If you have amber eyes, you’re a member of a small global family, for you are blessed with one of humankind’s rarest eye colors (green eyes are considered the other most rare).
Only an estimated 5% of people have an amber eye color. However, it is more common in the animal kingdom: A number of animals commonly have amber-colored eyes, including wolves, dogs, cats, eagles, owls, pigeons and fish. In fact, eyes this color are sometimes referred to as “wolf eyes.”
“Not quite dark enough to be brown and not quite light enough to be yellow, amber eyes have a reputation for taking many people’s breath away,” according to Woman’s World magazine.
What is amber eye color?
Rare amber eyes are yellow-brown, often described as having a golden or copper hue.
To understand the amber eye color, it may help to understand how eye color is determined in the first place. We’ll go into this a little more later, but here’s a preview to explain how eyes can appear amber:
The colored part of the eye is known as the iris. Melanin pigments contribute to the front layer of the iris, just as they contribute to skin and hair color. Melanin comes in two forms: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin is brownish-black, while pheomelanin is reddish-yellow.
Amber borrows some of its color from eumelanin and some of the color from pheomelanin (also called lipochrome). It’s thought that amber-colored eyes contain a high level of pheomelanin.
Amber is one of six eye colors. The others are blue, brown, gray, green and hazel. Amber eye color can occur in a spectrum of shades, from very dark amber to light amber eyes.
While there are only six eye colors, no two people have eyes that are precisely the same color… as with amber, all eye colors come in a vast spectrum of shades and blends.
Who has amber eyes?
People with amber-colored eyes often have Asian, Spanish, South American or South African roots, as do people with brown eyes. People with blue, gray, green and hazel eyes are of European ancestry.
Which celebrities have amber-colored eyes?
As such a striking eye color, it’s not surprising that there are a number of famous faces with amber eyes. Among the celebrities recognized for their amber-colored eyes are Justin Bieber, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Garner, Nicole Richie, Darren Criss and Eliza Dushku.
Are amber eyes the same as hazel eyes?
Amber eyes are not the same as hazel eyes. The amber eye color is a mostly solid color, while hazel eyes have shades of brown and green.
How is eye color determined?
Sixteen genes help determine whether your eyes will be amber or any of the other six eye colors, with two of those genes playing a primary role.
Most of the genes connected to eye color have a role in producing, transporting or storing melanin. As noted by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, people with brown eyes have a large amount of melanin in the iris, while people with blue eyes have much less of this pigment.
“Researchers used to think that eye color was determined by a single gene and followed a simple inheritance pattern in which brown eyes were dominant to blue eyes. Under this model, it was believed that parents who both had blue eyes could not have a child with brown eyes. However, later studies showed that this model was too simplistic,” the Library of Medicine says.
“Although it is uncommon, parents with blue eyes can have children with brown eyes,” the Library adds. “The inheritance of eye color is more complex than originally suspected because multiple genes are involved. While a child’s eye color can often be predicted by the eye colors of his or her parents and other relatives, genetic variations sometimes produce unexpected results.”
This means that, while you may not have amber eyes, it is still possible for your child to “inherit” them.
What makes people’s eyes attractive?
Regardless of whether your eyes are amber or another color, your eyes will literally catch other people’s eyes.
“You may have heard about the effects of a large, dilated pupil on attractiveness. When people are aroused, their pupils, the black circle at the center of the eye, become larger. This signal of arousal is found attractive, particularly to men, but also to women, even when we don’t consciously notice it,” according to a 2017 article published by Psychology Today.
The article also points out that the white part of your eyes, known as the sclera, plays a role in whether someone thinks you’re happy, healthy and attractive.
In one survey, Americans rated gray as the most attractive eye color and brown as the least attractive eye color; the survey did not include questions about amber-colored eyes. Those who responded to the survey found people with gray eyes to be intelligent, quiet and serious, while people with brown eyes were considered kind, reliable and patient.
Clinical psychologist Carla Marie Manly told the mindbodygreen (mbg) website that we generally find rare eye colors like amber more compelling than more common eye colors like brown.
“Rooted in primitive survival mechanisms, the human mind — and the human eye — tend to notice that which is different and unique,” Manly says.
READ MORE: What is the rarest eye color?
Page published on Monday, February 8, 2021
FAQs
While common in animals like wolves, cats, and owls, amber-colored eyes in people are incredibly rare. , just 5% of the world's population has them, making them one of the rarest colors in the world. Amber eyes are most commonly found in peoples of Asian, Spanish, South American, and South African descent.
