How to Make Your Eyes Look Bigger With Makeup

The doe-eyed look is a classic beauty aesthetic that is as modern and chic as it is old-Hollywood glamour. You can easily make your eyes look bigger with the right products and techniques. A pop of white eyeliner on the waterline, mascara-layered lashes, and a shimmery shadow in the inner corner of your eye all help make your eyes look bigger, bolder, and more awake.

The techniques below also work with eye shapes and routine, whether you have 10 minutes or 30. This quick guide covers light and shadow principles, step-by-step techniques, Revlon product recs, and easy eye shape adaptations.

Why Eye Makeup Can Make Eyes Look Bigger

Understanding how to get bigger eyes means learning the visual principles behind each of our eye-opening techniques. Light draws surfaces forward and makes them look larger, while dark shades create depth and pull the area back. Adding light shades where the eye needs to look larger and using darker shades only where definition is needed (such as in the crease) creates the illusion of a bigger, more open eye.

No product or technique will change the size of your eye, but your eyes can look bigger with the right placement, contrast, and finish.

The Role of Light, Shadow, and Color Placement

To get the doe-eyed look, you need to understand color and finish. Matte shades absorb light and make this part of the eye shrink.

Shimmer and satin shades catch the light and bring areas forward. The inner corner, the center of the lid, and the brow bone are the three spots where a little light really makes eyes look bigger, so that's where a shimmery shade works best.

Liner matters too. A thick line of dark liner all the way around the eye can end up making your eyes look smaller instead of bigger. Try keeping liner close to the upper lash line, avoiding the inner lower waterline, or swapping dark liner on the waterline for a nude or white shade to open your eyes up.

Lashes are the finishing touch. Well-curled, lengthened lashes stretch the eye area up and out, making eyes look bigger and more open.

What Makes Eyes Look Smaller (and How to Avoid It)

Heavy black liner on your lower waterline is usually what makes eyes look smaller than they could. A dark ring closes off the inner corner and covers up the white of your eye. Swap it for a nude or white liner instead, and you'll get an instant wide-eye effect.

Don't skip the inner corner either. It's one of the easiest ways to open up your eyes. Skipping the inner corner highlight flattens things out and takes away the light that makes your eyes look like they open outward from the center. Even a small tap of a light shade there changes how big your eyes look.

Your mascara technique also matters. Focus mascara on your upper lashes to pull definition upward, which helps eyes look bigger. If you load up your lower lashes without giving the same attention to your upper lashes, you can end up pulling the eye down and making it look smaller.

The Five Techniques That Make the Biggest Difference

You can get bigger-looking eyes without a full stash of makeup, using five easy techniques. Each one delivers a bigger eyes on its own, and the step-by-step section later in this article shows how they work together for a more dramatic effect. Follow any one of them for a quick everyday result, or layer them for the full wide-eyed effect.

Technique One: Use White or Nude Liner on the Lower Waterline

Adding a slick of white or nude eyeliner pencil to your lower waterline makes your eye look brighter, more open, and larger by mimicking the look of a well-rested waterline. The effect is immediate and subtle enough to work as a standalone technique without any other eye makeup.

White eyeliner on the waterline creates a more dramatic brightening effect. Nude or flesh-tone liners create a softer, more natural-looking result that's harder to detect as makeup. The choice depends on how dramatic you want your look to read: think Bambiesque doe-eyes versus a subtle opening up of the eyes.

Revlon’s best-selling ColorStay™ Eyeliner stays on your waterline without smudging, helping your eyes to look big and glassy all day.

To extend the eye with a light-hued liner:

Choose between an eye-opening liner shade from the waterproof ColorStay™ Eyeliner collection.
Apply the liner directly to the inner rim of your lower lid from the inner to the outer corner.

Looking for a different finish or applicator? Shop our full eyeliner collection.

Technique Two: Highlight the Inner Corner

Light, shimmery shadow added to the inner corner of the eye draws light to the point where both eyes are closest together, creating the illusion of wider-set eyes. An inner corner highlight is one of the best single-product moves to the wide-eyed look and works on every eye shape.

Choose a shimmery neutral shadow from the So Fierce!™ Prismatic Eye Shadow Palette that's lighter than the lid color: champagne, pearl, gold, or a soft white. A shade too close to the lid color blends in and disappears. To apply:

Twirl an eyeshadow brush in the pan and lightly tap away any excess product on the side of the container.
Dab a light layer of shadow to the inner corner of the eye. A brush spreads the pigment evenly without pulling it past the corner, which can make your look read messy.

Technique Three: Curl Lashes and Apply Lengthening Mascara

Long, curled lashes frame your eyes, making them look bigger and more defined. Curl your lashes before you apply mascara so they don’t break under your curler.

