Eye Shapes: Types, Chart, and How to Identify Yours
The main eye shapes are almond, round, monolid, hooded, upturned, downturned, wide-set, close-set, deep-set, and protruding, and most people combine features from several of them. They describe four things: how open the eye is, whether the upper lid has a crease, which way the corners tilt (canthal tilt), and how the eyes are set.
From the hunter eyes vs prey eyes debate? This is the base layer. Eyes are one feature of many: a facial feature analysis looks at all of them, and our attractiveness test looks at the face as a whole.
Eye Shapes at a Glance
Ten names, sorted into the four groups they actually describe:
Eye shape | What defines it | Feature group |
|---|---|---|
Almond | Wider than tall, tapering corners | Opening |
Round | Rounder opening, more white visible around the iris | Opening |
Monolid | No visible crease in the upper lid | Eyelid |
Hooded | Skin fold covers the crease when the eye is open | Eyelid |
Upturned | Outer corner sits higher than the inner corner | Tilt |
Downturned | Outer corner sits lower than the inner corner | Tilt |
Wide-set | Large gap between the eyes | Set and depth |
Close-set | Small gap between the eyes | Set and depth |
Deep-set | Eyeball sits further back under the brow bone | Set and depth |
Protruding | Eyeball sits more forward in the socket | Set and depth |
What Are the Different Eye Shapes?
Eye shapes are labels for how the eye opens, how the upper lid folds, which way the corners point, and how the eyes sit in the face. Almond, hooded, and downturned aren't boxes you pick from. They overlap, and most people match several at once.
Why Eye Shape Lists Don't Match
Some guides list six shapes, others eight or ten, and no two agree on which ones count. That's because the names come from makeup, styling, and online communities, not from a clinical classification.
Eye doctors skip these names and measure instead: eye width, eye height, tilt (the canthal tilt you see online), and the gap between the inner corners. A 2013 study of 200 adults in South India found those numbers differ by sex and population, which is why one chart can't fit everyone.
The Four Things That Define Eye Shape
Skip memorizing ten names. Check four features instead, each with its own set of labels:
Feature | What to look at | Common names |
|---|---|---|
Opening | The proportion of width to height, and how much of the iris and white is visible | Almond, round |
Eyelid | Whether a crease is visible when your eyes are open and relaxed | Monolid, double eyelid, hooded |
Tilt | The position of the outer corner compared with the inner corner | Upturned, neutral, downturned |
Set and depth | The gap between the eyes, and how far the eyeball sits from the brow bone | Wide-set, close-set, deep-set, protruding |
Rules of thumb: almond eyes are longer than tall, with the lids covering a bit of the iris at the top and bottom, while round eyes show more white around the iris. For spacing, the usual yardstick is one eye width: clearly more reads as wide-set, clearly less as close-set. These come from styling and photography, not medicine.
Eye Shapes Chart: Types and Names
Eye shapes fall into four groups: opening, eyelid, tilt, and set and depth. Pick the label that fits from each group and you've described your eyes better than any single name could.
By Opening: Almond and Round Eyes
Almond eyes are longer than they are tall, with tapering corners, and the lids slightly cover the iris above and below. Most charts list almond first out of habit, not because it ranks higher.
Round eyes have a rounder opening, and often more white (sclera) shows above or below the iris.
By Eyelid: Monolid, Double Eyelid, and Hooded Eyes
The eyelid group comes down to one thing: the crease in the upper lid.
Monolid: no visible crease. Whether a crease forms comes down to how the lid's lifting tendon attaches to the skin, according to EyeWiki, the American Academy of Ophthalmology's reference. It is a normal anatomical variation.
Double eyelid: a visible crease in the upper lid.
Hooded: a fold of skin from below the brow covers the crease when the eye is open. Hooding can be there from a young age or develop with age. EyeWiki lists genetics, aging, and sun exposure among the causes of excess upper lid skin, and a low brow can make it look heavier.
If the skin hangs low enough to reduce your vision, that's a medical issue, not a style one. See an eye doctor (EyeWiki: Dermatochalasis).
