Almost every eyeshadow tutorial ends with the same instruction: pop something bright in the inner corner. Makeup for wide-set eyes is the one case where you should ignore it. That highlight is exactly what pushes the eyes further apart, and reversing it is most of the job.

Are your eyes actually wide-set?

Line up three eye-widths across your face in a straight-on photo. If there is room to spare between the inner corners, the answer is yes. It is a genuinely attractive shape — open, doll-like — and nothing here is a correction. It is simply a different map.

Where the depth goes

Think of the standard scheme rotated 180 degrees:

  • Inner corner: the deepest shade, blended toward the nose in a soft comma
  • Inner half of the crease: carries the colour; the outer third stays lighter
  • Centre and outer lid: where any shimmer or light shade belongs
  • Lower lash line: worked along the full length, strongest at the inner corner
  • Waterline: dark liner is welcome — it shrinks the visible eye slightly, which reads as closer together

The move that feels most wrong is blending inward, toward the bridge of the nose. Do it anyway, softly, and check in the mirror from a metre away rather than up close.

The wing stays short

A long, extended flick stretches the eye outward and exaggerates the gap. Instead:

  1. Start the line right at the tear duct, or a fraction inside it.
  2. Keep the thickness fairly even along the lid rather than building it at the outer edge.
  3. Stop the flick just past the outer corner — a small lift, not a stretch.

Connecting the upper and lower lines into a tiny point at the inner corner works well too, though it takes a steady hand and a fine pencil.

Brows do more than you expect

Extending the brow head one or two millimetres toward the nose narrows the centre of the face immediately. Use light hair-like strokes with a fine pencil in the direction of growth — filled-in blocks look drawn on. Leave the arch where it is; only the inner end changes.

Add a soft bronzer blend down the sides of the nose bridge and the whole face reads narrower through the middle.

One eye at a time

Try the reversed placement on one eye only, then compare. Wide-set shapes respond faster than most to a change this small, and you will know within a minute whether it suits you.

See the makeup section for placement on other eye shapes; matte shadows and fine pencils appear in the current catalogue on faberlic.com.