They say the eyes are the windows to the soul.
And just like actual windows, sometimes the need for an overhaul is quite strong (in The Sims 4).
That’s why there are so many eye mods to play with.
It’s fun seeing how different your Sim can look just by changing their eye design. From subtle, swoopy eyes to full on sparkly party peepers, check out these essential custom eyes for any & all Sim types!
1. Polaroid Eyes by Acab
| Swatches: | 7 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint |
| Default Replacement: | No |
These Polaroid Eyes by Acab are described as “seven semi-realistic eyes” for your Sim.
And I totally agree! They’re just the right blend of soft, shiny, and sparkling.
The baby blues and the green variants are especially mesmerizing. The other four swatches come in pretty unique colors (you know, the kind that you only find in like 2% of the population) around the pupil and outer ring.
They’re base game compatible and they look great even with vanilla unmodded settings and original EA skinblend.
2. Mermaid Eyes with Glow, BlackSclera, Glow+BlackSclera by Merkaba
| Swatches: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Eyes |
| Default Replacement: | Yes |
If you’ve ever dabbled in making an Occult Sim, then you know that the full customization of your Sim’s “other form” is half the fun.
I will admit that the base game options for Occult eyes are pretty darn interesting – especially for Vampires.
This mod by Merkaba evens the playing field a little by making some Vampire Dark Form eye options available for Mermaid Forms to use, too. Specific eye options are (1) those unearthly glowing eyes, (2) the moderately creepy eyes with black sclera, and the combination of those two, (3) glowing eyes with black sclera.
I think this is a pretty neat mod to have.
It doesn’t introduce completely custom elements to the game. It simply unlocks a few cosmetic options for other Occult creatures. You can download either of the three variations, or all three options to give your Sim some sparkly new peepers.
3. 02 Set Abnormal Eyes by glaza
| Swatches: | 16 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint |
| Default Replacement: | No |
Abnormal? Maybe.
Stunning? Definitely.
These eyes may be the furthest thing from realistic (and they’re pretty darn far from semi-realistic, too), but there’s no denying how interesting they are.
Some of them look like very creative circle lenses.
Others look like movie makeup or CGI. But they are all individually unique, and I can confidently say I’ve yet to come across similar swatches.
There are 16 variations of these eyes in total. And I cannot for the life of me categorize the colors. I will say that there’s a swatch with beautiful green glass eyes and another one with a “dead” – aka milky white – right eye. All pretty freaking cool.
4. Sparkly Eye Highlights by Acab
| Swatches: | 30 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint | Skin Details | Tattoos |
| Default Replacement: | No |
If you think the default EA eyes could do with a bit more sparkle, don’t worry. I totally hear you.
Trust me when I say that this here Sparkle Eye Highlights mod is exactly what you need.
It gives you 30 different ways to control how intensely the light hits your Sim’s eyes and exactly where it bounces off. So you can make them just as fresh, bubbly, and bright-eyed as you want them to be.
These highlights basically work as an overlay for the eyes. So they will work with the default EA eyes (base game compatible) and with different non-EA eye mods. Plus, 30 variations mean plenty of chances to mix, match, and create some stunningly unique combos.
5. Hameln & Renee Eyes by Mei
| Swatches: | Renee: 12 | Hameln: 42 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint |
| Default Replacement: | No |
This mod is a TS4 conversion of existing TS2 eye mods. And it’s probably one of my personal favorites from this list.
Just look at how bright those eyes are! They remind me a lot of Disney animation eyes – especially the Hameln eyes.
This CC has its own unique pattern and smattering of highlights: four dots of light in the middle and soft, not-so-defined outer rim. They come in 12 original colors.
The Hameln ones have a crisp, defined rim, large pupils, and bold, vibrantly colored irises. This one comes with a heady 42 original color options.
