amber eye colour

Amber eyes

2 April 2025 / 0 Comments

People with amber eyes have irises that combine brown with a yellow or golden hue. The iris is the tinted ring around the pupil that gives each eye its colour. Amber eyes sometimes resemble light brown eyes, but they're set apart by a warmer, honey-tinted tone.

How rare is amber eye colour?

Amber eyes are quite rare. It’s estimated that only 5% of people globally (1 in 20) have an amber eye colour.

But eye colour rarity depends on where you are in the world. Fewer people in the UK have brown eyes or shades related to brown (like amber) than in many other European countries. So, it's possible that the amber colour is even more rare in the UK than in the rest of the world.

How many people have amber eye colour?

While we know amber eyes are uncommon, it's impossible to know exactly how many people have the eye colour.

Using the popular 5% estimate, roughly 400 million of the 8 billion people on Earth have amber eyes.

How do your eyes become this colour?

Amber eyes contain a blend of two melanin pigments that give them their golden hue. Melanin also gives your skin and hair their colour.

The amber iris colour is believed to result from:

  • Higher levels of pheomelanin (lipochrome), a red-yellow pigment that helps give amber eyes their trademark colour. The right balance of pheomelanin can almost give the appearance of golden eyes, especially in the sun.
  • Lower levels of eumelanin, a brown or black pigment. People with dark brown eyes have the most eumelanin (and overall melanin) in their irises. Amber eyes don't contain as much.

To put this into context, this same blend of pigments gives many redheads their hair colour. Red hair and amber eyes both tend to contain more pheomelanin than eumelanin.

But amber eye colour — like its red-hair counterpart — can vary in shade and intensity from person to person.

Do genetics decide amber eyes?

Amber eyes, like all natural eye colours, are indeed determined by genetics. But genetics are complicated, and it's impossible to know for certain whether a baby will have amber irises.

Eye colour is related to many genes that can be expressed in different ways. Researchers are still learning about all the ways these genes can affect eye colour.

While it may be more likely for someone to have amber eyes if both their parents have them, it’s also possible for the colour to occur if neither parent has them (or if only one does).

Celebrities with amber eyes

A celebrity's eye colour can be one of their most recognisable features. These famous people are known for their amber-coloured eyes:

  • Justin Bieber
  • Jennifer Lopez
  • Camilla Luddington
  • Jennifer Garner
  • Rani Mukerji
  • Eliza Dushku
  • Darren Criss
  • Nicole Richie

Some celebrities only have amber eyes when they're in character. One fictional example is Edward Cullen, the vampire played by Robert Pattinson in the Twilight film series. He and some other “vegetarian” vampires had noticeably bright golden eyes during parts of the movies.

Because such a surreal shade of gold wouldn't be possible in real life, Pattinson and some of his fellow castmates used coloured contact lenses to achieve their golden eye colour.

Other celebrities have heterochromia (different-coloured eyes) with amber in them. In many cases, this means one of their eyes is amber and the other is a different colour like brown or blue. In other cases, there may be a patch or wedge of amber on an otherwise green or blue iris. This can occur in one or both eyes.

Actress Jane Seymour has heterochromia — she has one partially amber eye and one green eye.

Are amber eyes the same as hazel eyes?

Amber eyes can be similar to hazel eyes, but they aren't exactly the same. Hazel irises contain less pheomelanin, so they don't have the same reddish or yellow iris colour as amber. 

The way the different hues intermingle in the iris is also different for the two eye colours. Amber is usually a fluid blend of brown and gold. On the other hand, Hazel has more distinct rings of green and brown, along with gold flecks scattered throughout the iris.

How can I make my eyes look amber?

Coloured contact lenses can give you the appearance of amber eyes with or without vision correction.

For example, Freshlook Colorblends and Air Optix Colours are available in the Honey shade, while SofLens Natural Colors offer the India shade for an amber-eyed look.

If you don't have a valid contact lens prescription, now is a great time to book an eye test. In addition to checking your vision, your optician will measure the shape of your eyes to ensure your coloured contacts fit properly and comfortably.

References

  1. Eye colors. Cleveland Clinic. March 2024.
  2. Is eye color determined by genetics? MedlinePlus. National Library of Medicine. July 2022.
  3. What are amber eyes, and how rare are they really? Vision Center. September 2024.
  4. True colors: A literature review on the spatial distribution of eye and hair pigmentation. Forensic Science International: Genetics. March 2019.
  5. What are the rarest eye colors? Verywell Health. August 2024.
  6. Is hair color determined by genetics? MedlinePlus. National Library of Medicine. July 2022.
  7. Heterochromia. EyeSmart. American Academy of Ophthalmology. April 2024.