Cat eye eyeliner influenced by ancient Egyptian cat statues

Image: MikeB

Well, something entirely different for me and something I knew nothing about until I thought about it while preparing this post (for the first time). But there seems to be a trend on the Internet which is that women like cat eyes and they want their eyes to look like the eyes of a cat. You can do this with plastic surgery. I have seen that. And you can achieve it with eyeliner and make up. That was about the sum total of my knowledge on this topic! But I now feel that cat eye eyeliner is influenced by ancient Egyptians.

Cats in Ancient Egypt – not what you think it was like.

Real cat eye is more rounded but this cat does look like they are wearing eyeliner!. Image: MikeB

Perhaps the bigger topic is what do cat eyes look like? Clearly this makeup artist and the woman involved believe that cat eyes slope upwards at the far end. That is what the make-up achieves. They seem to be elongated with sharp pointed ends left and right. I don't see this with cat eyes by the way. I've seen lots of domestic cat eyes and this is not what they look like! So, this is a human perception. Perhaps the phrase "cat eye" is simply a description of a certain type of human eye appearance which appeals to some women but one which is not actually in truth linked to the eyes of domestic or wild cats.

Online news media say that "many women have a love-hate relationship with winged eyeliner". It looks fierce. Perhaps it is the fierceness which is the link to cats! The phrase is "winged eyeliner". It is the eyeliner at the far end of the eyes as I've mentioned which elongates the eye and turns the end upwards slightly. 

There is a reference here to the era of ancient Egypt and Cleopatra and Nefertiti! That's where the origin of this eyeliner comes from, I think. And I've now got a clearer picture about this. The ancient Egyptians loved their cats. They worship them through cat gods.

We have the filmic rendition of cat eyes in many films. I'm thinking of the Cleopatra film. The trend for cat eyes is not based upon the real domestic cat eye but upon the statues of cats of ancient Egypt. That's my assessment.

Correction!? Here is a photo from Ukraine of a cat with 'cat eyes'. 

Picture: Defense of Ukraine. It is Vyshyvanka Day in Ukraine today May 19th, 2023.

Tell me what you think. I'd love to hear from you.

Woman addicted to plastic surgery wanted cat's eyes

The humble domestic cat can be a silent influencer as this woman - a social media influencer herself - decided to have cat eye cosmetic surgery.

Woman addicted to plastic surgery wanted cat's eyes. And got them. Image: aesthetic_clinic_london/Instagram

This is a classic story of a woman addicted to plastic surgery who in her latest session under the knife (in a foreign country where it is considerably cheaper?) decided have her eye shape modified to look that those of a domestic cat. She did not stop there. I think it was done in Turkey where this sort of surgery is big business. A lot of Brits go there for cheap surgery. Katie Price does for example. Update: Yes, this doctor is based in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Turkish doctor responsible, Dr Hakan Ozocak, explains the nips and tucks he made.

She had other mods done at the same time which the surgeon recommends (he would) and also in the final flourish decided to take the opportunity to interview the surgeon on camera and to publish the video on her TiKTok webpage. What else? Why not?  Here it is:

For someone like me of the old school it is a reflection of modern madness. The manic desire to alter your appearance like customising your car and to put the whole experience on social media for the world to see. What do people think? 

Screenshot.

My guess is that most readers and viewers will be appalled and feel sorry for her. She had a bum job too with tons of silicon stuffed into her buttocks. After many surgeons refused to do it, she found one who would in some faraway place I expect but it all leaked out of her bum. 

Yes, well, that is the kind of risk you take with the only body you've got when you go for these cosmetic procedures. She became addicted to lip filler at an early age. 

It is an addiction as strong as nicotine, alcohol and betting. It should possibly be banned. These woman and some men need to be protected from themselves.

And you know what, the domestic cat's eye is not really what she thinks it is. It is a cosmetic surgeon's version. But it appears to be an eye which slopes upwards at the corners adjacent to the temples.

If cats were human, they could be declared legally blind. True or false?

Answer: false in my view but we don't really know. If you are a human, living in the UK and perhaps elsewhere, you will be declared legally blind if your vision is 20/200 which means that if an object is 200 feet away you have to stand 20 feet from it in order to see it clearly.

