I know how creepy narcissists can be, but let me tell you something…
It starts and ends with their faces. They're unable to hide any of it, much to their own disgrace, so when you notice something really off, you're not imagining things. When you see it, you honestly cannot unsee it.
There's no going back, but these 9 creepy things narcissists do with their faces should tell you everything you need to know about who you're dealing with.
And once you start clocking these little facial tells, you'll never look at them the same way again. Your gut has been trying to tell you for a while.
1 The eyes that never smile, even when their mouth does
When I first started studying narcissists, it all stemmed from this particular behavior. I know that probably seems crazy to you, but I could never understand how someone could smile with their mouths, yet seem so evil in the eyes. How could they look so different? What was going on?
They wanted you to believe they were happy, but their eyes were evil, and I knew these people had so much more to learn about them.
It's so creepy to see those button eyes almost sewn onto their faces, and for me, it seemed so unsettling to try to figure out. They perform, and many people don't spot the eyes, focusing instead on the beaming grin. You didn't spot it, either, I bet. And now?
Now all you see is someone with a motive; someone out to hurt you but trying hard to disguise it.
The mouth says, "I'm so happy for you," and the eyes say something else entirely. Cold. Flat. Like a shark that just spotted movement in the water.
You have them all figured out.
2 When you're upset, they stare blankly
You're crying; tears running down your face. What is the narcissist doing? They're staring at you blankly, making it seem as though they're staring at some kind of alien. It's completely heartbreaking to think they are physically and emotionally unable to even console you a little bit.
They don't even soften their approach with you; it really is. This isn't them trying to remain calm. There's literally nothing going on behind their eyes. There's no pull to make you better, listen to you, comfort you or tell you everything will be okay.
As your pain is on display, so is their toxicity. It can be very chilling to witness this, but I want you to know that it is as common as it is creepy.
One woman told me her ex just watched her sob on the kitchen floor, then asked what was for dinner. Like she wasn't even in the room.
3 The smirk that can't be hidden
You're really upsetting me. You want the narcissist to at least look at you and have some kind of remorse for how they're treating you, but that smirk tells you otherwise. It tells you that the narcissist is not bothered in the slightest by your pain and sadness.
You watch the corners of their mouth turn up, and you think, "How are you even feeling remotely satisfied right now?"
They're satisfied because you're hurting. That's when they love to see you the most. If you catch them, they pull it back quicker than you can blink, denying their smirk ever existed.
And if you dare mention it, you get, "What smirk? You're imagining things." Classic. They know exactly what their face just did, and they know you saw it.
See also 7 Weaknesses Every Narcissist Has That Will Destroy Them In The EndBut you saw it, and they gave their evil game away with that flinch of realness about them.
4 How they watch you when you leave the room
After you've had a fallout, you walk away and as you do, you innocently glance behind you. What do you see? The narcissist is staring at you, and I don't mean wistfully watching you, or showing you in a single look how much they care about you.
I mean staring coldly. They're filing away some kind of information about that argument they can use at a later date, and they don't want you to know about it. That's why they do it behind your back, only you catch them being creepy.
And when you turn around, what do they do? Look away fast, or hit you with a flat, "What? I wasn't looking at you." Sure you weren't.
The reason why this is worth remembering is because a narcissist will do more than just that behind your back, only you're physically seeing and noticing this stare, and I think that's really something worth knowing is real. Don't think for one moment that this is your imagination. It's not.
A narcissist doesn't want you to know what they're calculating, and that argument in particular will have given them enough supply to think about what comes next. More misery for you.
5 "I'm concerned" fake face
Oh my goodness. Are you okay? Did something happen? I'm worried about you. You think, "Oh wow, the narcissist actually cares and they're asking me how I am."
Don't be fooled, this is nothing but a smokescreen. The concerned fake face comes about because the narcissist loves so much to perform, and this is part of it. They're very good at it, too.
That's why you open up and tell them what's on your mind, and they won't take it in out of concern, it'll be to store as a future weapon. The eyes again, will be disconnected. That's because they have zero empathy, and I want you to remember that.
Fake concern hooks you in and makes you think the narcissist is a pillar of support, but they're faking it from start to finish. I do think it's creepy to convince someone that you're worried about them, when all along you're just using them like you always do.
I had a client tell me her ex would ask, "Babe, what's really going on?" then throw her exact words back at her weeks later in an argument.
That is a narcissist to a tee.
6 The look they give others that you weren't meant to see
Something innocent is spoken by you over dinner, and before the narcissist gets a chance to respond, they give a look to someone over the table. It's a look that you catch, and it says everything about who the narcissist really is. The look says, "Can you believe this person?"
It's a split second, but trust me, it's real and it happens frequently. As they give that look, they turn back to you, so naturally, and answer like nothing happened, but you're already on edge wondering what on earth that was all about. What did you miss?
Why are they treating you like some kind of joke? It's because that's what the narcissist really does think about you, and I hate to even say it.
You weren't meant to catch that part of the show, but you do, and you wonder how many of them you miss at other times.
And once you see one, you start seeing them everywhere. The tiny smirk. The eye flick to their friend. The pause before they answer you like they're humouring a child.
7 The rage that dissipates in a split second
The narcissist was just in the middle of their latest rage out. They were bright red in the face, yelling and screaming. Suddenly the phone rings and they pick up. Hello?
Their voice is calm and composed, and a smile paints across their face, and you wonder what you missed, and how they managed to flick that switch within seconds and be this nice person?
One second they're spitting venom at you, the next they're laughing on the phone like nothing happened. That switch flip is the tell. Real anger doesn't behave like that.
It's because they can control their emotions, and they want other people, while you see that rage, to believe they're good, kind and warm. It's freaky, and your heart is still racing even though they've managed to pull the wool over the caller's eyes.
The narcissist's anger is always a choice. It hurts to know that, but when you do, you must not forget it. Seeing that side of the narcissist, or any other creepy thing they do with their face should be the point where you are no longer able to unsee it.
8 The mirror stare that makes your skin crawl
You know that thing where you catch them looking at themselves in a reflective surface a beat too long? A shop window. The microwave door. The rear view mirror when they think you're on your phone.
It's not vanity in the normal, everyone-does-it sense. It's something else. They lock eyes with themselves and go still. Almost hypnotised. Like they're checking in with the version of them nobody else gets to see.
I've had people describe walking in on their partner in the bathroom, just staring. No brushing teeth, no fixing hair. Just staring. And when they get caught, there's that half second where the face resets. Where the mask slides back on and suddenly they're smiling at you like nothing happened.
It creeps you out because on some level you know you've just seen something private. Something not meant for you. And you can't unsee it.
Trust that feeling in your gut. If watching your partner look at themselves feels wrong, that's information.
9 That tiny nostril flare before they explode
If you know, you know. That little flick of the nostrils, quick, almost imperceptible, right before the whole room shifts.
I've had people describe it to me the exact same way: "I saw his nose do that thing, and I knew I had about ten seconds to get out of the kitchen."
See also 5 Creepy Things Every Narcissist Hides Somewhere in Their HouseThe body always tells on them before the mouth does. The nostrils widen, the jaw locks up a fraction, and the breathing changes. You start reading them like a weather forecast. Storm rolling in, batten down the hatches.
And here's what gets me. You end up so attuned to this micro signal that your nervous system fires before you've even consciously registered what you saw. Your shoulders climb up to your ears. Your stomach drops. You start scanning for what you did wrong.
That's not intuition. That's years of conditioning. Years of watching a face for warning signs because the wrong word at the wrong second meant hours, sometimes days, of hell.
You shouldn't have to read someone's nostrils to feel safe in your own home.
