Like with green and hazel, the difference between hazel and brown eyes can sometimes be hard to see. Hazel eyes might appear light brown from a distance. But closer inspection of hazel eyes shows flecks or bands of another color as well. Brown eyes, on the other hand, are brown throughout the entire iris.
People often confuse hazel with brown eyes because of the nearly similar hues. Although rare, hazel eyes have the second-highest concentration of melanin, making them appear light brown in some environments. Typically, hazel eyes take the color of a hazelnut — a mixture of green and brown.
What's the Difference Between Amber and Hazel Eyes? Hazel eyes are typically a mix of green, brown and gold colors. If your eyes are solidly golden or yellow, you have amber eyes.
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.
More information about Hazel Eyes
Anyone can be born with hazel eyes, but it's most common in people of Brazilian, Middle Eastern, North African, or Spanish descent. When eyes are hazel, they are brown mixed with amber and green. In some cases, there are shades of gray, blue, and gold within the iris too.
Much like gray eyes, hazel eyes may appear to “change color” from green to light brown to gold. Individuals whose eyes appear to be one color closest to the pupil, another color a little farther our, and another color around the edge of the iris are likely to have hazel eyes.
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.
One of the study's main findings was that gray eyes are both the rarest and the statistically most attractive eye color, with hazel and green following closely behind. Conversely, brown eyes are the most common color yet the least attractive to the survey's respondents.
Your children inherit their eye colors from you and your partner. It's a combination of mom and dad's eye colors – generally, the color is determined by this mix and whether the genes are dominant or recessive. Every child carries two copies of every gene – one comes from mom, and the other comes from dad.
There are two main types of hazel eyes: those with brown as the dominant color in the iris and those with green as the dominant color. While all hazel eyes will have a combination of green and brown colors, the difference in dominant colors is why hazel eyes can appear either mostly green or mostly brown.
Changes in eye color are rare. Sometimes, the color of your eye may appear to change when your pupils dilate. The colors in your environment, including lighting and your clothes, can give the illusion of eye color change.
Browns, golds and greens will instantly enhance the richness of hazel, bronzes are dreamy for bringing out the warmth and purples provide a gorgeous contrast to your eye colour.
Two brown-eyed parents are likely to have a brown-eyed child, but could potentially have a child with blue, green or hazel eyes, depending on the combination of genes from each parent.
It's all up to genetics and nothing more. That said, if your baby was born with brown eyes, it means they already have the amount of melanin assigned by their genetic code, so their eye color won't change.
Hazel eyes have flecks of gold, green, and brown, so it's best to complement them with warm-toned blondes, browns, and reds if you really want your eye color to stand out. If your hazel eyes have a lot of green in them, rich red shades like auburn and copper will work best for you.
Almond eyes are considered the most ideal eye shape because you can pretty much pull off any eyeshadow look. And believe me, this is a huge plus! Almond eyes have an oval shape with a slightly upturned outer corner.
And what would you think is the most 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%).
Blue eyes also represent innocence and carefree. Brown eyes are a more mature eye color and represent stability, security and strength.
Scientists at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, have apparently found a hitherto unobserved link between eye-colour and levels of intelligence. Blue-eyed people, they claim, are more studious, more strategic, more focused, and thus out-perform brown-eyed people in exams.
People who had deep brown eyes during their youth and adulthood may experience a lightening of their eye pigment as they enter middle age, giving them hazel eyes. Conversely, someone born with hazel eyes might see their irises get darker as they grow older.
In the first few years of life, more melanin may accumulate in the iris, causing blue eyes to turn green, hazel or brown. Babies whose eyes turn from blue to brown develop significant amounts of melanin. Those who end up with green eyes or hazel eyes develop a little less.
OK, so to have hazel eyes you need a G from the GEY gene and an M from our modifier gene.