To use a curler and mascara for bigger eyes:

Curl lashes with Revlon's EyeLash Curler for Natural Curl. The curl holds lashes out of the sightline when looking straight ahead, which makes the eye look more open. Adding mascara to straight lashes often results in lashes that point forward, covering the eye and making it look smaller.
Add mascara with a wiggle to the upper lash base to build volume where the lash meets the lid, then sweep your brush outward to the tip. So Fierce!™ Mascara for Length and Volume delivers length and lift on the upper lashes.
Brush an extra coat on the outer corner lashes to extend the eye shape and create a lifted effect.
Finish your lashes with a light coat of mascara on the lower lashes to lengthen lashes without weighing the lower lid down.

Technique Four: Place Shadow Light on the Lid, Dark in the Crease

Where you put your eyeshadow matters just as much as the hues you pick when it comes to getting bigger eyes. Revlon's PhotoReady™ Eye Contour Kit, Eyeshadow Palette makes it easy with an easy-to-follow two-shade system: a lid shade and crease shade, mapped out to your eyes.

To open up your eye with our signature two-step technique:

Apply the light shade across your entire lid up to the crease. A bright lid opens up your eye by reflecting light.
Use the darker shade only in the crease. The depth in the crease creates a shadow that makes the lid below appear to come forward by contrast. The technique works even with one or two shades from a neutral palette.

Technique Five: Lift the Outer Corner With a Subtle Wing

A subtle wing is a classic liner look that adds length and lift to your eyes. Using eyeliner for bigger eyes works best when the line stays close to the lash line and turns upward at the outer corner. To get more lift with your liner:

Add a thin line of eyeliner along the upper lash line, turning it upward at the outer corner to redirect the visual line of the eye upward rather than letting it fall.
Draw liner close to the lash line rather than forming a thick band above it. Thick liner reduces visible lid space, making your eyes look smaller.
Add a short upward flick of two to four millimeters to the outer corner of your eye. A wing that extends too far stretches out your eye, rather than subtly lifting it.

Step-by-Step: How to Make Eyes Look Bigger With Revlon

Put these techniques together to get the wide-eyed look in just ten minutes. The steps below walk you through every technique you’ll need to open up the eye, backed by some of Revlon’s most popular eye products.

Step One: Prime the Lid

Priming your lid helps liner and eyeshadow show up brighter and bolder. Primer also covers up any discoloration or uneven tone in your skin. Skip adding primer to lids with visible veins, discoloration, or a tendency to crease and you’ll risk your eyes looking smaller than they would without it.

To prime the lid:

Add eye primer to the lid and under-eye area before any eye makeup. Concealer and primer smooth texture, cut down on discoloration on the lid, and improve the wear of every product you’ll use on top of your just-primed lids.
Apply a thin layer of Revlon's Glimmer Brightening Concealer to cut down on any purple or blue tones in the skin.
Blend a small amount of concealer one shade lighter than the skin tone into the inner corner and directly under the brow bone to pre-brighten those areas before the highlight step.

Step Two: Apply Light Shade to the Lid

Sweep the light shade from the PhotoReady™ Eye Contour Kit, Eyeshadow Palette across the lid to open up the eye area. To get the most out of this step:

Pat the lighter shade across the entire lid up to the crease. Patting instead of sweeping gives you better pigment payoff, especially with shimmer shades.
Keep the light shade contained to the lid. Taking it above the crease cuts down on the contrast that makes the technique work.
Add a small tap of the lightest available shade directly at the inner corner to brighten the area before moving to the crease step.

Step Three: Define the Crease

The deeper shade in the PhotoReady™ Eye Contour Kit, Eyeshadow Palette adds the depth and contrast that makes the lighter lid shade pop forward. To bring shadow into the crease:

Sweep a soft line of color into the natural crease of your eye with a fluffy blending brush. The line should sit in the socket of the eye, not above it. Blend smoothly upward at the edges for a seamless finish.
Draw the crease line slightly above the natural fold for hooded eyelids so the color is easy to see when the eye is open.
Blend thoroughly between the light lid shade and the crease shade so there's a gradient, not a hard line, between the two.

Step Four: Line the Upper Lash Line and Waterline

Step four pairs a darker liner close to your upper lash line with white or nude liner on the waterline for an instant brightening effect. To pull this off:

Line your upper lash line with ColorStay™ Eyeliner in a neutral or dark shade, using short, light strokes starting from the center and working outward. Finish with a small upward flick at the outer corner.
Switch to white or nude ColorStay™ Eyeliner for your lower waterline, going from the inner corner to the outer one.
Leave the inner quarter of your upper lash line bare. Lining all the way into the inner corner closes off the eye and works against the brightening effect you just created with your inner corner highlight.