What are amber eyes associated with? ›
What Causes Amber Eyes? Just as it is with other eye colors, amber eyes are determined by genetics and the amount of melanin pigments in the eye. There are two types of melanin—eumelanin, which is dark brown-black, and pheomelanin (also called lipochrome), which is a lighter reddish-yellow.
What ethnicity has amber eyes? ›
Amber eyes, which have slightly more melanin than hazel eyes but not as much as brown eyes, account for about 5% of the world's population. People of Asian, Spanish, South American, and South African descent are most likely to have amber eyes.
How rare is it to have amber eyes? ›
Only an estimated 5% of people have an amber eye color. However, it is more common in the animal kingdom: A number of animals commonly have amber-colored eyes, including wolves, dogs, cats, eagles, owls, pigeons and fish. In fact, eyes this color are sometimes referred to as “wolf eyes.”
What Colour makes amber eyes pop? ›
Eyeshadow for Amber Eyes
Amber eyes are typically a darker brown with golden or light yellow tones. Eyeshadow should include shades of gold and bronze, which are the same colors on the opposite side of the spectrum as blues--oranges will work too if you want to warm up your look!
Are amber eyes the rarest eye color? ›
Of those four, green is the rarest. It shows up in about 9% of Americans but only 2% of the world's population. Hazel/amber is the next rarest of these. Blue is the second most common and brown tops the list with 45% of the U.S. population and possibly almost 80% worldwide.
What color hair goes with amber eyes? ›
Best Hair Colors for Amber Eyes
“For light brown and amber eyes, you want colors with a warm burst of sunlight. Think copper-y red or dark golden auburn, butterscotch or golden highlights, shades like sand or candlelit and warm tawny bases to help the eyes stand out,” she says.
How much of the world has amber eyes? ›
The outliers
Hazel and amber eyes can both be found in about 5 percent of the worldwide population. Hazel eyes are generally light or yellowish-brown with flecks of gold, green and brown in the center. On the other hand, amber eyes are more golden or coppery without the specks of gold, green and brown.
What is the prettiest eye color? ›
We found that green is the most popular lens colour, with brown coming in a close second, despite it being one of the most common eye colours. Although blue and hazel are seen as the most attractive eye colours for men and women they are surprisingly the least popular.
Is amber eyes attractive? ›
Amber eyes are among the rarest eye colors found in humans, and that's why those who have them tend to make our list of people with the most beautiful eyes in the world. Not quite dark enough to be brown and not quite light enough to be yellow, amber eyes have a reputation for taking many people's breath away.
Each parent will pass one copy of their eye color gene to their child. In this case, the mom will always pass B and the dad will always pass b. This means all of their kids will be Bb and have brown eyes. Each child will show the mom's dominant trait.
Do amber eyes have green? ›
Amber eyes are a solid yellowish, golden or copper color and do not contain brown, green, or orange flecks.
What is the 2 rarest eye color? ›
The second-rarest eye color is hazel, a mixture of brown and green with golden flecks. About 18% of Americans have hazel eyes, compared with about 5% of the world's population. And while violet eyes are a rarity, they're really just a blue hue, with light bouncing off the surroundings and turning the eyes violet.
What lip color goes with amber eyes? ›
Amber Eyes
"Try a warm orange like Ilia Lipstick in Voilà (opens in new tab) ($26) or cool pink mauve like Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist in Satin Soft Pink (opens in new tab) ($20)."
How do you know if you have amber eyes? ›
If your eyes are golden or yellow in color, then you have amber eyes. There are several colors of amber, which some individuals describe as copper, gold, or an extremely light brown. Blue or gray eyes result from the absence of pigment (melanin) in the iris's front layer.
What color clothes go with amber eyes? ›
Amber eyes can be paired with earth tones like green, brown, and black. This gives off a natural vibe and makes your eyes stand out against the neutral tones in your clothes. If you're looking for something more colorful, try pairing your amber eyes with shades of blue or purple.
Are amber eyes natural? ›
Amber eyes, which have slightly more melanin than hazel eyes but not as much as brown eyes, account for about 4.5-5% of the world's population. Humans of Asian, Spanish, South American, and South African descent are most likely to have amber eyes.
What to wear with amber eyes? ›
If you have amber eyes…
- wearing shades of blue will probably brighten your eyes and make them pop. Your eyes are a golden, orangish brown. ...
- wearing russet or coppery browns will intensify your eyes. Also, when you wear deep golden or yellowy colors your amber eyes will pick up those hues and be magnified.