Under daylight conditions, domestic cat eyesight is less good than humans'. However, under dusk and night time conditions it is better I would argue. Domestic cat eyes have evolved, as you know, to see under dusky conditions because that is when prey animals are around.

I was one of the first web owners to produce a pictorial comparison between domestic cat and human eyesight. Other websites have followed since. You can see that page by clicking on the link below:

Cat Vision Pictorial Examples

Two of the image comparisons are below.

How domestic cats see by MikeB

How domestic cats see by MikeB

What colors do cats see? Cat see colours pretty well but it believed they are colorblind to red or red/green (brown). The picture above is intended to replicate this color blindness. However, cats have superior eyesight in other respects which you can read about on the page linked to above the image.

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The problem with deciding if domestic cats will be declared legally blind by human standards is that you can't really apply human standards to domestic cats. You hardly ever can.

Also, despite preparing a pictorial example of comparison we don't really know exactly how domestic cat see the world. We have a good idea but we don't know precisely how they see it.

In my considered opinion, they would not be declared legally blind partly because their eyesight is so good at night. And their field of vision is wider than that of humans.

Cat Field of Vision Compared to Human. Image: PoC.

The big problem with domestic cat eyesight is that they see colours less well than humans and the image is a bit softer.

They say that a dog's eyesight is a little better than that of cats.

I think we can probably argue that overall a domestic cat's eyesight is less good than that of humans because some of their other senses are superior to make up for this slight deficiency. They have a better sense of smell and better hearing.

Domestic cats use their sense of smell to identify objects and they can locate prey animals with their hearing very precisely. These senses compensate and when a cat's senses are bundled together, they are certainly equipped to the same level as humans.

Why are a cat's eyes always dilated?

The first important point to note is that the question asks why a cat's eyes are ALWAYS dilated. In other words, this is a permanent state of affairs. In this state of affairs, the irises do not contract to a narrow pupil but there are always wide open with a big circular black orb for the eye and almost no visible iris.

Dilated pupils of a cat.

The second point to note is that the muscles of the iris contract to allow much less light through the pupil on a bright day. And they relax to let in more light when the conditions are dark. There is a 135 times difference in the amount of light that the iris allows to pass into the eye between wide open and closed to a slit.

The nerves of the retina send a signal to the brain which sends another signal to the irises to relax or contract depending upon the light conditions.

If the retina is malfunctioning and not able to convert light into an image the brain receives a signal that the light conditions are dim and then directs the iris to open up to allow more light in to the eye.

And if the retina no longer works at all due to a disease such as progressive retinal atrophy or retinitis, then there will be a permanent signal to the brain to say that no light is being received and therefore the brain tells the iris to remain permanently wide open; the muscles of the iris are completely relaxed. Like a camera lens the iris is not going to be 'stopped down'. This, as stated, is a permanent state of affairs.

And behind this situation is a retina which is either malfunctioning or is no longer functioning. And therefore, if they cat's eyes are always dilated, in my view, it means that the cat's retina is malfunctioning and the cat is functionally either going blind or blind.

Progressive retinal atrophy is a gradual degeneration of the retinal cells. This is a disease that is inherited in certain breeds such as Persians, Abyssinians and possibly Siamese. It is caused by an autosomal recessive mutated gene as I understand it. There is no treatment.

Retinitis is a disease in which inflammation of the retina leads to degeneration and destruction of the light respecting cells in the retina. It may occur because of hypertension or perhaps an eye injury or for unknown reasons. High blood pressure or hypertension is one of the most common causes of retinitis. And hypertension is usually associated with hyperthyroidism and/or renal failure.

RELATED: Different pupil size in a cat's eyes - time to visit a vet.

Retinitis is also associated with feline infectious peritonitis, lymphoma, cryptococcosis, feline infectious peritonitis and toxoplasmosis. These are the underlying diseases which can lead to damage to the retina which in turn these to the eyes always being dilated.

It is normal for the eyes of a person or a cat to dilate from time to time when conditions are dark but in my view, they should not be dilated all the time. Something is wrong and a veterinarian needs to be consulted.

