How to Do Flawless Gypsy Makeup – Tips and Ideas

Gypsy makeup is something that has been trending for the last few years for special occasions like Halloween.

If you are tired of boring looks, go for the gypsy makeup look. In addition to looking absolutely charismatic, the look will give you the mysterious vibe that will go with everything.

Disclaimer: this post is not meant to offend any culture, religion, or ethnicity. In the event that there is any offensive material you find, please post them in the comments and we will do our best to remove and replace them with correct information.

gypsy makeup

Gypsies are originally Roma, an ethnic group. Originally from India, the Roma migrated through Western Asia, the Middle East, and eventually Europe. Their ancestors came from multiple nations halfway around the world. The vast majority of Roma today live in the Middle East or Europe, but they can be found on every settled continent.

Roma share the same unique genetics as well as a common culture. Some of them have accepted and reclaimed the term Gypsy, while many consider it a slur. Many Roma use the term with pride, while others avoid it altogether. Whenever we use this word, we are just using it as a search term and not in a racist way.

What You Need to Know Before Imitating Their Look

The Romani hold close to their traditions, beliefs, and even their ethnicity. Typically, they do not tell others much about their day-to-day lives. The way they dress and style themselves with gorgeous cloth pieces, jewelry, and a variety of hairstyles sets them apart. That is what makes them so appealing.

A myth also surrounds Romani people, implying they are somehow mythical creatures separate from humans. The truth is, racist laws forced Romanians to live at the edge of civilization. In the past, Roma moved around because they were banned in certain parts of the country.

A popular notion holds that they were migratory because they voluntarily chose to move. Unfortunately, this was not true. Through the centuries, they underwent many bans on professions, which led them to turn to trade, fine arts, and fortune-telling to make enough money to support their families. Some of them lived on the edges of society or even died because they were trapped in a hostile country.

Roma are discriminated against due to secrets, myths, and being apart from society. Hollywood’s treatment, poverty, and low population have pushed them to the sidelines when it comes to civil rights.

Here, we will talk about how they apply makeup to achieve their makeup look and style, and it is strictly for informational purposes. We do not intend to offend Roma in any way. When you decide to do Romani-inspired makeup, it is your responsibility to educate yourself and put forward their story, struggle, and culture along with the look.

What is Gypsy Makeup?

As the name suggests, gypsy makeup is that makeup that resembles a Romani. The job of makeup is not only limited to hiding your dark spots, dark circles, making your eyes look brighter, or making you look like you are just about to go to an event but there is far more to makeup.

You can do whatever you want to with the right makeup. From disappearing freckles to adding artificial freckles, from covering spots to showing fake spots, from a casual makeup approach to a Halloween gypsy look, you can do anything.

Gypsy makeup is often associated with carnivals, witches, and fortune-tellers. It’s an art form that’s said to have originated amongst the Romani people in Europe centuries ago.

The typical look includes heavy eyeliner on the top lid, little to no eye shadow, deep red lipstick, a light foundation to highlight certain features, and natural rouge on cheeks. There are conflicting reports about how long it takes to complete this look- some say twenty minutes while others say two hours.

The gypsy makeup look trend became famous only a few years ago when many makeup gurus started this trend during the Halloween season. Halloween does not only mean looking scary by becoming a witch or any haunted character from some movie, but you can also achieve a perfect look just by being mysterious.

Gypsies are people who are just like us. You do not require any exclusive makeup product to acquire their mystical look. You can do the makeup with the basic makeup products that are present in your vanity.

How to do Gypsy Makeup?

For a mystical gypsy appearance, all you need to do is follow the below steps:

  • First of all, clean up your face properly because that is the step that is necessary to do any makeup.
  • Apply moisturizer and then primer as you will need your skin to look healthy, glowing, and smooth because the gypsies are known for their beautiful, shining, healthy faces. So make sure you prep your skin nicely.
  • Then apply your foundation. One thing to be noted here is that you should go for a shade that is two to three shades darker than your natural skin tone. For a bit of tanned look, you recommend that you go a few shades darker than your skin tone.
  • Then apply concealer that is a few shades darker than your normal concealer, of course, or else it would look like just a mismatching of tones on your face.
  • Next comes a highlighter. Since the gypsies are known for their glowing tanned skin, you can go overboard with the highlighter, but obviously, you do not want to make others shut their eyes with the sparkle of your highlighter. Apply a generous amount on your cheekbones, brow bone, forehead, cupid’s bow, and chin.
  • It’s time to pick up the blush now. Get your favorite blush, but of course, it should go well with the shade of your foundation. Apply it to your cheeks.
  • Until now, you are done with your face. Now comes the eyes, and it’s all in the eyes. The mystery of gypsies is because of their eyes, so take good care while doing the eyes.

