The occurrence of the Amber eyes in human is very rare. According to research, only 0.01% of the people have Amber eyes.
Though its rare in nature but Amber eyes look fascinating to everyone. Most of us wish to have it. Amber eyes give people a mystic like personality. They carry an aura that attracts everyone around them.
Amber eyes are one of the most peculiar and uncommon eye colors. The color amber falls between shades of orange and yellow. So it makes it unique as it is not an individual color but a mixture of two. These eyes are also termed as wolf eyes.
Let us learn more about this rare eye color Amber eye.
Table of Contents
Amber Eyes Meaning
In layman language, the meaning of amber eyes can be golden color eyes. The shade of the golden amber can be light or dark and often contain a yellow copper tint with a shade of green-hazel and brown.
As such, there is no single color in the amber eye instead it consists of a variety of colors. The dark amber eyes are the one in which the yellow copper tint is more intense.
What Is The Reason For Having Amber Eyes?
The circular colored part of our eyes is iris. Iris can be brown, blue, green, grey, hazel, red, amber. It filters the light and harmful rays reaching the retina and maintains the amount of light reaching it.
There are various factors which determine the color of our iris like the amount of pigmentation also called as melanin in the iris and the path followed by light after passing through the iris.
How Is Iris Related To Amber Eyes?
Iris is two layers. The front layer of the iris is stroma while the back layer is the epithelium layer. Epithelium layer has the thickness of two cells while containing black, brown and other colored pigments. Stroma is made of colorless collagen fiber. It is usually colorless but sometimes brown pigments are found.
Amber Eye Genetics
According to sedan et al., the amount of brown or yellow pigments in epithelium layer and the predominant color present in iris determines the color of the iris. The predominant color is said to be decided by genes. So, genetics play a major role in the amber eye color.
Every person has inherited characteristics from their parents. These characteristics in cell form are represented by genes. So your genes is a combination of an allele from your mother and allele from your father.
The dominant allele from both can be seen in visual like if your mother has brown eyes and father has blue eyes the dominant color between them is brown eyes.
So the chances of the child that is you having brown eyes are more. But further studies and observations have proved that there are more elements contributing to this.
Thus it can be safely said that the iris can be one of three colors blue, brown, yellow while the amount of pigmentation decides what color the iris. Due to this, the scale of the color of iris lists from darkest shades of brown to lightest tints of blue.
So if you have brown eyes, it means that the stroma has brown pigments while epithelium has dark brown and black pigments.
And if you have amber eyes you have yellow pigments in iris also called as lipochrome which gives the yellow copper tint. This is a rare occurrence with strong gene combination.
There is a dark ring around the iris which is called as gimbal ring. Everyone is born with it, and it starts fading in late twenty’s. Usually, amber or brown eyes have dark rings of color black and make them more beautiful to look at.
Science Of Amber Eyes
You must be curious to know what is the science behind amber eyes. let me tell you, the shade is solely related to heredity and genetics.
Interestingly, there are two main factors that influence this eye color. The first is the pigmentation of the iris and second is scattering of light around itself.
The eye color is actually a virtual prism that can range from the darkest black to darkest green to lightest blue to richest brown.
This color change happens due to melanin, a complex polymer from by the tyrosine amino acid. The polymer is present in the iris to give you the eye color. The dominant melanin pigment for amber eyes are Eumelanin and Pheomelanin.
In addition to genetics, there is one another factor that responds amber eye color. The second factor is linked to the scattering of light and Rayleigh scattering. The amber eye color is rare.
It takes billion years to form via a series of mutations that are occurring since the life was first discovered on the planet.
Studies suggest that the mutation for amber eyes occurred during the late Tertiary period and early Quaternary period of the Cenozoic era.
Rayleigh scattering is a phenomenon to tell how a light scatters over something after reaching the top via the spectrum wavelength. So, the amber color is influenced by how the light is dispersing from the melanin base and the ancestral DNA coding.
How Amber Eyes Different From Brown And Hazel Eyes?
Amber eyes is a shade of brown with yellow pigments which help in distinguishing them from brown eyes.
Usually, amber eyes are confused with hazel eyes. Amber eyes, when seen in sunlight, looks like the color of hazelnut.
The difference between amber eyes and hazel eyes is that hazel eyes have greenish tones and brown which are due to a pigment called heterochromia while amber eyes have yellow or copper tones but to pigment lipochrome.
Rare Occurrence Of Amber Eyes
Amber eyes are second rarest eye color after green. Just like people with blue eyes can be found in Northern and Central European region amber eyes are found in Brazil, Asia, and South America.
Though this eye color is rare among humans, it is common among other beings. It is found among animals like wolves, pet cats, canines and birds like pigeons, owls. It can also be found among fishes.
Change In Eye Color
The color of the iris cannot be determined before birth due to undiscovered patterns in genes and also after the birth of the child, the color of its eyes change due to variation in pigmentation.
The amount of pigmentation in a child increases after birth thus changing the eye color. Also, there have been instances where individuals eye color changed according to their moods or due to severe trauma.
In due course person’s life increase in pigmentation can cause a change in eye color. Thus eye color can never be certain. Also, there have been studies that have shown that eating certain kind of food for a prolonged period can help in changing eye color for some time. Hypnosis is another method to change eye color.
Surgery is also an option to get eye color as amber, but it has its side effects. You can change your eye color by wearing contact lenses too. It is the safest among all the above-mentioned methods.
Change in eye color biologically is permanent, but the same can not be expected by doing it externally. So wearing contact lenses can help you have amber eyes whenever you want.
Celebrities With Amber Eyes
There is quite a bunch of actors and actresses with amber eyes. Amanda Righetti, Natalie Portman, Rani Mukherji, Kalki Koechlin are some of the actresses with amber eyes. Frank Oz also has amber eyes. If you observe closely, you will notice that Nemo in Finding Nemo and Young Simba in Lion King too have amber eyes.