I’d say Hameln looks more sharp, assessing, and alert. Renee looks soft, wide-eyed, and subdued. If the eyes are truly the windows to a Sim’s soul, then these eyes are particularly fetching windows that you definitely need to download.
I recommend getting both. They’re non-default anyway, so they most likely won’t fight with any other eye-related mods.
6. Rosaline Eyes by Acab
| Swatches: | 9 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint |
| Default Replacement: | No |
These eyes give me crazy fantasy/sci-fi eyes.
Maybe it’s the funky pupils. Maybe it’s the nebula-like irises.
Maybe it’s just the unexpected color combinations that strangely work.
Whatever it is, these eyes are extraterrestrial-y stunning.
Definitely look like those crazy circle lenses that cosplayers wear, but hey. If that’s your Sim’s narrative, then this mod is perfect.
It comes with nine unique swatches, all of varying colors and all base game compatible.
7. Mermaid Eyes (Eyes 001) by Luas_Sims
| Swatches: | 9 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Makeup |
| Default Replacement: | No |
“Mermaid” is actually a pretty apt description for these pretty peepers.
They’re as stormy and as mesmerizing as ripples on a lake’s surface. Or like white-foam waves crashing onshore.
Pretty sure they’re patterned to look like them, too.
With no clear distinction between pupil and iris, the overall effect is this glassy, ethereal look that would be almost eerie if it wasn’t so beautiful.
The lack of highlights, catchlights, or gloss makes the eyes pretty matte. But the pattern is so crystalline and dainty (especially the light blue and aqua swatches), they hardly look flat or dull.
Yet just for fun, I overlaid the green-colored option with Acab’s Sparkly Eye Highlights (from #4) just to see what the eyes would look like with highlights. No regrets. The results were absolutely gorgeous.
I highly recommend downloading both mods.
8. Animal Eyes (21) by Velouriah
| Swatches: | 21 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Eyes |
| Default Replacement: | No |
Now this is the perfect example of a creative concept that was executed flawlessly.
Who knew there were so many different types of animal eyes?
Not me, but clearly this creator did. And she made a fully functional mod for it, too.
As the name suggests, this adds animal eye options for Sims of all genders, all ages (yes, even Toddlers can have them!) and all species (as if Vampires and Mermaids needed cooler eyes, right? Lucky ducks).
I’m not going to try to name all swatches – a zoologist I am not – but I will say that they all looked some version of stunning, mesmerizing, cute, and/or incredibly feline when I tried them on my Sims.
The designs are unlike any I’ve seen (yes, even compared to glaza’s Abnormal Eyes from #3) and the color combinations work quite well with them. They give off a tasty fantastical vibe that I am totally here for.
9. See-Through Pupils by Simulation Cowboy
| Swatches: | 8 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint | Skin Detail | Tattoo (depending which .package you install) |
| Default Replacement: | No |
The premise for this mod is pretty unconventional. But the results?
Not gonna lie, they’re kind of cool.
This Sims 4 eye mod contains a total of eight different oddly-shaped pupils. I’m talking x-shaped, heart-shaped, rectangular, swirling – you’ll see it once you install it. Like I said, unconventional.
These pupils all come in one color (black) with no accompanying iris.
So the idea is that you can lay these pupils over your Sim’s default (or non-default) eyes to achieve this bizarre – yet strangely satisfying – effect.
As is the case with the other mods here, it almost looks like cartoon/graphical contact lenses.
I think the concept is genius, though.
Creating iris overlays rather than full eye swatches gives players infinite possibilities and combinations, depending on the eye mods they currently have installed.
10. DI(eye) – DIY Eye Kit by Pralinesims
| Swatches: | Main/Base Color: 120 Second Color: 120 Third Color – 120 Pupil – 70 Iris Shadow – 90 Sclera Shadow – 35 Sclera Color – 40 Effects – 40 Highlights/Catchlights – 300 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint | Eyes |
| Default Replacement: | No |
This mod. Words cannot even begin to describe this mod.