Halloween cat - reflective eyes

I am being unkind in one way as it is not good to link Halloween with domestic cats because sometimes idiots harm black cats at Halloween. However, this guy is not black but his eyes are a pure white due to the reflection from the tapetum lucidum behind the retina which boosts the amount of light that impinges on the retina enabling cats to 'see in the dark'. But normally the reflection is green or blue/green. He we have a pure reflection of white light from the camera flash. It is strange. The cat also has his mouth open to give a ghoulish appearance. 

Halloween cat - reflective eyes. Photo: Twitter.

ASSOCIATED: Why are black cats associated with Halloween?

Cat-eye thread lifts have gone viral on Instagram but is it a good thing?

Instagram influencers in conjunction with high profile female celebrities such as the model Bella Hadid and the Kardashian sisters are fuelling a viral trend which is encouraging followers - of which there are millions - to go for a "cat-eye thread lift". So what is it? You may well know if you are one of those Instagram followers but to many people they will be a mystery. 

My cat with upward slopping eyes (slightly). Photo: MikeB.

Bella Hadid with cat eyes. Are they genuine? Photo: Getty.

It is a minimally invasive plastic surgery operation in which a dissolvable thread is placed under the skin in the corner of the eye which allows the surgeon to lift up the area at the corner of the eye to give the appearance of a cat eye.

For me, having some knowledge about the domestic cat, there is a weakness in this because not all cats have eyes with slope upwards at the outer edges. I think that it is a false presumption to say that they do. Some do, like my cat but others don't like the famous Persian cat or the shorthaired version, the Exotic shorthair which you see below.

The round eyes of an Exotic SH. These eyes don't slow upwards at the outer edges. Photo: Instagram.

The same applies to many other purebred cats which are known for their big round orbit-like eyes. These are meant to mimic the eyes of a baby and therefore there is no way that they can be like the eyes of a cat. 

Also, it is said that you can achieve a similar result by shaping your eyebrow and drawing an eyebrow in. That's a good idea I would have thought. It should be added, by the way, that domestic cats don't have eyebrows which also kinda undermines the analogy of having the eyes of a cat.

Also, there is an underlying problem to all of this which is that it is not mentally healthy, if we are honest, to encourage young women and teenagers to focus too heavily on their appearance. It is not mentally healthy for these teenagers to try and do the impossible anatomically. 

I say that with respect because a lot of these photographs on social media are digitally manipulated for a start off. And if they aren't there may be lots of professional make up and in any case a cat-eye thread lift is not a great thing for a young girl to desire. I would much rather they learn to love themselves, to boost their self-esteem without resorting to artificial and invasive methods which are only temporary anyway.

This minor operation fades after a few months because the thread is meant to dissolve. So what happens when your face goes back to the way it was? You might become depressed and have do it again so how much does it cost? What it might cost about $1000 in America. So where does a young woman find that on a limited budget? Another reason why she is liable to become anxious. Anxiety can lead to depression and stress. You can see where I'm going to.

My attention immediately is drawn to that wonderful icon of beauty, Brigitte Bardot. She said that she gave her life to men when she was in her beautiful prime and now that she is in the autumn of her life she gives her life to animals and their welfare. 

Brigitte Bardot. Photo in public domain (believed).

And, I believe that she has never had plastic surgery. Her face is lined and she's put on some weight which is typical of a woman of her age. However, she is still beautiful. Her beauty is in her character, her attitude and her love for animals and no longer in her physical appearance. 

She battles against the authorities sometimes and perhaps other residents in her neighbourhood in striving to improve the lives of animals. I admire her tremendously and I hope that many others do. She deserves it.

All teenagers should look to her for inspiration and not the Kardashian sisters or Bella Hadid.

Cat's Eye Nebula is a celebration of cat's eyes

There is a nebula in space, millions of light years away, which is called the Cat's Eye Nebula. It is a beautiful, gaseous object that was first discovered by William Herschel on February 15, 1786. Although it is difficult to measure its distance from Earth, it is believed to be 3300 light years away. This means it would take 3300 years to travel to the nebula when travelling at the speed of light which is 186,000 mi/s or 300,000 km/s. The photograph is a composite image of three different images taken at different wavelengths. The images were taken by the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2.