Step Five: Curl and Apply Mascara

Mascara is one of the best ways to open up the eyes by lengthening and volumizing the lashes. Curling the lashes before applying mascara also dramatically helps eyes look even bigger, creating a strong curl that brings out your eye shape.

To curl your lashes and add mascara:

Curl your lashes with an eyelash curler before applying mascara. Clamp at the base, hold for five seconds, then release and move to the middle of the lash, then the tip.
Sweep So Fierce!™ Mascara for Length and Volume onto your upper lashes in a zigzag motion at the base, then glide to the tip. Add two coats to the outer lashes for extra extension.
Brush a single light coat of mascara on your lower lashes to add length without weighing the lower lid down. Clean up any smudges under your lower lash line with a concealer brush before the product sets.

Switching Up the Techniques for Different Eye Shapes

Eye makeup works differently depending on your eye shape, and sometimes all it takes is a small shift in placement to make a technique actually work for you. Hooded eyes, monolid eyes, and deep-set eyes are three of the shapes that benefit most from a slightly different approach.

Hooded Eyes

If you have hooded eyes, your lid is partially covered when your eye is open, so eye shadow placed right on the lid can easily disappear. This can make your eyes look slightly smaller.

Here's how to balance out a hooded eye:

Place your lighter lid shade slightly above the natural crease so you can still see it with your eye open.
Draw your liner or wing just above the natural fold instead of on the lid itself.
Skip shimmery shadow across the whole lid if your eyes are very hooded. Instead, concentrate product in the inner corner and on the center of your visible lid: you'll get that pretty eye-opening, light-catching glow without emphasizing the hood.

Monolid Eyes

If you have monolid eyes, your lid doesn't have much natural crease definition, so instead of following an existing crease, you'll map one on. To switch up the technique to suit monolid eyes:

Use a matte medium shade to draw a soft curved line above the center of your lid where a crease would naturally sit, then blend it upward.
Focus on white waterline liner and an inner corner highlight as the highest-impact techniques for monolid eyes. These techniques create the light contrast that makes your eyes look more open without depending on a natural lid fold.

Deep-Set Eyes

If you have deep-set eyes, you already have natural shadow in your socket area. Skip shadow in the crease to open up the eye and avoid deepening your eyes further with too much crease shadow. To keep your eyes open and lifted:

Keep dark shades off your crease.
Add light shades on your lid and brow bone to highlight and open up your eyes.

The signature outer corner wing and lashings of mascara are some of the best ways to open up deep-set eyes.

Frequently Asked Questions

From picking your eyeliner shade to knowing when to coat the lower lashes with mascara, readers often look for answers to some of the following most common questions on how to get bigger eyes.

Does white eyeliner actually make eyes look bigger?

White liner on the lower waterline works by replacing the visible rim of the lower lid with a bright line that reads as a continuation of the white of the eye. White eyeliner on the waterline makes your eye area pop, look larger and more awake. It's one of the fastest single-product techniques for giving you that statement doe-eye look.

Should liner go on the bottom lash line if the goal is bigger-looking eyes?

Standard dark liner on the lower lash line closes the eye down rather than opening it up, which is why swapping it out for a nude or white waterline liner makes such a big difference for opening up the eye. For added definition on the lower lash line, add a smudge of soft brown shadow or liner close to the lashes (not on the waterline) to create definition without closing the eye.

What mascara technique makes eyes look the biggest?

Curling lashes before adding mascara and layering extra coats of mascara on the outer corner of your lashes is one of the best ways to get bigger, more defined eyes. Keep the lower lash coat light to avoid weighing down your eye. Start at the lash base and wiggle the wand through your lashes before sweeping to the tip to build volume at the root to create the lifted, wide-eye look.

Can these techniques work without eyeshadow?

Yes. The white waterline liner, inner corner highlight, lash curl, and mascara techniques each open up your eyes without any need for eyeshadow. Waterline liner and mascara can make your eyes look bigger if you’re looking for quick and easy makeup and don’t have time to add eyeshadow to your lids. The eyeshadow techniques in this post add dimension for a more glam, eye-defining look.

Shop the Eye Makeup That Makes It Work

From Twiggy to Zendaya, doe eyes never go out of style. The right products and techniques will help make your eyes pop and give you that classic wide-eye look. Shop Revlon’s long-lasting ColorStay™ Eyeliner for the waterline and upper lash line, So Fierce!™ Mascara for Length and Volume for length and lift, and the PhotoReady™ Eye Contour Kit, Eyeshadow Palette for the full lid and crease look.