Misconceptions About People With Amber Eyes
Common misconception about people with amber eyes is that they are reserved, aloof, and like thinking company. But in reality, they are social animals. They are crowd pleasers and like to be known as one.
The myth about amber eye color is absolutely wrong. An eye color can’t shape your personality. It is the behavior that makes you shy, coward, powerful, etc. People with any eye color can be shy, reserve, or coward there is nothing do to with amber eyes.
Personality Of People Having Amber Eyes
The color amber represents courage which is seen in abundance in people with it as eye color. People having amber eyes are usually mistaken to have brown or hazel eyes.
They are mistaken to be reserved, but in reality, they are very warm, charming and great conversationalists. They are usually extroverts and like interacting with new people and hanging out with friends.
Like their eye color, these individuals are unique. They like to experiment and try new things. They are creative, smart, innovative, trustworthy and like being outdoors exploring nature and engaging in activities like trekking and camping.
It always feels good to be around them. Usually, they are social and need to fit in. They can be cunning, alluring while they are sexy and appealing.
How To Get Amber Eyes?
It is impossible to change your eye color completely. However, there are certain ways to get Amber eyes. The easiest and the simplest way is to get colored contact lenses.
They are generally referred to as honey or amber eye contact lenses. Nevertheless, take precautions when wearing these contact lenses same like you do for a normal lens.
The other way is for people who have a light brown color eye or who have a yellow tinge in their eye color. A few makeup tricks can make them stand somewhere close to amber eyes.
For this, you have to highlight your eyes. Apply golden eyeliner on your lower lash line. Avoid applying black kohl. More off, highlight your upper cheekbone with a golden color to get the effect of golden glow on your entire face.
Makeup For Amber Eyes
Proper makeup and clothing will help in highlighting amber eyes more.
Applying makeup is an art. Every face has the different skin tone, eye shape, eyebrows along with various other features. Make sure that the products used are suitable for you.
Makeup routine can be broken down into steps which will help in remembering which product is to be used when.
Following steps will help in highlighting amber eyes.
Step 1:
Start with cleansing and moisturizing the skin. Using makeup with natural products and fewer chemicals is a must. Skin can be sensitive to certain products. Read the ingredients used to make the product to avoid any skin complications.
Step 2:
Apply foundation for an even skin tone and a concealer to hide blemishes or sunburns. Colour of foundation should be one tone lighter than the color of skin if the skin tone is dark or yellow and vice versa in case of pale skin. Make sure everything is evenly coated to the skin. Use brushes and sponges and blend to achieve it.
Step 3:
Use powder to set the whole look. If face releases oil, the powder will help in absorbing it.
Step 4:
Apply eye primer to avoid spreading of eyeliner. In the absence of a primer, concealer will suffice. Use an eyeliner on the upper eyelash. You can use gel, liquid or pencil eyeliner according to your convenience. You can try winged, classic bar; thin flicked among many options in the application. Try something you are comfortable with and suits you.
Experiment with the color of the liner will help in exploring and understanding what suits one better. Since the iris is of amber color coppery brown, blue and purple will be good.
Step 5:
Apply eyeliner on your lower lash if required. Eye shape plays a major factor in deciding whether to apply liner on lower lash line, upper or both. Use a kohl for best results if you are aiming for lower line.
Step 6:
One can skip step four and five if not happy with eyeliner look. Use a neutral mascara to bring out eye color. There are many options in color of mascara, but shades of brown and black will help in highlighting amber in the iris.
Step 7:
Eyeshadow in the shades of blue and purple will help in focusing amber in the iris.
Step 8:
In a case of attending a party or an event instead of smokey eyes, bronze and metallic colors will enhance the whole look more. Colour pallet opposite to eye color enhances the look.
For amber, opposite colors would be shades of blue. In the case of taking things a notch up use fake eyelashes from a good company.
Step 9:
Use a neutral mascara on eyebrows and fill it if required.
Step 10:
Add color to lips with the help of lip gloss or lipstick suitable for the event. Peach, plum, pink can be great options.
A neutral look would also suffice in case of wanting to go on minimal makeup. Sticking with neutral mascara on eyelashes and using the same on eyebrows on the clean skin will also help in highlighting amber eyes.
Health Risks With Amber Eyes
There is no disease associated with amber eyes. This eye color is light which is due to lack of melanin, so when it gets exposed to extremely bright light, there are chances of a detached retina.
They share common diseases with other light eye colors like blue and green. Other than this diabetes and high blood pressure can cause blurred vision or no vision.
So daily exercise with balanced diet and sleep will help in maintaining both body, mind, and eyes. A regular checkup with optometrist along with full body check will help you detect if there is any need for extra care.
Protecting Amber Eyes
Nature is full of wonders. One can never find a completely satisfying explanation for its wonders. Eyes can be counted as one of them. Protecting what is blessed is a must.
i) Yearly checkup of eyes and taking proper care of them like wearing sunglasses should be mandatory.
ii) Wear protective glasses when required like during chemical experiments or games like baseball, squash.
iii) Eating green leafy vegetables also helps in maintaining good vision.
iv) Avoid watching television for more than four hours and adjust the brightness of laptop and other devices to surroundings.
Final Talk
People with amber eyes do not come across our lives regularly as only five percent of the human population have this eye color.
On being exposed to a certain wavelength of light, they could be mistaken for brown or hazel eyes. They are misunderstood to be introverts, but in reality, they are warm and socializing.
Though it is a rare sight among humans, it can usually be found among wolves, owls, and other creatures.
The personality of people with this eye color is found to be vibrant. It is the second rarest eye color after green due to less number of pigments in them.
