Best False Lashes for Almond Eyes: Choose the Effect, Not the Fit

Almond eyes get the least useful advice of any eye shape, because the advice is always the same sentence: you are lucky, everything suits you. That is true and it helps nobody. Almond is the shape lash design is built around, so nothing is ruling anything out. The question is not what fits. It is what you want your eyes to do.

Written by Shirley Be, Youthphoria founderPharmacist (BPharm), cosmetic chemist, 5x certified master lash artist and skin therapist. Shirley sees clients in person at Youthphoria's Balwyn North salon in Melbourne.

How to tell if your eyes are almond

Two checks, both about ten seconds in a mirror.

An almond eye is also roughly one and a half to two times as wide as it is tall, and it tapers to a point at both corners, which is where the name comes from. If you want the full set of checks for every shape, they are in our complete guide to choosing false lashes.

Why almost everything works on you

This is worth understanding rather than just being told. When a lash is designed, somebody decides how long each fibre should be at each point along the band, from the inner corner to the outer. That fibre map is drawn against a reference eye, and the reference eye the industry uses is almond, because it sits in the middle of the range: not so round that a flare stretches it oddly, not so tapered that a doll-eye looks pasted on.

So on an almond eye, a cat-eye reads as a cat-eye and a doll-eye reads as a doll-eye. The lash does the thing it says on the box. Every other eye shape modifies the result. That is a genuine advantage, and it means your choice can be led entirely by the effect you want on the day.

Choose by the effect you want

Keep the almond, just define it

The most common thing our almond customers actually want: their own lashes, better. Rounded natural styles follow the shape you already have without pushing it in any direction.

Lengthen it: soft flare to full cat-eye

An almond eye takes a flare better than any other shape, because the outer corner already tilts slightly upward and the lash extends a line that is already going the right way. The only decision is how far you want to take it.

Note the glasses column. Anything past about 11mm will brush a lens, so if you wear glasses your cat-eye options stop at Belle. More on that in our guide to lashes with glasses.

Round it out and open it up

The opposite move, and an underused one on almond eyes. A doll-eye style puts its longest fibres over the centre of the iris, which makes a tapered almond read rounder and larger. It is the difference between looking elegant and looking wide awake, and it is the reason the same person can want two completely different lashes on two different days.

Texture rather than density

If your objection to false lashes has ever been that they look like a strip rather than lashes, the fix is not less volume, it is more variation. Criss-cross and wispy constructions vary the fibre heights so the eye reads gaps and depth instead of a solid line.

Sirius is the clearest example at 5mm to 11mm on a 32mm invisible band. Dream does the same on a 27mm Crystal Clear band at 8mm to 12mm, and Crystal takes it to mega volume at 8.5mm to 14mm if you want texture and drama at once.

The one thing that does constrain you: band width

Almond describes proportion, not size, so almond eyes come in every width. This is the only specification worth checking before you buy, because a band that overhangs your outer corner will lift and buckle within the hour.

Almond, and something else

This is the part most almond guides skip, and it is where most people actually are.

Hooded almond

Very common, and it overrides the almond advice. A fold hides any fibre shorter than the overhang, so buy on the minimum length rather than the maximum: Mystic at 9mm to 14.5mm, Rapunzel at 8mm to 12mm, or Jasmine at 8mm to 10mm for something quieter. Full detail in the hooded eyes guide.

Downturned almond

Here the cat-eye advice reverses. If your outer corner sits level with or below your inner corner, a flare follows that line and deepens it, so choose a round style instead: Sirius or Stellar. See the downturned eyes guide.

Upturned almond

Your outer corner already lifts, so a flare will lean into it hard. That is a legitimate choice, but if you want balance rather than emphasis, a round style softens it. Mystic to lean in, Lucinda to soften.

Small or narrow almond

Sometimes searched as thin almond eyes. Keep both the band and the fibres short so the lash never swallows the opening: Modest at 27mm and 7mm to 10mm, or Serena at 32mm and 5mm to 9mm. More in our small eyes guide.

Deep set almond

A prominent brow bone sets the lash back and casts a shadow over it, so length gets absorbed. Favour styles with a longer maximum and real curl, such as Astral at 7mm to 15mm, and avoid very short natural styles.

Almond eyes and doe eyes: what is the difference?

Doe eyes are not a separate anatomical shape, they are a look: large, rounded, wide open, with the iris very visible and often a slight downward tilt at the outer corner. Plenty of people with almond eyes want a doe-eye effect, and that is a styling question rather than a shape question.

To take an almond eye toward doe, use the round-out styles above and put the length through the centre: Rapunzel, Pocahontas or Tiger Lily. Avoid the flares, which pull in the opposite direction. If you want the elongated, feline look instead, that is the cat-eye column and the two are mutually exclusive on any given day.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• The complete guide to choosing false lashes
• Best false lashes for hooded eyes
• Best false lashes for downturned eyes
• Best false lashes for monolid eyes
• Cat eye magnetic eyelashes explained
• Glasses compatible magnetic eyelashes