This is one of the most ambitious mods I’ve ever come across, and I’ve been playing with modded content for at least a decade now. Let me preface my review by saying that this mod contains a total of 935 swatches.
And maybe now you get what I mean by ambitious.
What Pralinesims did is basically give players the power to create any eye they want. Hence the “DIY” in the title. With this mod, you start off with a base/main color. You can then choose to add a second and third color, depending on the look you’re going for.
Add a pupil on top, of which there are also variations.
Because Pralinesims is a wizard capable of thinking of and creating 70 different pupil styles and sizes. If you want to, you can add shadows for the iris and sclera.
If this level of customization hasn’t blown you away yet, you can even customize the color of the sclera, add some neat-o eye effects, and then wrap it all up with highlights, catchlights, or eye gloss.
The base eyes can be found in either Face Paint or Eyes as non-defaults.
Everything else – the secondary and tertiary colors, the shadows, the effects – can be found in Tattoos. That way you can layer as many details as you want.
I will say that having the eyes in the Body category makes it sort of difficult to see which swatch you’re choosing. Every time you click one, you have to zoom back in to the face to see what it looks like. But if you’ve got the patience, it’s not that big a deal.
And if you consider the sheer volume of details packed into this deceptively tiny .package file, I’d say it’s a fair trade.
And as if the DIY Eye Kit wasn’t ambitious enough…
11. 17 Eyes Non Default by vesim
| Swatches: | 17 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint | Eyes |
| Default Replacement: | No |
Here’s vesim’s non-default eyes mod that introduces 17 new eye colors to the game.
This is one of the tamest mods here and arguably the most loyal to the default EA eyes.
The pupils are the same size as the TS4 ones and the general design stays true to the semi-cartoon-y look. Perfect for players looking for more interesting color options, but don’t want to drastically change the vanilla game look.
As the name suggests, there are a total of 17 custom color swatches. Some of them are a solid shade throughout the iris. Others – the ones I personally love – are a gorgeous gradient blend of colors.
If you want something subtle-but-mesmerizing, this is it.
12. In Our Talons – Catchlight Overlays by Pyxis
| Swatches: | 28 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Earrings & Leg Tattoo |
| Default Replacement: | No |
Pyxis’s catchlight overlays are much like acab’s Sparkle Eye Highlights. They basically let you add more highlights – aka, more sparkle – to the eyes (be they vanilla EA eyes or anything else).
I think the biggest difference between this mod and acab’s is the intensity.
There are 28 possible catchlight shapes and positions, and this mod allows you to layer them a total of seven times. So you could potentially have seven different catchlights all up in your Sim’s eye (which I wouldn’t recommend, because there are only so many light sources your Sim could be looking at) or you could have two or three catchlights that are three or four times as bright.
It’s pretty cool, as far as customization goes. And much like the Sparkle Eye Highlights, these catchlights can be overlaid over any eye.
13. EYES Ultimate Collection by Pralinesims
| Swatches: | 232 Files |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint | Eyes |
| Default Replacement: | Depends on File Downloaded and Installed |
Yes; it’s another insanely large mod from Pralinesims. The concept is different, for sure. But it is every part as ambitious as their DIY Eye Kit.
This mod is basically a curated file (or files) of every single eye mod Pralinesims has created. Ever.
As of 2020, it’s a total of 232 files, not counting the swatches.
Because who even has the patience, time, or capacity to count the swatches of 232 files?
There are four parts to this collection all in all, plus fixes for their Sims and Pets default eyes with respect to The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle patch.
All files are clearly labeled – including the non-default and default eye replacements – so that you know full well which one you’re installing. All the eye names and categories are listed in a neat little photo on the download page, so you can always refer to those if you’d just like to pick and choose.
