What are hazel eyes? - YouLookFab Forum

Category

General

What are hazel eyes?

Anonymous

After seeing the "what is olive skin" thread, I want to ask what color(s) hazel eyes are supposed to be. My mom always said my eyes are hazel, but I'm not sure. They're a mixture of blue, green and gray with a tiny smude of brown around the pupil. There is so little brown that you don't notice it unless you get up close and personal, lol. They appear to change color depending on what I wear. Sometimes they look green, sometimes blue-green, and sometimes gray.

General

25 replies

Latest reply was from

Queen Mum

Veteran

Hazel eyes are exactly as you just described. A mix of blue, green grey and brown. And yes, depending on what you are wearing or how the light is hitting your eyes, they can appear to change colors.

Anonymous

Thanks. I always thought hazel eyes had to have a noticeable hazel brown color in them. It's fun changing my clothes to make my eyes look different, though!

KathyL

Veteran

Your eyes sound beautiful! I agree that your eyes sound hazel to me. Makes me think of the Kelly Clarkson song.

Aziraphale

Veteran

I always though hazel was greeny-brown. I think the key with hazel is that the green pigment must be dominant, and it's not a blue-green, it's a brown-green. It may be true that hazel is technically a mix of blue, green, gray and brown, but the proportions of these colours must matter. My eyes could be described nearly exactly the same way you describe yours -- greeny-bluey-gray, with a tiny smudge of yellow right next to the pupil, if you get up really close! -- and if you saw me, you could see that they are manifestly not hazel. They are more of a pale grayish sea green.

Just to be a gigantic science nerd, there are in fact only two pigments when it comes to eye colour -- brown and yellow. There are two layers in the iris, an outer layer and an inner layer, where the pigment can be distributed. Broadly, people with pigment in both layers have brown eyes, and those with pigment only on the inner layer have blue eyes, because of the way light refracts as it passes through the clear outer layer of the iris. There is no blue pigment. Of course, it's more complicated than that, because of the density and distribution of the pigments across the two layers can vary a lot -- for example, you could have a densely pigmented inner layer, and thinly scattered pigment particles in the outer layer. This is what gives the human eye such variability in colour.

It's certainly true that eyes can appear to change colour a bit depending on what you're wearing.

Anonymous

Like Elisabeth, it's always been my understanding that hazel eyes were a combination of true (if somewhat muted green) and brown. But I'm not sure that really matters to you. Okay, perhaps you can't put a definite 'label' on your eye-colour, but just being able to change the predominant colour by what you wear is a great plus, Non? (My own eyes are a pretty clear emerald green, and they just got a little greener with envy at the thought of being able to do that!! :-))

Anonymous

My little brown (not yellow) smudge is so small it's not noticeable from a distance; definitely not visible in any pictures. I always thought hazel had to have a noticeable brown element, which my eyes don't have.

JR

Veteran

I thought hazel was a relatively light brown too. Learn something new every day.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Hazel is a green/brown - not blue as I recall - but I could be wrong about this. If your eyes are a light yellow brown, they are amber. That I know for sure

Interestingly, all green eyes stem from brown eyes.

Transcona Shannon

Veteran

I always thought it was a mixture of green and brown - that's what colour my son's eyes are. Wearing different clothes definitely makes his eyes look a different colour - something they are very green looking.

Mo

(website)

Veteran

I think mine might be close to yours, by the description. Blue outer rim, with brown near the pupil. I call mine green, but maybe they are technically hazel? Dunno. Here's a creepy up close pic hee hee.

This post has 1 photo. Photos uploaded by this member are only visible to other logged in members.

If you aren't a member, but would like to participate, please consider signing up. It only takes a minute and we'd love to have you.

Anonymous

Your eye color is very similar to mine, Mo. Mine have a distinct blue-gray (slate?) rim, though, and the rim is visibly darker than the rest of my eye. The brown smudge you have in the center looks like mine.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Mo, you have green eyes.

