Crease, tilt, depth, and spacing, decoded
Eye Shapes
A liner tutorial that assumed a crease you don't have, a photo where your eyes disappeared into shadow, and now you're wondering about eye shapes. Fair. Eye shape is the visible geometry of the eye area, the crease or lack of one, the corner tilt, and the depth against the orbital bone.
It decides where liner can sit, which lash style lifts, what frame bridge fits, even how awake you look in photos. And almost nobody is one pure type. Most people blend two or three.
This page gives you the vocabulary, the eleven common types, and a five-step mirror check.
The quick answer
Eleven names cover nearly every eye you'll meet: almond, round, hooded, monolid, double eyelid, deep-set, upturned, downturned, close-set, wide-set, and protruding. Most people combine two or three.
Want the answer from a photo instead of a mirror? Try the free eye shape detector.
What are eye shapes?
An eye shape is a description of the soft tissue and bone around the eye. Five features do most of the work. The supratarsal crease, the fold where the the upper lid meets the skin above it. Canthal tilt, the angle between the medial canthus (inner corner) and the lateral canthus (outer corner). Iris visibility, how much sclera shows at rest. Depth, how far back the eye sits. And spacing, the gap between the eyes measured against one eye's width.
Fold
The crease
Visible supratarsal crease means double eyelid, none means monolid, a hidden one means hooded.
Angle
Canthal tilt
Trace inner corner to outer corner. Higher outside means upturned, lower downturned, level neutral.
Exposure
Iris and sclera show
Iris touching both lid lines reads almond. White above or below reads round.
Position
Depth and spacing
Eyes back under the brow are deep-set, forward of it protruding. Under one eye width apart is close-set, over is wide-set.
Learn those five and the names stop being trivia. Hooded is a crease story, upturned a tilt story, deep-set a depth story.
The main types of eyes
Seven names describe the eye itself. The other four describe how it sits on the face. What matters more is how they combine. Different eye shapes stack freely, which is why single-answer quizzes feel wrong.
AI-generated illustrations. Examples show selected features, not exact matches for every face.
- Hooded almond eyes, the combo I see most in reader photos.
- Deep-set and downturned, thoughtful in soft light, tired under office fluorescents.
- Round and wide-set, an open, doll-like read on camera.
Two names describe most eyes better than one.
How to identify your eye shape in 5 steps
Ten minutes, one mirror, daylight if you can get it. Work in order, since the crease narrows the field fastest.
- 1
Set up the mirror check
Face a mirror straight on, relaxed, in daylight. A phone photo at eye level helps. Cameras catch what mirrors flatter.
- 2
Look for the crease
Eyes open and relaxed. A visible fold above the lashes means double eyelid, none means monolid, a hidden fold means hooded.
- 3
Check white around the iris
Iris touching both lid lines reads almond. Sclera showing above or below reads round. Check both eyes.
- 4
Draw the corner line
Imagine a line between your inner and outer corners. Outer corner above it means upturned, below means downturned.
- 5
Judge depth and spacing
A noticable brow-bone shadow over the lid points to deep-set. Then compare the gap between your eyes with one eye width.
Hold your five answers next to the cards below and pick the closest match. For a slower walkthrough, read what shape eyes do I have. Or let the eye shape detector classify crease, tilt, and depth from a photo.
Different kinds of eyes, broken down one by one
Each card gives the defining traits and who tends to have the shape. Round, protruding, close-set, and wide-set stay here because they describe single traits.
Crease shapes
All about what the upper lid does with open eyes.
Hooded Eyes
The lid platform vanishes with open eyes.
Skin folds from the brow bone over the crease, sometimes grazing the lashes. Liner disappears into the fold. More common with age.
Monolid Eyes
No crease, one smooth lid.
No supratarsal crease at all, one smooth lid from lashes to brow. Lashes often angle downward. Most common in East Asian populations.
Double Eyelids
A visible fold arcs above the lashes.
A defined supratarsal crease splits the lid into a platform near the lashes and a taller space above. The default anatomy in most Western tutorials.
Openness and projection
How much of the eye shows, and how far forward it sits.
Almond Eyes
Iris touches both lids, corners taper.
The classic oval. Iris meets both lids with no white showing, corners tapering to soft points. Often called the most common shape, and the easiest to style in my experience.
Round Eyes
White shows above or below the iris.
Larger and more circular, with sclera visible around the iris. Reads open and expressive, sometimes surprised, with lid space to spare.
Protruding Eyes
The eye sits forward of the brow.
The globe sits ahead of the orbital bone, so the eyes lead the face. Striking in person, though harsh flash can read startled.
Tilt and depth
Canthal tilt and socket position, the two features people feel but rarely name.
Upturned Eyes
The outer corner lifts.
A positive canthal tilt gives a built-in cat-eye effect. Women with it get called lifted. Men get called intense. Same geometry, different compliments.
Downturned Eyes
The outer corner dips.
A negative canthal tilt drops the outer corner for a soft, sometimes melancholy read. Marilyn Monroe is the textbook case, lashes weighted at the outer third.
Deep-Set Eyes
The brow bone shadows the lid.
