People have long considered eyes the ‘windows to the soul’. They are one of the first characteristics we notice about others and eye contact is often thought to be key to sparking a long-lasting romance. When it comes to attraction, there’s no denying that eye colour plays a significant role. While beauty is undeniably subjective, people consistently regard specific eye colours as the most attractive. From vivid green and light blue to dark brown eyes, let’s dive into some of the most attractive eye colours and explore what makes them so mesmerising to behold.
Enchanting green eyes
Despite negative links to envy and Shakespeare’s ‘green-eyed monster’, green is one of the rarest and the most beautiful eye colours. Green eyes can vary from a light, turquoise green to a deep emerald shade. Only around 2% of the world’s population has this eye colour. This scarcity makes green eyes particularly unique, mysterious and desirable.
Green is a captivating eye colour that many people associate with beauty and vitality. In fact, Greek mythology describes Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, as having green eyes. Irish folklore suggests that ‘fae’ or fairies also have this dazzling eye colour. This explains why many associate green eyes with such mystique.
People also believe that green eyes symbolise nature, growth and fertility. For this reason, individuals with green eyes tend to have a real affinity for the natural world, are passionate, driven and creative at heart. They are also adventurous, imaginative and have a nurturing spirit. Celebrities with green eyes include Emma Stone, Eddie Redmayne, Scarlett Johansson and also Paul Rudd.
What colour glasses make green eyes pop?
Bring out the green in your eyes with traditional colours like deep brown, tortoiseshell, and warm gold. These earthy tones work in harmony with your eye colour and naturally accentuate the emerald sparkle in your eyes. If you’re feeling bold, you can always add a bit of contrast with red, purple and pink glasses.
Piercing blue eyes
Many individuals agree that blue eyes are the most breathtaking. Over the years, musicians have written countless romantic songs about blue-eyed people, making it hard to deny the enduring charm of this eye colour. There’s something about the clarity and brightness that draws people in. Blue eyes are the second most common eye colour. However, they are still relatively rare with only around 10% of the world’s population having blue eyes.
Striking and attractive, blue eyes have long been a desirable trait. Historically, people associate blue eyes with youth and purity. This is likely because most children have blue eyes when they are born, hence the common phrase ‘baby blue eyes.’ Meanwhile, in Ancient Greece, people believed individuals with blue eyes had superpowers. This might explain why artists and film makers often portray Superman as having this mesmerising eye colour!
Varying from dark blue to light, blue eyes have a serene and tranquil aura. Individuals with this eye colour are often excellent communicators and have a real emotional depth to them. They are peaceful, emphatic people that have a calming effect on others which makes them easy to confide in. Blue-eyed celebrities include Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Chris Hemsworth and Margot Robbie.
What colour glasses suit my blue eyes?
Show off your baby blues in style with flattering blue, transparent and grey tones. Dark tortoiseshell, beige, black and deep brown hues, meanwhile, will add warmth and depth to your eyes.
Silver glasses will really bring out the sparkle in your blue eyes. Meanwhile, if you’re looking to be a little more adventurous, complement your gorgeous blue eyes with a vibrant pair of orange or red frames for a striking contrast.
Intense brown eyes
Brown eyes are the most common eye colour in the world, but that doesn’t make them any less captivating to behold! In fact, there’s something deeply warm and comforting about brown eyes. People often associate this eye colour with trustworthiness, kindness and strength. Brown eyes can range from light honey brown to deep, rich chocolate tones. They look stunning in any light. Plus, their universal nature means people with this eye colour instantly seem more relatable and easier to approach.
Brown-eyed people tend to be very strong-willed yet also down-to-earth and dependable. They are well-grounded individuals who are capable of staying calm in tricky situations. TV, film, and literature often portray characters with brown eyes as reliable, intelligent and compassionate. Famous faces recognised for their magnificent brown eyes include Keira Knightley, Daniel Kaluuya, Olivia Rodrigo and also Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
What colour glasses complement brown eyes?