There's a little genetic tweak that makes the combination of red hair and blue eyes the rarest of them all. The same Nature study mentioned above found that another gene variant, HERC2, interacts with both the MC1R gene and the OCA2 gene—and it can shut off the redhead gene while expressing blue eyes and blonde hair.
What color goes best with amber? ›
What colors go with amber? Amber is a bright, eye-catching color. It looks great alongside deep browns, reds, greens and oranges. It even pairs nicely with blue, which is its complementary color on the color wheel.
I think it is because on average they have a more olive complexion which causes their eye colour to stand out more. Blue and green eyes originated in West Asia 42 000 years ago and wherever people of West Asian origin migrated, they took the genes for light eyes, hair and skin.
Can Japanese have blue eyes? ›
There are plenty of blue-eyed Asians. This probably happens when the traditional blue-eyed allele comes into a family from a (possibly very distant) European ancestor. Blue eyes then resurface in a child generations later if they inherit the allele from both parents.
What is the least attractive eye color? ›
In a website poll of over 66,000 respondents, 20% said green was the most attractive, followed by hazel and light blue at 16%. Brown was far and away voted the least attractive (6%).
What is the most unliked eye color? ›
Green is considered by some to be the actual rarest eye color in the world, though others would say it's been dethroned by red, violet, and grey eyes. Green eyes don't possess a lot of melanin, which creates a Rayleigh scattering effect: Light gets reflected and scattered by the eyes instead of absorbed by pigment.
What eye color is most attractive to guys? ›
What type of eyes are men attracted to? Of the participants who were surveyed, the majority of both men and women found blue to be the most attractive eye color. In regard to eye colors other than blue, the study found that men preferred women who had green eyes over those with brown eyes.
What are signs of strong genes? ›
What are the signs of good genes? Good gene indicators are hypothesized to include masculinity, physical attractiveness, muscularity, symmetry, intelligence, and “confrontativeness” (Gangestad, Garver-Apgar, and Simpson, 2007).
Which genes are stronger mother or father? ›
Genetically, a person actually carries more of his/her mother's genes than his/her father's. The reason is little organelles that live within cells, the? mitochondria, which are only received from a mother. Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and is inherited from the mother.
Does eye color affect vision? ›
Eye color doesn't significantly affect the sharpness of your vision, but it can affect visual comfort in certain situations. It all comes down to the density of the pigment melanin within your iris, which determines what colors of light are absorbed or reflected.
Did Elizabeth Taylor have violet eyes? ›
Did Elizabeth Taylor have violet eyes? These days, thanks to colored contact lenses, anyone can have violet-colored eyes . Taylor didn't come by her purple peepers that way; the first tinted contact lenses weren't commercially available until 1983. Taylor's eye color was the real deal.
What is the coolest eye color in the world? ›
Hazel eyes have also been voted as one of the most attractive eye colours and can, therefore, be argued to have the best of both worlds, health and beauty. Green eyes are incredibly rare, which may be the reason as to why some believe this to be the most attractive eye colour.
Likewise, two brown-eyed parents can have a child with blue eyes, although this is also uncommon.
What is the rarest eye color in the world? ›
Green is considered by some to be the actual rarest eye color in the world, though others would say it's been dethroned by red, violet, and grey eyes. Green eyes don't possess a lot of melanin, which creates a Rayleigh scattering effect: Light gets reflected and scattered by the eyes instead of absorbed by pigment.
What are the personality traits of amber? ›
As an Enneagram Three, Amber is driven, enthusiastic, and practical. She is focused on getting things done and works hard to achieve her goals. Amber likes to keep active and busy, which is typical of people of the Enneagram Three personality type.
What eye color are men most attracted to? ›
Blue-eyed males are particularly attracted to blue-eyed females, the researchers found. However, women showed no preference for blue or brown-eyed men and brown-eyed men showed no preference either.
What Zodiac is amber associated with? ›
Being known as the stone of the Sun, Amber stone has a natural warmth to it. It reflects vibrancy and positivity. It's also the birthstone of the Cancer zodiac sign.
What color amber is best? ›
Reddish amber is more valuable than golden amber, which is more valuable than yellow amber. Rarely, strong fluorescence can give amber a bluish or greenish appearance, which when attractive can be highly valuable.
What emotion does amber represent? ›
As it is a warm and radiant color, amber is associated with energy. Its vibrance can promote feelings of happiness and inspire boldness. In color psychology, amber is thought to symbolize and promote vitality, confidence and safety.