14. Butterfly Effect Eyes by Pralinesims
| Swatches: | 30 Base Eyes | 30 Heterochromia Options |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint | Eyes |
| Default Replacement: | No |
So I know the EYES Ultimate Collection mod pretty much renders all other Pralinesims mods on this list moot, but I figured my personal favorites from them deserved their own listing.
That, and combing through 232 files can be exhausting. Consider this as me saving you time by giving you some more personal recommendations.
Starting off with these excellent Butterfly Effect Eyes. They feature these incredibly vibrant and glossy eyes that fit the phrase “wide-eyed wonder” perfectly.
Each swatch has roughly the same highlight and shine in place, with two or three wild-cards accounting for color and/or shade difference.
This mod comes with 30 color options, most of which are soft, natural shades. It also comes with this really neat heterochromia option where you can change the color of just one eye. So if you take that into account, it’s actually a total of 60 (or more – I’m pretty bad at math) color combination options.
Overlaying the eyes for the heterochromia effect is easy. The base eyes are non-defaults that can be found under Eyes. The heterochromia effect is an overlay found in Face Paint.
15. Luz Eyes by Simandy
| Swatches: | 58 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Eyes |
| Default Replacement: | Yes |
This is yet another personal favorite of mine.
These Luz eyes are soft, pretty, and not too far a cry from the default EA eyes. I’ll argue that they have more depth and more subtle shine, especially around the pupil.
It follows TS4’s cartoon-y look, but in a more understated and refined way. Definitely a great pick for Simmers who prefer Maxis Match modded content that add not-so-obvious changes to the graphics.
These Luz eyes are default replacements, and they come in the original 18 EA colors. Plus an extra 40 unnatural colors to bring our grand total up to 58 possible options.
There’s a good amount of naturals and neutrals in here, balanced out by a healthy sprinkling of soft saturated shades and some unnatural, high-saturation colors.
16. Shine Bright by Simandy
| Swatches: | 18 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Eyes | Face Paint |
| Default Replacement: | Depends on File Downloaded and Installed |
This mod is basically the Luz eyes from earlier, only softer. And, yes, it’s by the same creator.
These eyes are every bit as gorgeous as the original mesh. Same gentle gradient, same defined catchlight, same quaint, 2D-animation style.
Aside from the pupil size – which is the first thing you’ll notice – these eyes also look a lot gentler, especially around the edges and the way the iris colors blur into each other.
Unlike the Luz eyes, you can have these “Shine Bright” eyes as either defaults, non-defaults, or as Face Paint overlays (choose and install just one package .file, yeah?)
Obviously if you choose default, you’ll be giving these eyes to NPCs too.
There are also less color options this time around, as both versions – V1 and V2 – are only available in EA’s standard 18 eye colors.
17. Zero Eyes N94 by Pralinesims
| Swatches: | 40 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint |
| Default Replacement: | No |
Yet another set from Pralinesims. You can get these from her Ultimate Eye Collection, or you can download them separately. Again, take this as my personal recommendation.
These Zero Eyes are reminiscent of Luas_Sims’ Mermaid Eyes.
There is no discernible pupil. Just a full iris of colors and some strategic shadows for more depth. The rim is a little blurred, giving it a pretty seamless look against the sclera. It’s not as “wide-eyed and innocent” as Luas_Sims’ Mermaid Eyes, but it’s just as mesmerizing and pretty.
Whereas the Mermaid Eyes looked more like ripples on a lake, these look like the moon. Or at least a clear reflection of it. Might be all the white ridges.
Either way, I’m not going to launch into poetry a second time. They’re beautiful, they’re captivating, and they come in 40 unique colors.
18. Lacune Eyes by Y-Sim
| Swatches: | 12 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint |
| Default Replacement: | No |
We’ve covered Mermaids.
Vampires already have lots of cool eye options to begin with.
So how about some love for our Aliens?
These Lacune Eyes by Y-Sim are literally made for extraterrestrial Sims.
