Knowing your eye shape is crucial for picking the right style of lash extensions that complement your eyes rather than one that takes away their beauty.
I’ll teach you all about the fundamental eye shapes and the four best eyelash extensions styles you can manipulate to play up or down the assets and flaws of every eye shape.
With this article, you will be able to choose the best eyelash extensions styles for different eye shapes.
You’ll also learn all about the five markers that lash techs use to personalize styles today.
Let’s shape up!
Eyelash Extension Styles For Different Eye Shapes
The table below shows the relationship between eyelash extension styles and eye shapes.
Certain eye shapes are better suited for certain styles.
For instance, almond eyes will look beautiful with a cat-eye eyelash style while round eyes should avoid a dolly lash style.
Eye Shape vs Lash Style | Natural Style | Natural Sweep | Cat-Eye | Dolly |
Almond Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Round Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Upturned Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Downturned Eyes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Small Eyes | No | No | No | Yes |
Hooded Eyes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
The above table is key when deciding which lash styles would look best for you.
Now, I will discuss in detail below the different lash extension styles and the different eye shapes.
4 Most Popular Lash Extension Styles To Know About
Depending on client preferences and the characteristics of their natural lashes, we select the best style of eyelash extensions for them. Although you need to personalize every style, these are the finest lash extension styles to refer to.
Natural Style
The standard style of eyelash extensions, the natural style, aims to make your lashes look as realistic as possible.
Following your natural lash length and adding length and thickness. This styling will help emphasize the natural eyelashes and it will look as though you have very good mascara.
Here, a single lash extension is added to your natural lash with softer curls, unlike dramatic options.
This is the most popular style to achieve the most natural-looking eyelash extensions.

Natural Sweep Style
The natural sweep uses shorter inner corners and adds the same length throughout the rest of the lash line. This styling will help open and elongate the eye.

Cat-Eye Style
Adding the longest eyelash extensions to the outer corner of your eyes tapers the eye and creates a shapely cat-eye look.
In this case, you need to add shorter extensions towards the middle and inner corners of the eye.
This styling will help to elongate the eye.

Dolly Style
The dolly style is used to open up your eyes and make your eyes look rounded. Here, lash techs add the longest lash extensions around the middle of the eye and shorter fibers around the outer and inner corners.
This styling will help round and open up the eye.

6 Most Popular Eye Shapes
First off, there are several eye shapes if you look at the small details. Even both eyes of one person have differing characteristics. Hence, I’ll teach how to personalize lash extensions for every eye using the fundamental eye shapes.[1][2]
Almond Eyes

This is the most commonly found eye shape that’s also wider than the other shapes. The best way to identify almond eyes is how it tapers around the inner and outer corners of the eye. If your eyes are almond-shaped, the outer edge of your cornea may be hidden beneath the eyelids.
Recommended styles:
- Choosing a Natural Style of lashes can accent the almond shape of the eyes.
- If you wish to open up your eyes, it’s good to go with the Natural Sweep Style.
- To make your eyes more proportional or fierce, the best choice is Cat-Eye Style.
- To prevent eyes from being hidden because of the almond shape, a rounder style like Dolly Style is a great fit!
Round Eyes

Typically protruding with larger-than-average sizes, round eyes don’t taper at the outer or inner corners. Moreover, this eye shape is easy to identify with the white of the cornea surrounding it from all sides. With the incorrect lash style, people with round eyes can look perpetually surprised!
Recommended styles:
- Opting for a Natural Style is ideal as it defines the shape without making the eyes of your client from looking surprised.
- When you want to add a soft taper to round-shaped eyes, it’s best to go for the Natural Sweep Style.
- For a dramatic taper, Cat-Eye Style is an excellent choice as it sharpens the outer corners and elongates the round shape.
Upturned Eyes

Resembling the almond shape of eyes, upturned eyes exhibit an upward flick around the outer corners of eyes. In this case, lashes turn up and give a natural cat eye appearance. As a result, people with this eye shape can carry most lash styles gorgeously!
Recommended styles:
- If you want to define your natural cat-eye shape without drama, go for a Natural Style lash treatment.
- For softly accenting the shape of your eye with a bit of drama, choose the Natural Sweep Style.
- When you want to look super-gorgeous, Cat-Eye Style can add maximum drama to your natural cat-eye shape.
- For clients who want to open up their eyes and make them more rounded instead of tapered, Dolly Style works the best.
Downturned Eyes