Warmer tones such as gold, green and dark yellow naturally suit brown eyes. Tortoiseshell and black frames, meanwhile, will bring out the rich, chocolatey depth to your eyes. If you’re looking for something a little more fun and playful, a purple or green frame will add a splash of colour and personality to your look.
Heavenly hazel eyes
Hazel eyes are an enchanting mix of brown, green, gold and sometimes even blue. They have very distinctive and intriguing qualities that naturally draw people in. This eye colour is relatively rare. In fact, only around 5% of the global population has hazel eyes.
Hazel-coloured eyes appear to change colour depending on surrounding light and what the person is wearing. Due to their ever-changing appearance, hazel eyes have a sense of mystery and playfulness about them.
Much like the colour combinations in their eyes, people with hazel eyes often have a balanced way of approaching life. Others see them as having an open mind and able to read people’s emotions. They love adventure and have a natural ability to see situations from different points of view. Hazel-eyed people embrace harmony and are natural problem-solvers.
Famous stars with hazel eyes include Rihanna, David Beckham, Kelly Clarkson and also Tom Cruise.
What colour glasses will bring out my hazel eyes?
If you have hazel eyes, count yourself very lucky! Hazel naturally suits a variety of different hues. Tortoiseshell, green and brown glasses will flatter you the most, while gold frames will brighten the green in your eyes and highlight the golden flecks.
If you have dark hazel eyes, go for lighter shades and the same applies if you have light hazel eyes, opt for darker colours.
Looking for something a little more striking? Make your hazel eyes really stand out with a bright cherry red, light amethyst, or berry pink hue.
Piercing grey eyes
The least common eye colour, grey eyes are extremely rare. Frequently mistaken for blue or green eyes, less than 1% of people in the world have this eye colour. Grey eyes have an intense, icy quality that can make a person’s gaze seem almost hypnotic. They appear to change colour in different lights, which adds to their charisma.
Relaxed and approachable by nature, people with grey eyes have an intense and mystifying side to them, as well as a real competitive streak. It’s also widely believed that the Greek goddess of Wisdom, Athena, had grey eyes and therefore people often perceive grey-eyed individuals as logical and wise.
Grey eyes have an otherworldly quality and this is why people often associate them with supernatural characters. Fans widely recognise Ian Somerhalder for his striking grey eyes, which likely contributed to his appeal in playing a vampire in the American teen drama The Vampire Diaries. Other celebrities with this dazzling eye colour include Daniel Craig, Saoirse Ronan, Meg Ryan and also Katy Perry.
What colour glasses are best for grey eyes?
Cool tones like grey, silver and blue will naturally complement the subtle colour of your grey eyes. To highlight the unique, distinctive qualities of this rare eye colour, select dark and rich shades like black, deep purple, olive green and dark red. Grey also works as the perfect foundation for bright, multi-coloured frames.
Golden amber eyes
Compared to the more common shades of brown, amber eyes stand out with their distinctive warm honey-coloured, golden-brown colour. People often describe individuals with amber eyes as having ‘wolf eyes’ because animals like dogs, cats and owls more commonly have this enchanting trait. In fact, only around 5% of the global human population has this eye colour.
People admire amber eyes for their unique appearance. Some Native American cultures believe this eye colour symbolises spiritual power. Much like the fiery glow of amber eyes, people with this captivating eye colour are very passionate and have a natural ability to light the spark of inspiration in others. Stars you may recognise as having magnificent amber eyes are Justin Bieber, Nicole Richie, Darren Criss and also Jennifer Lopez.
What colour glasses bring out the amber in my eyes?
Amber eyes have a beautiful golden glow that blends well with brown and honey hues. If you want to make your eyes twinkle, opt for luxury tones that contrast your amber eyes, colours like dark purple, green and blue will really brighten your eyes and put them in the spotlight.