Cat's Eye Nebula. Photo: Wikipedia under CC license.

Surprisingly to me, it's estimated age is believed to be 1000 years ± 260 years.

Turning to cats! The domestic cat's eye is a beautiful object. There are two perhaps four things that come to mind, immediately. Firstly, we all know that there is a reflective layer behind the retina which directs light back onto the retina which in turn enhances the eye's ability to detect objects in low light conditions. The cat's eye also has a preponderance of rods over cones which are designed to detect light under difficult conditions and produce a black-and-white image. Thirdly, a kitten's eyes have no colour or pigmentation in the iris and are therefore blue due to the refraction of daylight through the eye. Fourthly, in the cat fancy, breed standards dictate the colour of the eyes of any one cat breed. They may be a wide selection to choose from but sometimes they have to be just one colour such as for the Russian Blue whose eyes have to be vivid green.

Russian Blue vivid green eye colour per breed standard. Pic: in public domain.

Video of tabby cat with bright emerald eyes

This is a video on Reddit.com of a tabby cat with the most astonishing emerald eyes. Initially when I saw a still image of the cat (and not the video) I thought that this was an example of excellent photo-editing. But can you photo-edit video material like this? I think you can because I just can't bring myself to believe that this eye colour is genuine.

Update: the video failed. They always do from Reddit. They are hopeless on embedded videos. So hopeless that I think they deliberately make them fail. But if you click here you can see it on Reddit (hopefully).

Here is a screenshot from the video:

Tabby cat with bright emerald eyes. Screenshot.

But, you know, I could be wrong. It could be genuine. I'd love someone to tell me that I am wrong in a comment. Amazing cat. He/she should have an Instagram page. I can't find a page on Instagram which features this cat. Is that proof that the eyes are too special to be real?

Why cat hiccups dilates the eye's pupil

Cats' eyes dilate when they hiccup. pic.twitter.com/9eAQ5h06iQ

— Science is Amazing (@AMAZlNGSCIENCE) November 19, 2020

This is an embedded video and sometimes they stop working overtime. If that has happened I apologise but I have no control over it.

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This is an interesting little video which repeats itself. I am sure that it has been all over the Internet. However, I have just spotted it. The cat hiccups and immediately afterwards the pupil of the cat's eye opens slightly because the muscles of the iris relax. That is my theory. The pupil of the cat's eye is made smaller when the muscles of the iris are contracted. It requires muscular effort for the pupil to be in a contracted state. When the cat hiccups the purposefulness of that process of contracting the muscles of the iris is temporarily stopped as the hiccups distract the brain. Therefore the pupil enlarges and the eye becomes more dilated. That of course is a personal theory which I simply worked out because you cannot find the answer on the Internet. It makes for an interesting little video on a different level namely that you can see how the iris works and the pupil forms a slit. This slit pupil is very important to the domestic cat because it allows the animal to see in bright light and in extremely dark conditions as well. The slit aperture of the cat's pupil work sin harmony with the cat's eyelid which goes over the slit like a blind at the window of a person's home. The slight pupil also enhances a cat's depth perception.

Why do domestic cats have vertical pupils?

Domestic cats have vertical pupils for two reasons:

1. On a scientific level it is said that a vertical pupil provides better depth perception which allows a domestic cat to measure distance better and/or focus on prey better. A scientific study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, decided that with vertical slits, predators see vertical lines behind the point of focus quite sharply but horizontal lines at the same distance are blurred. This allows them to have a greater ability to pinpoint prey animals.
2. The vertical pupil in conjunction with the eyelid allows the cat to restrict light to the retina more effectively than a circular pupil under bright light conditions. The eyelid passes down the vertical pupil like a blind which, to use a photographic term, stops down the lens to a smaller aperture than normal. This is needed to protect the retina which has a mirror-like film behind it (the Tapetum lucidum), which reflects light back to magnify the capture of light so that they can see better under dark conditions.

