Note that this is the identical image as the B&W in this list. Although a solid image, the iris is more pronounced because of the color (brown). A great photo, but you may have felt like the B&W version was more "personal". This might be because of the pupil dilation :)
People have been reading faces for thousands of years. We have gotten very good at non-verbal communication, conscious and sub-conscious. Great work by the model and photog.