Here is the tutorial on the classic black smokey eyes that gypsies do:

  • Firstly apply concealer on the upper lids of your eyes.
  • Take a jet black shade of kohl pencil, draw it up on your lower lash line, and apply a thick layer of it.
  • Do the same with your upper lash line.
  • When you are done applying a thick layer of kohl on your upper lash line, take a smudger and smudge the kohl, or you can also smudge it with an eye brush.
  • Next, take a smokey black shade with a little shimmer and apply it to your upper eyelids.
  • Wing out the kohl a bit and smudge a little again.
  • Apply a generous amount of highlighter to the inner corner of your eyes.
  • Finish it with fake lashes and apply a heavy coat of jet black mascara, and voila, your eye look is ready.
  • Now coming to the last part of the face makeup, that is the lipstick. Gypsies are seen very widely wearing very dark shades of lipsticks on their lips. Therefore, go for a dark shade, like really dark red, purple, brown, and even black will look great.

Gypsy Makeup Ideas

Apart from the above-given makeup tutorial, you can do varieties of gypsy makeup looks. Makeup is all about adventure, and you can experiment with all the different kinds of makeup looks. Below are a few makeup look ideas that you can go for:

Look #1

gypsy makeup look

The base will all remain the same. You will only need to change the eye look. From black smokey eyes, you can go for a golden cut crease look. Add some silver stones around your eyes for a contrasting look. Coming to your lips, apply a nude shade of lipstick and then dab a few amounts of silver gloss on the center of your lips and apply one stone on your lower lips.

Look #2

gypsy makeup look

The second look has got some pop of color to it. Start with taking a bright silver shade of eye shadow on your brush, dust off the excess, and blend on your upper eyelid evenly. Now take some red shade of eye shadow and start lining your eyes with it. Limit yourself to lining the red color on the upper and lower lash line. Now smudge the red color a bit and draw it on your crease as well. If you want, you can also wing it out. Put a dark red lipstick. You can also add some stones. Do not forget to highlight your inner corner.

Look #3

The next look involves some red. Take a red-colored eye pencil or eye shadow and apply it to your eyelids’ outer and inner parts. Now take a metallic golden brown shade and apply it to the center part of your eyelid. Now blend it all nicely. Add a bit of shimmer on top. Now apply eyeliner, and wing it towards the outer corner and the inner corner of your eyes. Add lashes, top it up with a heavy coat of mascara, and your eye look is ready!

These are some of the ideas that you can incorporate to make an exotic gypsy makeup look.

Tips for the Gypsy Makeup Look

  • Flowy stuff is what gypsies usually wear. Their dressing styles are quite chunky with prints, tassels, and jewels. They also associate themselves with lots of body stones. So stick to that stuff to get the gypsy vibe.
  • While doing makeup, apply the highlighter before applying the foundation, and then go on with the said steps. This will give the extra glow.
  • Bronzer is an essential step as it will give a glowy sun-tanned look.
  • Gypsies are all about head accessories. You can go on with a headband, or scarves. They are known for their voluminous curly hair, so you can add hair extensions to complete the look.
  • You can also add different hair extension shades but stick to dark shades like red, black, and purple.
  • Dive into as much jewelry as you want, but it should be chunky and not at all dainty.
  • You can add all the pop of colors you want to your makeup look.

How to dress up for Gypsy Makeup?