Photo in public domain.

Do cats shed tears?

This page has been moved and upgraded. The reason? Google is killing this website so it is time to move it piecemeal to the main site.

Please click here to go to the new page.

Actually I believe that Google is preparing to shut down Google Blogger. Watch this space...

Can a cat see in pitch black?

The answer to the question, "can a cat see in pitch black?" must be NO because you need some light to impinge upon the retina for the retina to then send a signal to the brain. Pitch black means absolutely no light. Despite the fact that the cat's eyes are more sensitive to ours and their vision at night is excellent, they cannot see in total darkness. No animal can.






Light reflected from the cat's retina. A typical nighttime scene. Hence the phrase "cat's eyes" to mean the center line road markings by reflective glass marbles invented in Yorkshire, UK.

How can cats see in the dark?

How can cats see in the dark? The answer is that they have a reflective layer behind the retina of the eyes which bounces back light into the eye, onto the retina, boosting the reception of the light. You can see this reflective layer on occasions when a light is shone into the eyes of a cat. It is noticeable at night when driving, if and when you see a cat looking towards you. The car lights are reflected in the eyes of the cat and you see this green, sharp glow-"cat's eyes". Cats have developed this in order to hunt more effectively at dawn and at dusk or during the night. It is an evolved anatomical development of the eye to improve survival. It is Darwin's survival of the fittest in action. This evolutionary development took place in the North African wild cat, the ancient wild ancestor of our beloved domestic cat.

Cat Eye Color Change

A cat eye color change will take place at about 7-9 weeks of age in the life of a kitten. Until then the eye color is created by light refraction. Thereafter the formation of pigment in the iris of the cat's eyes creates the color. The change in eye color is due to a delayed creation of pigmentation in the iris of the young cat.

Below are pictures which show (a) the difference between the iris and pupil and (b) why kittens without pigmentation in the pupil always have blue eyes:



These images illustrate this page which explains things.

How To Check a Cat's Eyes

Some tips on checking a cat's eyes from the best book on cat health. There is a post about dilated pupils that was created a long time ago and it seems that the vets that the cat owners visited were unsure what was causing it. Cats do compensate well for a loss of one of the senses, which masks the presence of the medical condition.

Cat eye problems can be seen when the eye waters, there is something in the eye, the cat blinks a lot, the cat paws at the eye, the nictitating membrane (third eyelid) is visible, the pupils are constantly dilated (my observation), or the cat indicates by his or her actions that the eye is painful.

Examine the cat's eyes in a darkened room. Use a flashlight (torch) and a magnifying glass, which allows you to examine the surface of the eye in more detail and possibly even inside the eye.

The cat needs to be immobile. I find this is best done by wrapping a thick towel around your cat and placing him on a counter top - all done with care and gentleness. But some cats will be cooperative without the need to do that.

Some immediate questions to ask on observing the eyes:

• Do both eyes look the same? Comparing one with the other is a way of comparing an eye that has a problem with a normal eye if the problem is in one eye. Are they the same size, shape and colour?
• Do the eyes bulge or are they recessed?
• Are the eyes cloudy?
• Is there a discharge?

Flash the light over the cornea (the outer surface of the eye) to check that it is clear. Check for signs of injury. The pupils of both eyes should be the same size. Pupils should narrow down to slits when the torch is pointed towards the eye (with caution). A test to check the cat's vision is to cover one eye and move your finger towards the other eye, whereupon the eye will blink when the finger is close to the eye.

Also with caution and gentleness you can push down on the eyeball with the eyelid closed. Does it feel hard? Does the cat indicate pain?¹. A vet should be consulted promptly on signs of any indications of illness.

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Note: (1) Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook ISBN 978-0-470-09530-0

Are kittens born blind?

Cristalline - Photo © Dani Rozeboom

All kittens are born with their eyes closed. Therefore kittens are born blind, effectively.

The eyes begin to open at 8 days. The eyes are completely open at 14 days.

The eyes of cats with shorthair open sooner than those with longhair.

All cats are born with blue eyes, which lasts until three weeks of age.