As opposed to upturned eyes, downturned eyes have lashes flicking down around the outer corners. If people with downturned eyes are styled incorrectly with lash extensions, they might look tired or sleepy.
Because this type of shape has a drop at the edges, lash techs shouldn’t use the cat-eye style as it exaggerates the downcast drop.
Recommended styles:
- Accenting the original shape and natural lashes with a Natural Style treatment will define the shape better.
- The Dolly Style eyelash extensions can open up the downturned eyes and make them look brighter and shapely.
Small Eyes

If your eyes look smaller when compared to other features such as your mouth and nose, you might have small eyes. However, you can have small eyes with almond, round, upturned, or downturned eyes too.
Recommended style:
- Choosing the Dolly Style for small eyes is a clever way to open up and enlarge your eyes besides making them more rounded.
Hooded Eyes or Monolid Eyes

When the fold of your eyes doesn’t create a crease but occurs precisely at the lash line, it’s a monolid type of eye. Likewise, hooded eyes are where the eyelid is completely hidden under the brow bone.
Typically seen among Asians, this type of eye shape doesn’t go well with cat-eye styles as long lashes can poke into the eyelid.
Recommended styles:
- The best way to define and outline your lash line for monolid and hooded eyes is with Natural Style that doesn’t taper any corners.
- Getting Dolly Style eyelash extensions is a great way to open up the monolids/hooded eyes and shape them up!
What Eyelash Extensions Should I Get For My Eye Shape? How Do Lash Techs Decide?
As a lash tech, tweaking the lash extension style from client to client is crucial for me because it helps me create a personalized style that fits their profile.
We’ve already discussed the importance of considering the eye shape of the client when choosing the best eyelash extension style.
However, there are several other factors to consider.
I’ll briefly discuss them below.
Shape of Your Eyes
This is probably the number 1 factor to consider.
Just as knowing the shape of your body helps you find the best fitting clothes and the shape of your face helps you do flawless makeup, the shape of your eyes builds the foundation for your lash extension treatment.
In this article, we’ll narrow down the standard eye shapes such as almond eyes, round eyes, upturned eyes, downturned eyes, small eyes, and hooded eyes.
Size of Your Eyes
Depending on the vertical and horizontal dimensions of your eyes, the size of your eyes can be referred to as large, average, or small. Another rule based on practice to verify the size is to compare your eyes to other features on the face.
As a reference, Anne Hathaway has big eyes, and Yeardley Smith has small eyes.
Proportion of Your Eyes
The proportion refers to the distance between your eyes or where they’re set concerning each other.
When the distance between your eyes is average, it’s a balanced eye setting. Moreover, wide-set and close-set eyes are set far and close, respectively.



For reference, Gemma Ward has wide-set eyes, Jennifer Lawrence has proportional eyes, and Miley Cyrus has close-set eyes.
Structure of Your Eyes
When your eyes are set deep into the eye cavity, they’re referred to as deep-set.
People with protruding eyes have a doe-eyed stare. It’s also known as the prominent, bulging, or protruding eye shape.
Finally, shallow-set eyes are characterized by the orbital bone being less prominent and the nose having a small bridge.
For example, Emma Watson has deep-set eyes, and Mila Kunis the prominent variety.
Growth Direction of Your Lashes
When it comes to the way lashes grow, there are three main directions: upward, straight, or downward.
The direction of lash growth is essential in deciding the curls for a lash tech.
For instance, Asians typically have downward growing lashes that require stronger curls.
Final Thoughts
Although each person’s eyes are shaped differently and everyone has a different taste, some generalizations can be made as to what looks best with each shape.
The result of designing a set of eyelashes for a specific eye shape is to highlight the eye’s strengths while simultaneously hiding its shortcomings.
Of course, there is so much more to talk about such as lash mapping for the different eye shapes or choosing the right curl. Also, this article didn’t address which technique to use between classic, hybrid, or volume lashes!
But it’s going to be for another article 😉
Confused about which style of lash extensions to get? Share your doubts below, and I’ll help you narrow down the best options!
– Asako
Additional Readings on DivineLashes.ca: If you want to up your lash game, check out my article on classic, volume, and hybrid eyelash extensions where I explain each technique in-depth or my advice on achieving the most natural-looking eyelash extensions. Also, learning how to create a stunning look with the mega volume technique is an important tool in your arsenal.
References
- Dr. Melody Huang (2021). What are the Different Types of Eye Shapes? Retrieved from https://www.visioncenter.org/conditions/eye-shapes/ (Accessed on 21-01-2022)
- Joumana Medlej (2014). Human Anatomy Fundamentals: Advanced Facial Features. Retrieved from https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/human-anatomy-fundamentals-advanced-facial-features–cms-20683 (Accessed on 21-01-2022)