It has an oil-like color. If you look at it from different angles it turns different colors. The main color is a dark purple/blue but its easy to see light blue highlights when viewed in daylight. On both side is a painting of flowers, it pops out from the teapot a bit. There are some markings on the bottom I can't read. I thought it looked like numbers maybe? They pop out from the teapot too. It also says it was made in Japan.