Anonymous

I guess that aside from the dark rims, mine are green, too. Maybe I just don't know my colors, lol! I do know that anything green really brings out my eyes. Teal and purple enhance better than any other color, though red is another winner.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I've always thought hazel was more green/brown too. Mo, your eyes are very similar in color to mine. Mine appear more green sometimes, more blue others. Sometimes they seem a bit more grey -- they are very changeable. When I was younger people always remarked on my blue eyes, but I think they seem more green now. Not sure why that would be. My mom had brown eyes, my dad's were blue.

Aziraphale

Veteran

Ruth, I think some people have eyes that are not easily categorized by colour. You might be one such person! But I have no doubt that the difficulty in categorization of your eyes does not diminish their beauty in any way.

Anonymous

I'm just curious, as people seem to use the term "hazel" so loosely.

Aziraphale

Veteran

I think that's because people like labels, and "hazel" has become a catch-all term for eyes of an indeterminate colour.

To my mind, hazel is definitely greeny-brown. Yours sound more like a lovely sea green.

Marigold

Mo, I think your eyes are green (they're predominantly green with a bit of brown). mine are similar but a tad darker green, gray on the outside and brown around the irises.. I always thought of them as green but realize they might be more hazel.. Here's a freakish picture of them (wah, I realize my eyebrows need threading!!).

This post has 1 photo. Photos uploaded by this member are only visible to other logged in members.

If you aren't a member, but would like to participate, please consider signing up. It only takes a minute and we'd love to have you.

Meredith1953

Veteran

I've always though my eyes were hazel but they seem to have blue green and brown. Now I'm not sure! See pic below and tell me if they are? Will I have to re-do my driver's license?

This post has 2 photos. Photos uploaded by this member are only visible to other logged in members.

If you aren't a member, but would like to participate, please consider signing up. It only takes a minute and we'd love to have you.

Anonymous

Isabella, your eyes look more brown than mine.
Meredith, your eyes look bluer than mine.

I can get my eyes to look green or grey, but never blue. I can get them to look blue-ish, but never really blue enough to say my eyes are blue. They are soft and of medium intensity (not light or dark). They look grey in a photo I had taken (on a cruise my DH and I took) of me wearing a solid black dress.

April

Veteran

More than you ever wanted to know on this topic, with photos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color

Kyle

Veteran

Hmmm. I've never heard of hazel eyes having blue in them. My experience has been that they are usually an interesting combination of green-brown-gold — my son is a prime example and they are truly stunning. I believe hazel eyes can "change" in the way they are perceived by others, depending on the colors you wear.

Meredith1953

Veteran

@Ruth
Now I'm obsessed with figuring out what my eye color truly is! They DO have a lot of blue in them. I can get them to look greener when I wear green. I wonder what blue/brown eyes are called!

Aziraphale

Veteran

Lol, this thread keeps popping back up to the top, and I can't help clicking on it!

April: thanks for the wikipedia link. I skimmed the article, this is what it has to say about hazel (vs. amber):

Amber eyes should not be confused with hazel eyes; although hazel eyes may contain specks of amber or gold, they usually tend to comprise many other colors, including green, brown and orange. Also, hazel eyes may appear to shift in color and consist of flecks and ripples, while amber eyes are of a solid gold hue.

So, mainly green-brown-orange. Hope that answers your question, Ruth and Meredith! Kyle, it agrees with what you said.

Interesting to note that there's an actual scale to describe eye colour, and that three of the five categories are "mixed". (Of course there's a scale! People love labels! Scientists especially!).

Meredith: when I was a teenager, I was obsessed with determining my eye colour too. I gave up, and decided that some people's eyes defy easy categorization. Now I see that mine fit into category 14, "Very light-mixed (blue with gray or green or green with gray)" on the Martin scale. It also looks like us pale-eyed people are a dying breed.

Hope this doesn't count as a thread hijack. It's an interesting topic. Thanks for bringing it up, Ruth.

Anonymous

I'm as confused as ever, I think, but that's okay.

Meredith, I can make my eyes look blue-ish but not blue blue, if that makes sense. I can make them look really green, though, so I guess they're more green than blue... or something like that. They never look brown or anything remotely close to brown, so I don't think they're hazel by the strictest definition.

Fun subject, eh? I can't believe how many people posted.