Blue green eyes sit between blue and green, a teal, aqua or sea green shade that leans one way or the other depending on the light. They have very little brown pigment and a light yellow tint, which mixes with scattered blue light to make blue green. Our free eye color checker tells you whether your eyes lean blue, green or right in between.
What blue green eyes look like
Blue green eyes range from pale aqua to deep teal. Up close, many show both colors at once, often blue toward the edge and green toward the center, or green flecks scattered through blue. Some have a thin gold ring around the pupil and a darker ring at the edge of the iris.
From a distance, the colors blend, so other people tend to call these eyes blue or green depending on the light at the time. That is why so many people with blue green eyes have been told both.
What makes eyes blue green
There is no blue or green pigment in the human eye. Every eye color comes from melanin, the brown pigment in the front layer of the iris, and from how light scatters there.
- Very little melanin. Like blue eyes, blue green eyes have little brown pigment in the front of the iris.
- Scattered blue light. The fine fibers of the iris scatter short blue wavelengths back out, the same effect that makes blue eyes blue.
- A light yellow tint. A small amount of yellowish pigment, often called lipochrome, shifts that blue toward green.
With no yellow tint the eye looks blue. With a little it looks blue green. With more, and a touch more melanin, it looks green. Blue green eyes sit in that narrow middle.
Eye color is shaped by many genes working together, which is why the exact shade varies so much. Our guide to eye color genetics explains how it is inherited.
How rare are blue green eyes
There is no reliable count. Most surveys ask people to choose between brown, blue, hazel and green, so blue green eyes are counted as one or the other. Both blue and green eyes are uncommon worldwide, with green at about 2 percent of people according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Our guide to the rarest eye colors explains why every rarity number should be read loosely.
Blue green vs hazel eyes
Blue green and hazel eyes can both look green, so they get mixed up.
- Hazel eyes have brown or gold in them, usually a fairly wide band around the pupil. In dim light they look brown.
- Blue green eyes have little or no brown. In dim light they look gray or dark blue, not brown.
A thin gold ring right at the pupil does not make blue green eyes hazel. Hazel needs a real share of brown or gold across the iris. Our eye color chart shows both colors side by side.
Blue green vs blue or green
The line is a matter of degree. If your eyes look blue in most light and only turn green next to green clothes, they are blue with a green lean. If they look green most of the time and only turn blue on cloudy days, they are green with a blue lean. If you honestly cannot pick, blue green is the right name.
Our eye color checker reads every pixel of the iris and sorts it into color families. When it finds a strong share of both blue and green, with little brown, it names the result blue green and links to whichever of the two is stronger.
Why blue green eyes change color
Blue green eyes have so little pigment of their own that they respond strongly to their surroundings.
- Light. Cool daylight and shade pull them toward blue. Warm lamps and sunsets pull them toward green.
- Clothes. Blue and navy reflect blue into the eye. Green, olive and teal reflect green.
- Pupil size. In dim light the pupil grows and the eye looks darker overall.
The pigment stays the same. In adults, a new change in eye color that does not come and go with the light is worth showing to an eye doctor.
Makeup and clothes for blue green eyes
You can choose whether to play up the blue or the green.
- To brighten the whole color. Copper, coral, peach and rose gold sit across the color wheel from teal.
- To pull out green. Plum, burgundy, mauve and aubergine.
- To pull out blue. Navy liner, bronze and warm brown shadows.
For a palette built around your skin and hair as well as your eyes, try our seasonal color analysis.
Blue green eyes in babies
Many babies are born with blue or slate eyes that change over the first year or two as pigment builds up. A baby with blue eyes at birth can end up with blue green or green eyes if a little yellow tint and pigment develop. Eye color usually settles by about age two or three, so it is too early to call a newborn blue green.
How to photograph blue green eyes
Blue green eyes are notoriously hard to capture, because cameras push them one way or the other.
- Use soft daylight from a window. Direct sun washes them toward blue, warm lamps toward green.
- Turn off the flash. It adds glare and makes the iris look paler and bluer.
- Wear a neutral top, such as white, gray or black, so your clothes do not tint your eyes.
- Tap your eye on the screen to focus and set exposure, so the camera exposes for the iris rather than the background.
- Skip filters, which shift hue.
Taking two photos, one on a sunny day and one on a cloudy day, shows the full range of your eye color.
Blue green eyes and color seasons
Eye color is one of three parts of your coloring, with skin and hair. Blue green eyes show up in every color season, from cool summers and winters to warm springs and autumns. The colors that suit you best depend on all three together.
What we found in our own test photos
We tested our eye color checker on 701 public portraits with a recorded eye color, including 20 people recorded with a blend such as blue green, blue gray or gray green. Those blends were among the most scattered results. The checker read them as blue most often, then hazel, and only rarely as the exact blend.
That fits everything above. Blue green eyes sit so close to their neighbors that a change of light or camera moves them. In a second test on 300 of the photos, a mild warm or cool tint changed the color the checker named about one time in five, and the in between shades moved more than most. Read how we ran it on our methodology page.