7 Makeup Tips to Make Small Eyes Look Bigger

What’s the secret to big, bright eyes? The answer may already be in your makeup bag. Over the years, I’ve picked up various tips and tricks to help brighten, illuminate and make my eyes appear bigger than they actually are. Thanks to some hero beauty products, here are seven makeup tips to make smaller eyes look bigger.

Conceal dark circles.

Dark circles can actually make your eyes appear smaller, so apply under eye concealer to neutralize imperfections including dark spots, discoloration and hyperpigmentation.

Add dimension to your crease.

Apply a matte warm brown or caramel eyeshadow to your crease. For a monochromatic look, you can use your favorite bronzer to apply in the crease of your eyes. Super easy and doesn’t require you to go digging for a specific eyeshadow palette!

Lighten up!

When you dab a little highlighter or pearly eyeshadow on the inner corners of your eyes, your eyes will look lifted and awake.

Use an eyelash curler.

Personally, I never walk out the door without curling my lashes. This helps open up the eye area and make the area appear wider—and it will only take you about 15 seconds.

Stating the obvious here – apply mascara.

This mascara is my everyday go-to for lengthening and separating my lashes so they look long and defined. I also love this clean mascara, which offers a combination of length and volume.

Use a flesh-toned eyeliner.

I quickly learned that filling my waterline with a dark pencil can look sultry but my eyes appear much smaller than they actually are. When you fill your waterline with a flat, flesh-toned pencil it will help open up your eyes and even brighten them.

Define your brows.

I’m pretty lazy when it comes to grooming my own brows but even just a swipe of my favorite brow pomade, helps frame my face and draws the focus to my eye area. Sometimes I’ll also use a brow powder to fill in any sparse areas too.

Below are some of my favorite tried and true products I use to help brighten up my eye area.

I hope these makeup tips to make small eyes look bigger was helpful!  Let me know in the comments section!

This post was originally published in June 2017 and updated as of December 2020.