No pupil, no iris, all sclera – and in different glowing colors too! You’d think it’d be weird or creepy, but nope. For a fantasy or sci-fi setting, I’d say it’s absolutely perfect.
Beautiful, even. Since it lends this sort of sparkly Bambi-eyed look to the Sim in question.
No shade at all to the default TS4 Alien eyes but these Lacune Eyes? Totally made for mesmeric, otherworldly beings.
19. Nebula – 10 Non-Default Alien Eyes by kellyhb5
| Swatches: | 10 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Eyes |
| Default Replacement: | No |
One more Alien-centric eye mod here, for good measure.
And because these Nebula eyes are so enchanting (and so stupidly gorgeous on my Sim) I had to include them on this list.
Whereas the Lacune eyes from earlier aren’t specifically created for Aliens, these tasty, galaxy-spattered eyes are made solely for alien designs.
In fact, they were originally created as Non-Default Alien eyes. But after several comments, the creator was kind enough to create some for the lowly Terran Sims (read: Humans).
Like the Lacune eyes, the design for these eyes should be creepy. But they somehow work. Definitely galaxy-esque too, what with the dainty sprinkles of white all over deep, shining, colorful voids.
They come in ten colors that are arguably extraterrestrial-ly themed. Mostly blues, some deep purples, sky-like violets, and a whole lot of green.
20. ND Demon Eyes V/3 (+Heterochromia) N144 by Pralinesims
| Swatches: | 50 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Eyes (Base) | Face Paint (Heterochromia) |
| Default Replacement: | No |
Demons may not be a canonical Occult Sim (yet!) in TS4. But that doesn’t mean we Simmers can’t play pretend.
We’ve got plenty of mods to do so, after all.
Take these chilling Demon Eyes from Pralinesims, for example.
They’re substantially creepy, borderline graphical, and they come with heterochromatic options.
Not sure why Demons would have heterochromia… but I’m definitely not complaining. The asymmetrical duality is just way too cool to not use.
Again, you could find these in the Ultimate Eye Kit. But I figured I’d save you some digging and keep that mod folder a bit cleaner.
Definitely consider these some of my favorite eye mods for Halloween themes due to how blatant they are. And I mean that in the best way.
Like, there’s no mistaking the designs (of which there are 50 of, by the way). Red irises, black sclera, milky white sclera, golden cat-eyed slits on inky blackness – who even knew demon eyes could come in so many variations?
This CC creator obviously did. And she put that knowledge to good use.
21. Soft Eyes by squeamishsims
| Swatches: | 18 Default Replacements | 38 Non-Default |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Eyes (Default & Non-Default) | Face Paint (Contacts) |
| Default Replacement: | Depends on File Downloaded & Installed |
While I can appreciate striking foxy eyes, I really do enjoy how softer, matte-r, 2D-ish eyes look in-game.
What can I say? I live more for the gameplay than I do for CAS, so I take a lot of in-game screenshots. Gentler eyes just look better outside of all the CAS lighting.
(Of course, that could be my graphic settings).
Anyway! Point being, here’s another soft eye mod that I highly recommend.
You just have to look at the preview photos to see how smooth these eyes are. They have that hand-drawn quality to them that I absolutely adore. But they’re not too matte or flat that they come off as dull or lifeless.
Quite the opposite, actually: look at all that highlight and shine!
These Soft Eyes are meant to be default replacements – for all ages, all genders, and all types of Sims. They even contain default replacements for pets!
Be sure to pay attention to the individual .package files (that are very generously labeled) so you can pick and choose which ones you’d like to replace.
22. Holobiont Eyes by RemusSirion
| Swatches: | 34 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint |
| Default Replacement: | No |
Remember how I said I can appreciate sharp, striking, foxy eyes, too?
Well these Holobiont Eyes by RemusSirion are a perfect example of that.
