Truly violet eyes are real but extremely rare, and mostly seen in people with albinism, where so little pigment lets red light from blood vessels mix with scattered blue. Most eyes called violet are deep blue that looks purple in certain light, next to purple clothes or makeup. Our free eye color checker reads your iris from a selfie.
What violet eyes look like
Eyes described as violet range from a cool lavender blue to a deep purple blue. In most photos you see, the violet is strongest in the outer part of the iris, while the inner part looks blue or gray. Many are framed by a dark limbal ring at the edge, which makes the color look richer by contrast. Our guide to the limbal ring explains that outer ring.
What makes eyes look violet
There is no purple pigment in the human eye, just as there is no blue or green pigment. Violet comes from mixing two kinds of light.
- Scattered blue. An iris with very little melanin scatters short blue wavelengths, which is what makes blue eyes blue.
- A little red. When the iris has almost no pigment at all, some red light from blood vessels deeper in the eye can show through.
- Blue plus red is violet. Together they read as purple blue.
That second step needs very little pigment, which is why truly violet eyes are so rare and mostly seen with albinism. In people with albinism, eyes can also look pale blue, gray or even pinkish red, depending on the light and how much pigment is present.
The famous film star claim
The best known claim of violet eyes belongs to Elizabeth Taylor. Her eyes are widely described as violet, and in many film stills and portraits they look it. Most eye experts think they were a very deep blue that looked violet under studio lighting, especially next to purple costumes and makeup. Without a way to check her eyes in daylight, the claim cannot be settled, which is part of its charm.
The story is a good example of how much light and surroundings shape eye color. The same is true for anyone with deep blue eyes.
Can blue eyes look violet
Yes, and it happens more often than true violet eyes.
- Warm or pink light adds red to the scattered blue, pushing it toward violet.
- Purple and plum clothes reflect purple onto the eye and change what the brain expects.
- Lavender and plum makeup around the eye makes blue look more violet by association.
- Camera processing sometimes boosts saturation and shifts blue toward purple.
Our eye color checker corrects for the color of the light using the whites of your eyes, so a deep blue iris that only looks violet in a warm photo will read as blue.
How rare are violet eyes
There is no reliable count. Surveys do not offer violet as a choice, and true violet eyes are mostly reported in people with albinism, which is itself rare. Our guide to the rarest eye colors places violet and red at the bottom of the ranking, rarer than gray, amber or green.
Violet eyes and eye health
Violet eyes from very low pigment are not a problem in themselves. People with albinism often have other differences in how the eye develops, and those are looked after by an eye doctor, not by an eye color check. Our checker names a shade only and says nothing about eye health. In adults, a new change in eye color is worth showing to an eye doctor.
How to make blue eyes look more violet
If you have deep blue eyes and love the violet look, a few choices push them that way.
- Wear plum, purple, lavender and lilac near your face.
- Use plum, mauve or soft purple shadow, with a dark navy or plum liner.
- Take photos in soft, warm light rather than cool daylight or shade.
The color you see will shift, while the pigment stays exactly the same. For colors that suit your skin and hair as well as your eyes, try our seasonal color analysis, and see every eye color side by side in our eye color chart.
Is violet the rarest eye color
In most rankings, yes. Truly violet eyes are rarer than gray, amber or green, and they are mostly seen in people with albinism. Red looking eyes, also linked to albinism, are similarly rare. Because surveys do not count either color, every ranking is an estimate. Our guide to the rarest eye colors explains why exact numbers for the rarest colors should be read loosely.
Why so many people think they have violet eyes
If you have ever been told your eyes look purple, you are in good company. A few everyday effects make deep blue eyes read as violet.
- Phone cameras often boost saturation and can shift deep blue toward purple, especially indoors.
- Purple and plum clothes reflect color onto the eye.
- Warm or pinkish light, such as candlelight or a sunset, adds red to scattered blue.
- Comparison. Next to people with brown or green eyes, a very deep blue can look strikingly different, and violet is the word that comes to mind.
None of this changes the pigment. A photo in plain daylight, facing a window with no flash, shows the true color. If it looks deep blue there, your eyes are deep blue that can look violet in the right setting, which is exactly what most violet eyes are.
How to tell deep blue from violet
- Stand facing a window in daylight with no lamps on, wearing a gray or white top.
- Look closely at the outer part of the iris in a mirror.
- If it looks clearly blue, your eyes are blue, even if they look violet in other light.
- If it still looks purple blue in plain daylight, you may have one of the rare eyes that read violet.
What light does to eye color, measured
We wanted to know how much a change of light alone moves an eye color, so we took 300 public portraits, added a mild warm tint or a mild cool tint to each, and ran them through our eye color checker again. Even after the checker corrected for the light using the whites of the eyes, about one photo in five came back as a different color. Darker and brighter copies changed it about as often.
Without any correction, the effect on your own eyes is larger still, which is exactly how deep blue eyes end up looking violet under warm, pinkish light. The full test is on our methodology page.