Makeup is only halfway to a whole gypsy look unless completed with a proper outfit and accessory. Here is what you can do with your outfit to complete a gypsy look.

gypsy makeup dress up
Source: Adobe Stock
  • For the first look, you will require a halter neck top with some boho print on it or stitched with beads and stuff, and for the bottom, take a long skirt having a bohemian vibe. Take all the kinds of chunky jewelry that you can and wear them all. Tie your front section of hair in a small section of braids and add a scarf to complete the look.
  • For the second look, you will need a bell-bottom-sleeved off-the-shoulder maxi dress. Tie a boho belt around the waist. Add a headband, big chunky bangles, and chokers, and you are ready.
  • For the third look, take a side-slit skirt and a one-sided off-shoulder top. Try to get dresses with tassels, or you can also stitch the tassels in your dress. This will give it more boho vibes.
  • Kaftans are also usually associated with gypsy looks, so you can incorporate a kaftan look without any doubt.

Gypsy look is all about experimenting and not limiting yourself to sober and subtle looks. You can go as colorful and as crazy, both with your makeup as well as a dress, but don’t forget to keep the essence of the gypsies.

14 thoughts on “How to Do Flawless Gypsy Makeup – Tips and Ideas”

    1. I don’t mean any offense by using that word. I would like to hear your side of the story. Comments are welcome, so I can include it and also remove anything offending because I didn’t mean it to be that way.

  1. I am not a magical fairy. I am a normal human at a much higher risk of connective tissue and autoimmune diseases.

    The Romani people are an ethnicity just like any other Ethnicity. G*psy is a name we were given by the people who enslaved us for hundreds of years. Some Roma have retaken that word, some, like me, hate it.
    We have survived past genocides. We have survived past violence. We are still persecuted and targeted for violence. If we were indeed “magical” we would not be facing a 90% poverty rate.
    I am not “magical.” I wish I was, but I am not. I am just a human from an impoverished ethnicity. I go to a progressive mainline Christian church.
    Every single human deserves respect and basic human rights. Doing a make up tutorial using a questionable name for an ethnicity doesn’t help bring dignity and respect to community desperate for justice and change. Taking a bad version of our ethnic dress is cultural appropriation. It furthers “other” Romani people and detracts from life and death issues.

    1. I’m so sorry for what you had to endure. Clearly we need to address this on a larger scale. I will do what I can to make this article as appropriate and sensitive as possible to Romani people.

  2. Other people’s culture is never an acceptable “costume.” That is the definition of cultural appropriation. The Roma are a living group, and articles like this contribute to the stigma, racism, and discrimination we already face.
    G*psy is a racial slur. If you are not Roma, you should only use the correct name for our people which is Roma (Romani is our language, and there are many internal groups like Kalderash and Ruska). Some Roma reclaim the racial slur and use it among themselves, but for many of us it remains a reminder of the discrimination and violence we face in our lives as well as the genocides of previous generations. We are not a “secretive” or “mystical” people. We have suffered atrocities. We are grieving and we are trying to recover.

  3. If you like to hear people’s stories, perhaps listen to us when we we are not magical, that might as well be called Vesper Lynne makeup, and that’s a slur you’re using.
    We’re real, not a thing made up by Victor Hugo, Bram Stoker, and Universal Pictures in the 20s.

    1. Because you are all stunning people – inside and out – I am not attempting to bring anyone down but rather to inspire those who look up to you.

  4. This word you use in so cavalier a fashion is a slur. The Romany ask people not to use it. And speaking of — they exist, they aren’t magical beings from some alternate plane. This is irresponsible and contributes to the ongoing racist othering the Romany experience all over Europe and elsewhere. Do better. You are hurting real humans. That should matter to you.

  5. Our sincerest apologies. In no way do we intend to offend the Roma. Our makeup inspiration is provided solely for informational purposes.

  6. As a roma girl I personally don’t care about the g word. Also I don’t care about people using costumes inspired by other cultures – I think it’s usual to experiment with styles as long as you don’t claim to be something you are not. However, seeing my fellow people hurt maybe you could rewrite the article with “Tribal dancer” makeup – since it’s a style common between dancers (of many styles actually) and Roma people don’t actually use that kind of makeup, so it’s wrong to say it’s Roma makeup. Roma makeup would be simply kohl actually. You could mention Roma and Indian people inspired a lot of “Tribal Dancer Makeup” but make it clear it’s not a to be a Roma costume, this way the article would be really nice and not offensive.

    1. Get over it. This is exactly what’s wrong with people these days. TOO SENSITIVE. You’re right. It must be so offensive to be depicted as beautiful.

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