They’re these semi-realistic – borderline hyper-realistic, actually – eyes that have this rounded, highly-detailed, 3D quality to them. The outer rim blurs into the sclera, the pupil isn’t, like, this clearly defined and outlined circle in the center, and the iris.
Gosh, the way the colors and lights play out patterns on the iris is simply stunning.
It comes in 34 unique colors, most of which stay pretty firmly in the naturals category – aka browns, blues, subtle hazels.
But honestly?
The way these eyes are designed, they can make even the most vibrant of hot pinks look natural. Plenty of catchlights and shadows to give it dimension, too.
If you prefer Alpha CC over Maxis match, this one’s a real winner.
23. Spin State Eyes by RemusSirion
| Swatches: | 26 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Face Paint |
| Default Replacement: | No |
From the same creator of the previous item comes yet another set of sharp, seductive, and hyper-realistic eyes.
These Spin State eyes are every bit as detailed as the Holobiont ones earlier, but in a completely different way.
The outer rims are slightly more blurred and smudged-out, giving them a softer, more wide-eyed look. And the pupil is a little more clearly defined.
The way the colors and catchlights play throughout the iris is equally as stunning. But the pattern is quite different. It’s more spherical and rounded – probably why it’s named as such – compared to the sharp, artfully jagged edges of the Holobiont ones.
There are 26 colors for these eyes. Like the Holobiont, they’re all some type of blue, brown, and hazel. There are a couple surprises in the swatches though. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well they translated in-game.
24. Intuition Eye Set by Simandy
| Swatches: | 51 Human | Various |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Eyes (Default) | Face Paint (Separate .package) |
| Default Replacement: | Yes |
Heading back to Maxis Match Town, this mod is another fairly large pack of default replacement eyes by Simandy.
And it covers everything; default replacements for all genders, all ages, all pets, and all types of Occult Sim.
I love it when creators are this detailed and this generous. It just keeps the game more fun.
There’s quite a lot in here to unpack(minimum 51 swatches, and that’s just for the Human Eye Add-Ons). So I’m not going to describe them all, I know you want to get back to playing right?
Just know that the Intuition Eye variations of TS4 eyes are gorgeous, vibrant, and quite sparkly.
Two prominent highlights, a clear, smooth distinction between pupil, iris, and sclera, and enough play of shadows, colors, and gradients to give each color option depth.
These may not be the softest eyes on the list. But they strike the perfect balance between hand-drawn animation and simplified realism.
Extra fun add-ons for this eye set include a heterochromia option (to change the right eye’s color), six “blind swatch” options, and a Face Paint .package for all eyes, including the Supernatural ones (so that your vanilla Human Sim can enjoy some cool glowing Mermaid sclera, too).
All the .package files in this set are clearly labeled, so you do have the option to pick and choose which default replacements you’d like to keep.
25. Aqua Trigger Eyes by Miss Ruby Bird
| Swatches: | 99 |
|---|---|
| Find It In: | Eyes |
| Default Replacement: | Yes |
I’m finishing up this list with yet another massive eye set in a Maxis Match style.
There are a total of 99 swatches in this pack, including 32 natural swatches and 22 swatches with “central” heterochromia.
These Aqua Trigger Eyes contain default and non-default replacements for Humans, Aliens, Vampires, and Mermaids. And they’re all varying levels of cute, smooth, and defined.
At first glance, these eyes aren’t actually that much different from EA base game eyes. But the subtlety is its selling point.
The differences aren’t drastic – which is good for Simmers who prefer a more organic look to their Sims. But they do become noticeable over time.
These eyes have larger pupils than EA eyes and softer irises. There’s just one defined highlight on the upper corner, but some of the colors – especially the lighter ones – seem to have this gentle sheen to them that just enhances their hue.
The Central Heterochromia swatches are actually quite realistic, as the color difference in the eyes is very subtle. You’d have to really focus to see it. When you do see the colors blending, though, the effect is mesmerizing.
But you’ll just have to install the pack and see for yourself!
