Everyone's spent 2026 perfecting the top lid, but the eye look creeping up the alt feeds right now flips the whole thing upside down. Meet crypt eyes: a moody, smudged haze that lives under your lash line instead of above it. Think sleepless vampire, think two-days-into-the-festival, think 'I definitely didn't cry at the gig' (you did, it was beautiful). It's the softest, most wearable way to look gorgeously undead this summer, and it takes about five minutes. 🌙
What makes 'crypt eyes' different
Classic goth eyes pile drama onto the lid. Crypt eyes do the opposite: the top lash line stays fairly clean (a thin line, maybe a flick), while all the shadow and smoke gathers along the lower lash line and drifts down towards your cheekbone. The effect is haunted rather than 'done', and because there's no crisp line to get perfect, it's brilliantly forgiving. If you can smudge, you can do this. Everything below is 100% vegan and cruelty-free, because looking dead inside should never cost a bunny a thing. 🖤
Step 1: Prime and set the stage
Smoke needs somewhere to cling. Prep your under-eye and lower lash line with a scrap of your usual base and a dusting of setting powder from our face collection, so the shadow grabs and stays put instead of sliding into a raccoon situation by lunchtime. Keep the rest of your face soft and matte, the eyes are the whole event here.
Step 2: Lay down the base smoke
This is where the Cryptic Palette earns its keep: 28 cool-toned shades of moss, fog, bone and stone, built for exactly this kind of graveyard haze. Start with one of the bone-grey or stone mattes for that hollow, sculpted socket, then take a soft charcoal and sweep it along your lower lash line, buffing it downward in tiny circles with a small fluffy brush. Don't aim for neat. Aim for a shadow that looks like it's emanating from your lashes. Build slowly; you can always add more darkness, but scrubbing it back is a faff.
Step 3: Tightline underneath with a smudge pencil
Here's the heart of the look. Take the Smoulder Eyeliner Pencil in Black and run it along your lower waterline and just beneath the lower lashes, then, before it sets, smoke it out with your brush so it melts into the shadow. That waterline black is what gives crypt eyes their sunken, gloriously exhausted intensity.
Step 4: Deepen the outer corner
To stop things looking flat, pull a deeper black, or if you're feeling the Cryptic vibe, one of its undead greens or a hint of oxblood, into the outer corner and drag it slightly down and out in a little downturned 'V' that exaggerates the drained, dreamy droop. The Til Death Palette and the smouldering reds of the Hellish Palette are perfect if you'd rather warm the shadow with a whisper of colour without tipping into full bruised-eye territory (unless that's the vibe, in which case: go forth).
Step 5: Keep the top lid whisper-light
Resist the urge to load up top. A barely-there wash of a pale Cryptic grey or spectral silver across the lid, or a fine line hugging the upper lashes with the Infinity Eyeliner Pen, is all you need. The magic of crypt eyes is the imbalance: heavy below, light above.
Step 6: Mascara, and a coat of 'why not' on the bottom
Finish with a generous coat of AMPLIFIED Mascara on top, and, crucially, a little on your lower lashes too, so they cast their own spidery shadows into all that smoke. Fancy more drama? A few wispy falsies from the lashes collection take it from 'tired' to 'tragically beautiful crypt-dweller' in seconds.
Wear it your way
The beauty of crypt eyes is how far you can push, or pull, it. Keep it a soft grey haze for a subtle weekday hint of darkness, or crank the black and undead green right up for the pit, the club or the graveyard picnic (we don't judge). Pair it with a bare, glossy lip to let the eyes scream, or a blurred black lip if you want the whole cathedral. Want to build out your smoke stash? The full eyeshadow collection is waiting.
Tag us in your crypt eyes, we live for a good haunting. 🤘🖤