The 2 Exact Products I Use On My Hooded Eyes To Look Fresh And Young At (Almost) 50!!
And one HUGE trick I use and can’t believe I’m writing about it for the first time now.
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by Audie Metcalf
Even writing the number 50 is sort of brow-raisingly bizarre. Because I still think of myself as 28. Don’t you? And speaking of brow-raising, a 28-year-old probably doesn't have to physically lift her brows up like this to read, so that her vision isn’t obscured by fleshy folds sitting atop her lashes. Perhaps you can relate?
It’s possible that an upper bleph is in my future, though I had ChatGPT give me one and I’m not sure—I’m sort of here to say that our heavy lids might actually be making us look … younger?
But nevertheless, eye makeup is near impossible to do when you have massively heavy hoods like me. And for your viewing pleasure, on the left where I don’t have a STITCH of makeup on, you can see that those hoods are pressing down so heavily on my lashes they are nearly swallowed up entirely, and on the right is using my very specific products and trickery:
So I’ve figured out 2 exact steps and 2 exact products that I think apply universally to the HHLC (heavy-hooded lid club—obvs).
1. The right mascara is key, and it must be lengthening.
Ok, HERE’S THE BIG SECRET TRICK: Once my lids got crepey, I realized putting eyeshadow all over them was a truly ludicrous concept—it just exacerbates every line and wrinkle and puff. And thus began my decade-long affair with the exaggerated lash. The lashes do all the work. I put ZERO anything on my upper eyelids even though we’re always told to do browns and creams and to define our crease etc. etc. All of this is hogwash if you have a hooded lid and are over 45. Hogwash! Whereas a very lengthened lash creates that bright-eyed, awake look—one might even call it youthy. Even though I have very stubby, straight lashes, this lengthening mascara* creates tons of definition and does the heavy lifting of making my eyes pop. I also find it CRUCIAL to wear a brown mascara* (which also helps to make the eye color pop) as opposed to black which looks harsh. And yes, I use a curler*, but I truly think most curlers are the same—I just pump it a few times on each eye.
Ok, so the other absolute key to this mascara is that it really coats every, single lash AND it doesn’t smudge—a godsend when I’m used to mascara flakes ending up on my hoods 17 minutes after application. It’s also the only mascara I’ve ever worn that doesn’t irritate my eyes by midday. There are other mascaras I’ve worn and loved, I just usually suck it up around 3pm and use eye drops, but with this mascara I experience zero irritation all day. But perhaps most thrilling, once those lashes are up and at attention, they just do not droop. Ever. So the big, doe-eyed look is there alllllll day.
Price: $28
2. Long-wear eyeshadow used as liner
Ok, so we’ve established I personally do not love shadow on my lids (and, of course, if you love shadow on YOUR lids then YOU DO YOU) but I do love smearing, quite haphazardly, a long-wear cream shadow riiiight on the root of my upper lashes and then on my lower lashes so it creates a sort of haze. But the only way this possibly works is if it’s truly long-wear—and I’ve tried soooo many shadows that make this claim but they end up right where all shadows end up: smeared randomly on my lid. So then I wipe it off. Which wipes off the rest of the shadow. So then I swear loudly, alone in my bathroom, and then vow never to wear eyeshadow again. You know this routine, yes? BUT … this shadow actually doesn’t budge. Here are the two colors I love, the top one is in the color Matchbook* which I use in a more dressy situation because it REALLY pops my eye color, and the bottom color is in Sartorial* which I have on in all photos:
Price: $26
I use this brush* which is double-ended so it’s ideal for smearing color on upper and lower lash lines—I actually use the fluffier side for lower and the smaller side for upper since I have almost no real estate on those lids. The reason it’s clean as a whistle is because I literally own 5 of these brushes—the first one Merit sent to me and then I loved it so much I bought more.
The lip liner above in that exact color Bespoke is there in the pic just as a loving reminder that it’s also some kind of miracle worker, and I was able to achieve this before and after with it:
You can also see the liner in action (paired only with Vaseline) along with the mascara/shadow combo on our most recent reels on our insta.
Is this a partnership? Yes. But does this partnership only exist because I have used and loved Merit for years and once I tried their mascara and it gave me the lashes of my dreams I therefore wanted to shout that from the rooftops to all my hooded-eyed friends and comrades? Also yes.
And lastly a photo taken hours later to show you the staying powder of this mascara*—nary a dropped lash in sight:
Audie Metcalf is the Editor-in-chief of The Candidly, and lives in LA with her family. You can find more of her articles here.
We only work with companies we feel passionately about, and this post contains sponsored content. Our opinions are 100% our own, and in fact we only work with brands AFTER we've discovered something of theirs we love. Supporting this content means we all get to keep doing what we're doing here at The Candidly. And keep our jobs. So thanks for that.
At The Candidly, we try a lot of stuff so you don’t have to. We only recommend things we truly love, and that we think you’ll love, too. All products are chosen independently by our creative team, and all details reflect the price and availability of products at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to, The Candidly may earn a commission.
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