Eye colour and attractiveness
So, what is the most attractive eye colour? An online survey of 66,000 carried out by AllAboutVision.com in 2019 revealed that people find green eyes to be the most attractive. Here are the different eye colours in order of preference:
Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The most attractive eye colour will vary depending on where you are in the world, what movies and celebrities are popular and current fashion trends. Positive experiences with role models in childhood may also have an influence.
Also, men and women often have different preferences. For example, Lenstore carried out research in 2021 to find out what the most attractive eye colours were. They created various dating profiles on three well-known dating apps, using images of a male and female participant.
The researchers then modified the eye colour of the participants using digital software between each test to see how many matches they obtained, all while using the exact same images and profile information in the apps.
The results revealed that women found blue eyes to be the most attractive eye colour for men. The total matches for this eye colour accounted for 27% overall. In second place, brown eyes received 22%. Green was third with 17% and hazel came in just behind this at 15%.
Meanwhile, the study also found that hazel was the most attractive eye colour for women. However, the results were a little less well defined in this case. The female dating profile with hazel eyes was matched with potential dates 20.19% of the time. Interestingly, purple eyes – a real but very rare eye colour – received the second highest number of matches at 19.88%. In third place, black eyes accounted for 18% of matches and finally blue eyes received 17%. Although, to tell the truth, black eyes don’t actually exist. They are in fact just a very dark brown colour.
Despite hazel and blue eyes being seen as the most attractive for men and women, Google search data revealed green coloured contact lenses were actually the most popular, while brown came in at second. This is in spite of the fact that green and brown are some of the most common eye colours.
How is eye colour determined?
Genetics are the primary cause of eye colour. The key component is the amount and type of pigments in the front layer of the iris. Your iris is the coloured part of your eye surrounding the pupil. Two pigments, known as melanin and lipochrome, influence your eye colour. Melanin is the pigment that gives colour not just to your eyes but your hair and skin too. The more melanin you have, the darker your eyes and other features will be. Lipochrome, meanwhile, is a yellowish pigment found in varying amounts within green, hazel, and amber eyes. A very small group of people have two different eye colours, for example they may have one brown eye and one blue. This condition is called heterochromia and is very rare. Below, we break down how eye colour is determined:
Brown is the most dominant eye colour. If you inherit a brown-eye gene from one or both parents, it will very likely override other colour traits. Brown eyes have a high amount of melanin in the iris which is what gives them their warm, chocolatey tone.
Blue eyes are a lighter eye colour resulting from less melanin levels in the iris. They have a structural characteristic which means the collagen fibres in the eye scatter and reflect light, which makes them appear blue, even though they don’t have much pigment at all. Blue eyes are recessive which means both parents would need to pass on the gene for their child to have this eye colour.
People often mistake grey eyes for blue, when in fact, they have a subtler colour. This is because grey eyes have more collagen in the stroma than blue and therefore reflect a larger amount of light, appearing grey in colour. Grey eyes aren’t classified as dominant or recessive. Instead, they result from a genetic mutation that leads to reduced melanin production in the eye.
Green eyes come from a moderate amount of melanin mixed with a small amount of yellowish lipochrome pigment. This is what gives them their distinctive colour. Green eyes are recessive to brown but dominant to blue eyes.
Hazel eyes, most often a blend of brown and green, result from a combination of melanin and lipochrome. They look different from brown eyes because the melanin spreads differently across the iris, concentrating more around the outside than the centre. Or, in some cases, the melanin is more prominent around the middle area. Either way, this variation is what causes the eyes to appear to shift in colour depending on the lighting. Like brown, hazel eyes are a dominant gene. Just one copy of the gene is enough to result in this eye colour.
Amber eyes get their colour from two types of melanin, called eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin is a rich brown-black shade for which there is an abundance in brown eyes. Meanwhile pheomelanin is a reddish-yellow shade. Amber eyes have a greater amount of pheomelanin, also known as lipochrome. This is what gives amber eyes their golden glow. Amber eyes can vary in colour from dark to a very light shade. Amber eyes are recessive.