The epicanthal fold is a separate feature from the crease: a skin fold of the upper lid that covers the inner corner of the eye. MedlinePlus says it is seen in some ancestry groups, and in young children of any background before the bridge of the nose rises. A double eyelid can come with or without an epicanthal fold, as AAO's classification of eyelid types shows, so crease and fold should not be treated as one thing.
By Tilt: Upturned, Neutral, and Downturned Eyes
Tilt compares the outer corner of the eye with the inner corner: upturned if the outer corner sits higher, downturned if it sits lower, neutral if they're roughly level. In looksmaxxing circles this is canthal tilt: positive means upturned, negative means downturned.
A slight upward tilt is the common baseline in at least one study: in a 2024 study of 540 healthy people in China, the outer corner sat higher than the inner corner in every age group, by roughly 5 to 8 degrees on average. That's one population, so don't read it as a universal norm. Have downturned eyes? Here's what causes a negative tilt and whether it's normal.
By Set and Depth: Wide-Set, Close-Set, Deep-Set, and Protruding Eyes
Wide-set eyes have a bigger gap between them, close-set eyes a smaller one. Spacing is also part of overall facial proportions, including the midface ratio.
Deep-set eyes sit further back under the brow bone, so the upper lid area looks shadowed or less visible. It's one of the features people usually associate with hunter eyes, a term from the looksmaxxing community.
Protruding eyes sit further forward in the socket, so more of the eyeball shows. They're the other end of the depth scale, and the community's hunter eyes vs prey eyes comparison is built on some of the same features. If your eyes suddenly look more prominent, or only on one side, see an eye doctor.
How to Identify Your Eye Shape
To identify your eye shape, take one front-facing photo with a neutral face, then check four features in order: opening, eyelid, tilt, and set and depth. Write the result down as a combination, like "almond, hooded, slightly downturned". Use a photo, not a mirror: it removes head tilt and the expressions you make without noticing.
Take the photo. Face the camera straight on at eye level, with a relaxed face, even light, and no head tilt. Look straight into the lens.
Check the opening. Is the eye clearly longer than it is tall, with tapering corners? That is almond. Is it rounder, with white visible above or below the iris? That is round.
Check the eyelid. With your eyes open and relaxed, look at the upper lid. No visible crease means monolid. A visible crease means double eyelid. A crease covered by a fold of skin from below the brow means hooded.
Check the tilt. Imagine a line between the inner and outer corner of each eye. If the outer corner is higher, the eyes are upturned. If it is lower, they are downturned. If it is level, they are neutral. Use the corners themselves, not the lash line or eyeliner.
Check set and depth. Compare the gap between your eyes with the width of one eye. Then look at the shadow under the brow bone: more shadow suggests deep-set eyes, and an eyeball that sits forward suggests protruding eyes. Depth is easiest to judge in a side photo.
Write the combination. Pick the label that fits from each of the four groups, and note anything that doesn't fit.
Why the Eye Shape Chart Challenge Often Misleads
The eye shape chart challenge, where you match your eyes to a picture on a chart, often gives the wrong answer. Three reasons:
Charts mix groups. Almond, hooded, and upturned describe different features, so more than one can fit you at once.
Photos change what you see. Expression, camera angle, and light change how open the eye looks and how visible the crease is.
Your two eyes can differ. In a Korean study of 594 adults, roughly 1 in 5 to 1 in 3 had a measurable difference between the left and right eye in tilt, height, or width. If yours look different, check each one separately, and read what counts as normal facial asymmetry.
Eye shape is one part of the picture. For the rest of the face, see how AI face analysis works.
Which Eye Shape Is the Most Attractive?
No single eye shape is the most attractive. The studies that exist measure proportions instead of ranking named shapes like almond or hooded, and each result holds for a specific group of people. What they point to is that how the eyes look relates to measurements and to how close the proportions are to average, not to a label.
What the Studies Found
Eye proportions. In a study of 162 young adults in China, 134 people rated photos of the eye area from 1 to 5. The ratings tracked four things: how tall the eye opening is relative to its width, the spacing between the eyes, the height of the upper lid crease, and the angle at the outer corner. It is one group of 20-to-30-year-olds, so it shows a pattern, not a rule.
