than you might elsewhere. A smudged pencil or a deeper matte shade along the whole lower lash line, tightlined into the lower waterline, balances the wide upper lid and settles the eye. Keep the inner corner free of pale highlight, which pushes the eye outward.

Liner on the upper lid can be fuller than on a deep-set or hooded eye, because there is room for it and it grounds the lid. A medium line that thickens slightly toward the outer corner, with a short horizontal flick, brings the outline toward almond. A steep upward wing adds more openness.

For men who want a rested look without visible makeup, a matte tinted moisturiser or a touch of matte bronzer pressed lightly across the lid takes the shine off the most prominent surface on the face. Nothing shimmering, nothing pale. Grooming the brows fuller does the rest.

Pick the medium shade from your season, since the same brown reads muddy on one undertone and neutral on another. The color analysis test gives your palette, and the season pages list the eye shades that sit well against your skin and hair.

Lashes, brows and glasses for protruding eyes

Lashes frame a protruding eye rather than open it, so choose definition over length. A volumising mascara through the roots, with a modest curl, gives the lid a dark edge without pushing the lashes out into the room. Very long lashes on a forward eye read as more projection.

For strip or individual lashes, an even, slightly dense band with a natural length suits the shape. Concentrate any extra length at the outer corner, which draws the outline sideways toward almond. Skip dramatic centre-length styles, which emphasise the roundness and the forward position.

Brows should be fuller and set a little lower than fashion sometimes suggests. A strong, well-filled brow gives the forward eye a frame above it and brings the brow bone visually forward to meet the eye. A very thin or high brow leaves the lid looking larger and more exposed.

For glasses, a slightly larger frame with a darker or thicker upper rim does what a strong brow does: it puts a line in front of the eye and reduces the sense of projection. Bold acetate suits protruding eyes better than fine metal, which lets the whole eye show.

Lens depth matters in a practical way as well. Frames that sit too close to the face can touch the lashes of a protruding eye, so look for a longer nose pad or an adjustable bridge that holds the lenses a little further forward. The face shape guides cover the outline of the frame itself.

Hair can help where brows and frames leave off. A fringe that ends at the brow, or a side-swept one that crosses the forehead, brings a horizontal line into the top of the face and grounds the eyes. Layers starting at the cheekbone draw attention across, rather than onto, the eye.

Protruding eyes and the rest of the face

Position changes how the other readings look. On a round face, protruding eyes add to the openness of the whole face and suit the structured makeup and frames described above. On a square or oblong face, they are often the softest feature and can carry more definition without looking heavy.

Spacing interacts with depth. The test divides the gap between your inner corners by eye width. Wide-set protruding eyes open the centre of the face and suit definition at the inner corner and brows that start closer together. Close-set protruding eyes benefit from a darker outer corner and a brow that starts slightly further out.

Tilt is unchanged by position but read differently. An upturned protruding eye looks bright and lifted; a downturned one can look heavy at the outer corner because the lower lid curve and the lower corner meet. The canthal tilt test gives the angle on its own, so the two effects can be told apart.

Photographs exaggerate protruding eyes in one direction. A phone held below eye level and close to the face enlarges the eyes and shows more white; a wide-angle lens does the same. Hold the phone at eye level, at arm's length, in front light, and the test measures the opening you see in the mirror.

Frequently asked questions