The Meaning of Colors in Mood Rings

What Are Mood Rings?

Mood rings are fun jewelry that came into being in the 1970s, but you can still find them today in specialty stores or on the internet. The purpose of these rings is quite simple, even if the craftsman work behind them isn't.

Mood rings are designed to show how you're feeling anytime you're wearing them. They do this by colors changing that correlate to a number of individual moods. Let's take one apart and see how it works.

How Do They Work?

Liquid crystals are the mystery to the mood ring's changing array of colors. The clear glass stone in the ring is either filled with the liquid crystals or sits directly on top of a thin layer of the substance that has been adhered to a sterling setting.

Liquid crystals are extremely sensitive to heat, and will twist their position when confronting to a rising or dropping temperature. Light comes in many different wavelengths and each is reflected to our eyes as a different color. The position of the crystals determines which wavelengths of light are absorbed and which are reflected back to us, and this is what makes the stone appear to change color.

Learn the Meaning of Colors in Mood Rings

Color Charts

The meaning of colors in mood rings can be a little confusing. Some rings come with a color chart that explains which color goes with which mood, but many pieces do not. First, let's take a look at the chart below, and then we'll try to explain how body changes dictated by your emotional frame of mind can affect the surface temperature of your skin.

Mood Ring Color Chart
Color Meaning
Black is Very stressed
Gray is Very Nervous
Amber means Anxious and/or uncertain
Green is Calm
Teal is Calm and relaxed

Body Temperature

Ever feel a warm glow of happiness or contentment come over you? So does your mood ring. Our bodies actually feel slightly warmer when we're feeling happy or romantic because our capillaries move a little closer to the skin surface, releasing more warmth and causing that well-known blush that creeps into our cheeks from time to time.

This extra warmth causes the crystals to alter their position, resulting in shades of blue. An extremely warm reaction might even cause the color to deepen to purple, considered the color of passion. Now let's look at the other end of the spectrum. Ever feel anxious enough to break out in a cold sweat?

The extra moisture on the surface of your skin works like an evaporative cooling machine, lowering your surface temperature. Some people describe the feeling as clammy, but your mood ring picks up this change in your body temperature, and the liquid crystals rearrange themselves in ways that reflect the lighter colors in their spectrum. Shades range from amber to green.

An absence of heat will turn the stone black, and this is how the ring will normally appear when no one is wearing it, unless it is left in the sun or close to another heat source.

Are They Accurate?

As you may surmise by now, the meaning of colors in mood rings may not be a completely accurate reflection of a person's current feelings, but they will generally make it into the ballpark under average circumstances. Room temperature and your health can also have an affect on the color of your ring. Sitting in a sweltering room on a summer day, or having a fever doesn't necessarily make you feel passionate, but your mood ring will still reflect a deep blue or purple color. It's all open to interpretation, but that's just part of the fun.

Conclusion

So now you know the mystery behind various colors in mood rings. The key here is not to take anything too seriously. Mood rings are meant for fun, so have some while you're wearing one.