Spacing. A 2010 study found faces were rated most attractive when the gap between the eyes was about 46% of the face's width and the eye-to-mouth distance was about 36% of its length. Both are close to average, and only Caucasian women's faces were tested.
Male faces. A 2026 preprint (a study posted before peer review) tested male faces and found that closer-to-average proportions were rated higher too. Its authors note that ethnicity may change the result.
Eye Shapes in Women and Men
Averages differ by sex, but they are averages, not a ranking of shapes. In the Chinese study, men and women differed in eye length, eye height, and the angle at the outer corner, but not in crease height. In South Indian adults, men's eyes were wider on average and women's tilt was larger (about 6.1° vs 5.1°). Both are single-population samples, so none of it is a universal norm.
Do Eye Shapes Change With Age?
Yes, eye shape changes with age, mostly in the eyelids. In the 2024 study of 540 healthy people in China, the distance from the pupil to the edges of the lids grew until the 20s or 30s and then shrank. Loose upper lid skin also becomes more common over time, which is why hooding shows up more with age.
Childhood to the 20s: the eye opening grows. Tilt peaked before age 10 and stayed stable after the 20s. In males, 10-to-19-year-olds averaged about 1.6° lower than 20-to-29-year-olds, with no meaningful difference in females.
After the 30s: the opening shrinks at every angle, more on the outer side than the inner side, and more in women than in men.
Hooding: EyeWiki describes loose upper lid skin as a common sign of aging around the eyes, most often seen in middle-aged and older people.
These findings come from one hospital and one population. The study's authors also note that studies disagree about how the lower lid changes with age.
Can You Change Your Eye Shape?
You can't change the structure behind your eye shape with habits: lid anatomy, eye spacing, and tilt stay put. What can shift is the soft tissue around the eyes: puffiness, skin, and brow position. For what's realistic, see can you get hunter eyes and can you change your canthal tilt.
Surgery exists for specific cases. Upper eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) removes excess skin and fat, and EyeWiki lists both visual symptoms and cosmetic concerns as reasons people have it. An American Society of Plastic Surgeons guideline covers when lid surgery is used for upper visual field problems. The risks include scarring, asymmetry, dry eye, and, rarely, vision loss. If you are considering it, talk to a board-certified plastic or oculofacial surgeon.
Eyeliner for Different Eye Shapes
Eyeliner doesn't change your eye shape. It shifts where the eye looks longer, lifted, or deeper, so where you put the line depends on your shape. Makeup for different eye shapes works the same way: it adds emphasis, it doesn't correct anything. The table below is common makeup-artist practice, not clinical advice.
Eye shape | Where to shift the line |
|---|---|
Almond | Most styles work, and a wing can follow the natural lift of the outer corner |
Round | A thin line from the inner to the outer corner, extended slightly past the outer edge to elongate the eye |
Monolid | A line close to the lash line to add depth, drawn with the eyes open |
Hooded | Draw with the eyes open and place the wing where the fold doesn't hide it |
Downturned | Lift the outer end upward to balance the tilt |
Close-set | Keep the inner corner light and extend the line outward |
FAQ
What is the most attractive eye shape?
None is. Studies measure proportions rather than named shapes, and they link the look of the eyes to measurements and closeness to average in specific groups, not to a single shape.
What is the rarest eye shape?
There is no reliable data. The names are not standardized, so nobody can count how many people have each one, and lists that give percentages rarely cite a study.
What is the most common eye shape?
Same answer: there's no reliable data. Most people combine features from several groups, so counting "pure" shapes doesn't mean much.
How do I identify my eye shape?
Take a front-facing photo with a neutral face and check four features: opening, eyelid, tilt, and set and depth. Then write the result as a combination of labels.
What do different eye shapes mean?
They describe anatomy: how open the eye is, whether there is a crease, which way the corners tilt, and how the eyes are set. A sudden change in how your eyes look is a reason to see an eye doctor.
Can I naturally change my eye shape?
Not the structure. The soft tissue around the eyes, such as puffiness and brow position, can change.
Do eye shapes change with age?
Yes. In a 2024 study of 540 healthy people in China, the eye opening grew until the 20s or 30s and then shrank, and loose upper lid skin becomes more common with age.