Eyes sit back in the socket beneath a strong brow bone, hiding mobile lid space. Common in Northern and Central European ancestry.
Spacing
Measured against one eye width. Spacing changes how every other shape reads.
Close-Set Eyes
Under one eye width apart.
Less than one eye width between the inner corners. Attention concentrates at the center of the face, so extend color and liner outward.
Wide-Set Eyes
Over one eye width apart.
More than one eye width between the eyes. The extra space opens the face and reads calm on camera. A darker frame bridge pulls proportions inward.
Unusual eye shapes and rare variations
Some eyes land at the edges of the chart. Eyes set so deep the brow shadow never lifts. Extreme canthal tilt, past ten degrees either way. Asymmetrical eye shapes, one eye hooded and the other not, or one sitting lower. Almost everyone carries some asymmetry.
One edge case deserves a straight answer. Ptosis is a drooping upper lid caused by the levator muscle, and it can mimic a hooded eye. The difference is that ptosis is medical, and it can progress. If one lid has dropped, covers the pupil, or changed fast, see a doctor. Styling can wait.
Natural variation needs no fixing. Everything above sits on the natural side of that line.
Eye shapes and names in one place
The quick-reference version. Bookmark it for your next tutorial spiral.
Almond
Oval eye, iris touches both lids, corners taper.
Round
Circular eye with white showing around the iris.
Hooded
A skin fold hides the crease with open eyes.
Monolid
No supratarsal crease, one smooth lid plane.
Double eyelid
A visible crease splitting the lid in two.
Deep-set
Eyes recessed under a prominent brow bone.
Upturned
Outer corner sits higher than the inner corner.
Downturned
Outer corner sits lower than the inner corner.
Close-set
Less than one eye width between the eyes.
Wide-set
More than one eye width between the eyes.
Protruding
Eyes sitting forward of the orbital bone.
Teardrop
Internet term for a drooping lower lid line.
Hunter
Forum term for narrow, deep-set, upward-tilted eyes.
The last two need context. Teardrop eye shape and hunter eye shape come from online aesthetics communities, and neither is a clinical term. Teardrop usually means a downturned or round eye whose lower lid curves like a falling drop. Hunter eyes are compact, deep-set, and upward-tilted with minimal visible lid, a looksmaxxing favorite. I could be wrong here, but I'd file both under nicknames for combos covered above.
Human eye shapes across genders and ethnicities
People search 'eye shapes female', 'mens eye shapes', and 'male eye shapes' as if they were separate catalogs. They aren't. Every shape shows up in both, and the overlap dwarfs the differences. What shifts is the frame around the eye, men toward a heavier brow ridge and less visible lid, women toward more lid platform.
Ancestry moves averages too, without deciding any single face. Monolids and low creases are common in East Asian populations. Deep-set eyes appear often in Northern and Central European ancestry. None these are rules. Every population holds the full menu.
Use the patterns to recognize shapes faster. Never to assume.
How eye shapes affect makeup, glasses, and styling
Knowing your type of eyes turns tutorials from guesswork into pattern matching. Four areas pay off fastest.
Eyeliner
Hooded lids eat liner, so draw the wing with eyes open and keep the inner line thin. A friend discovered her hooding after a flash photo showed the wing gone, printed onto her brow bone by 3pm. Downturned eyes go the other way.
Eyeshadow
On monolids and hooded eyes, blend the crease shade above the natural fold so it survives open eyes. Almond and round eyes follow the socket line. Deep-set eyes want light on the lid.
Lashes
Downturned eyes lift with lashes concentrated at the outer corner or a half lash. Round eyes elongate with a winged curl. Protruding eyes suit a natural curl.
Glasses
Frame width echoes face width. But spacing does the fine tuning. Wide-set eyes balance with a darker, narrower bridge, close-set with a light one. Deep-set eyes should check that frames clear the lashes on a big smile.
Common questions about eye shapes
What is the most common eye shape?
Almond gets cited most often, and hooded may outnumber it because hooding increases with age. Honest truth, nobody runs a global eyelid census. Blends outnumber pure shapes.
What are the rarest eye shapes?
Pure single-trait eyes. A perfectly round eye with full sclera show, an extreme canthal tilt, a true monolid outside East Asian ancestry. A clean unblended version of any type is rarer than the blends.
Can eye shape change with age or weight?
Yes, slowly. Skin loses elasticity with age, so creases hood over and outer corners drift down. Weight shifts change the fat around the socket. A sudden change, or one eye changing alone, deserves a doctor's visit.
Are tear shaped eyes real?
As a clinical category, no. Teardrop is an online nickname for a lower lid that curves like a falling drop, usually a downturned or round eye anatomically. The look is real, the label informal.
Do men and women have different typical eye shapes?
The same shapes appear in everyone. On average men carry a heavier brow ridge and less visible lid, women more lid platform. Those are averages with huge overlap.
Where to go from here
Eye shapes come down to crease, tilt, depth, and spacing, four features that form types you can recognize in any mirror. Run the five-step check or let the detector read a photo, then open the guide for your closest match. The self-test guide walks the same checks slower, the eye shape chart puts all eleven types side by side, and the face shape guide zooms out to your other features.