The color that the cat will have as an adult is fully formed at around 12 weeks of age (1).

Note: (1) Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook - Pediatrics - ISBN 978-0-470-09530-0

What color are cat's eyes?

What color are cat's eyes? A wide variety of colors is the answer although kittens before the age of about 7 weeks have blue eyes. The gene that makes a cat white also affects eye color and makes them blue. Sometimes it will cause one eye to be blue and the other yellow for instance. This is odd-eye color and the preferred appearance of the Turkish Angora cat breed in Turkey.

The dominant white gene (W) causing a cat to have completely white fur also affects the cat's hearing causing deafness sometimes. The piebald gene (S) or white spotting gene can also affect eye color and hearing. This is because both these genes affect the production of pigmentation, eumelanin in the fur and eyes.

The breed standards of cat breeds sometimes allows any color of eye or it might limit the color of the eyes that are acceptable to the cat association. See for example the breed standard for the Turkish Angora.

Cat eye color is determined by the pigment in the smooth muscle cells of the iris, the disk around the aperture called the pupil in the middle of the eye. The amount of pigment deposited determines the intensity of color.

Blue eyes are caused by an optical effect. The front layer of the iris lacks pigmentation but there is pigment in the rear layer of the iris. The light hitting the iris is reflected back blue. The amount of eumelanin on the rear layer dictates the density of the blue.

The green eye is due to a combination of the rear layer of the iris reflecting blue and the pigment in the front layer reflecting yellow. The depth of the green color depends on the amount of pigment in the front layer of the iris.

See a range of cat eye colors.

Source for iris color: Legacy of the Cat by Gloria Stephens ISBN 0-8118-2910-3

How do cats' eyes work?

They work the same as ours with some differences. As for our eyes, light is focused on the retina by the lens.

The aperture that controls the amount of light entering the eye is called the pupil. The iris is that part of the eye that adjusts the pupil's size. The cornea is the transparent front of the eye.

The retina contains the light sensitive nerves that transmit the information received via the optic nerve to the brain.

The two differences are:

• Behind the retina at the rear of the cat's eye is a reflective layer called the tapetum lucidum. It reflects light back to the retina to boost the amount of light that the retina receives. The resultant increased sensitivity allows the cat to see in dark conditions for hunting. Cats prefer to hunt at dawn and dusk. The reflective layer is so effective that you can see it working at night when light reflected from it comes out of the eye.
• The extra sensitivity that the tapetum lucidum brings to the cat's eye results in the eye developing a greater facility to restrict the amount of light entering the eye in bright light. The human pupil is circular while the cat's pupil forms a slit when closing. The eyelid can then be used as a shutter that passes down the slit to further restrict the amount of light hitting the retina.

Showing reflected light from the cat's tapetum lucidum
Photo by Tobyotter

Showing slit eyes - Photo by Elsie esq.

See feline eye disease

Are cats color blind?

Cats are not color blind. They see full color but see red poorly. They have high sensitivity to low light images (6 times better than people). This is due to a reflective layer behind the retina that boosts the light hitting the retina. Cats also see detail less well and near range less well. They use their sense of smell more effectively than people. And their whiskers act as a form of sight in darkness.

A cat's eyes are designed for low light level hunting at dawn and dusk and at night.

This page discusses the subject in more detail.

What cats see

Cats see what we see except the color quality and the detail is less good but in the dark they see much better than us.

It is now believed that cats, rather than seeing a world that is gray, see the full color range. However, cats see red badly. The light sensitive cells in a cat's eyes are sensitive to blue and green but less sensitive to red. This is a type of dichromatic vision.

Cats have eyes that are eight times larger than ours in relation to head size. They are developed to see at dawn and dusk for hunting. The cat is crepuscular. In one sixth the level of light, the cat will see things at the same level of brightness as us. Only the detail is less good and the color quality also less good.

A cat's whiskers help feel in the dark. They are extremely sensitive and can detect air currents flowing around obstructions and objects. They are a form of sight. The whiskers can feel for the correct position on the nape of a prey's neck for precise insertion of the canine teeth to sever the vertebrae. In the dark this is highly efficient.

Read more.