Quick Morning Make-Up

Hello dear readers,

I uploaded a video on my easy morning make-up whenever I'm in a hurry. I am so sorry for the bad quality of the recording (my photo booth's gone mad) and, for some reason, my face looks humongous in the video, argh!! Plus, I'm still acting like a retard, I need A LOT of practice - I adore you people for making such great videos!!


Products I used were:
Clinique - Cream shaper for eyes (16 mink)
Rouge Bunny Rouge - Luminous skin wand (orionis)
Rouge Bunny Rouge - Flawless face powder (piano forte) - sent to me by RBR for trial
Rouge Bunny Rouge - Original skin blush (36 orpheline)
MAC - Tinted lip conditioner SPF 15 (gentle coral)
Avène - Thermal water

How do you feel seeing yourself on the computer screen??! Do you experience strange bloated face days from time to time or is it just me?!

Peace,
ur Sam xx

Swimwear I've Been Loving This Summer

Hey everyone,

as long as the sun is shining I'd like to share which kinds of bikini's, bathing suits, and bathing accessories I went for this summer:


This year's favorite of mine was the French label Princess Tam Tam. The colorful bikini on the lower left corner comes with a little matching clutch and the green burlesque style bikini (I'm wearing it on pic below) is my absolute must-have for this season, even though I got it a while back - I just never got the chance to wear it properly! The strapless red bathing suit looks really sophisticated when worn with the pareo and sun glasses.
What I also liked to wear to the beach (on as tanned skin as possible!!) was the little white bikini by the Italian brand Verdissima. The embroidery is very delicate and feminine and I matched this style with some inexpensive sun-glasses (but they don't look it & I've got them on Waikiki!!) and the big white beach bag by the French label Chacok that comes with a cute purse.
One thing I have to say beside the fact that these little beach treats totally enhance my vacation fun: They come with a water-resistant bag and tons of plastic (= water-resistant) labels telling the new owner how to take care of them. Aside from the usual directions saying that you should wash them delicately after each use with mild soap, they also say that you should not get them in contact with chlorine water - which is basically present in every single swimming pool on this planet!! I confess, I am not an expert on textiles, but isn't it a little much to ask of the customer to not swim in a pool in order to keep the garments looking good?! The way they promote it, they're saying that I shouldn't get too close to the water front with their stuff apart from the labels and the wrapping :( I still did and I can't complain, the quality of the swimwear remains nice but, really, this warning should be eliminated!

Here's a pic of me wearing the shimmering green Princess Tam Tam bikini:


What have you been wearing this summer? Do your bikinis come with the same weird directions for use?

Much love and enjoy the sun to the fullest,
your Sam xx

Excursion to Forks... The Twilight Phenomenon Reviewed

So guys,

I know it's a bit early to do an off topic post but there is a dim light out there in the pop-culture spheres that I could not make any sense of for a very long time: I call it The Twilight Phenomenon.

When I was staying in Westwood, LA, I used to go down by foot to Ralph's, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's to do my regular grocery shopping. I often passed premiers along the way - that was nothing special - but there was this one specific day when everything was different... I experienced an extraordianary premier. The main streets were packed with people, everyone was excited, taking pictures, limousines passing non-stop... there was just this very special atmosphere going on and I wondered what made this premier so different from all the others?! Why can't I just walk straight to my grocery stores?! I asked people on the streets and they said that it's the Twilight premier. The WHAT?! I felt like an alien not to know what Twilight was but I figured it must be similar to Harry Potter and I was content enough with that comparison. So, yes, in fact, I stood there for a little while and saw many of the cast being interviewed one after the other but I had no clue who they were. I just enjoyed the way everyone was having a good time :) (I remember seeing the Edward Cullen character Robert Pattinson on the red carpet and I was just thinking that he had a very unsymmetrical face, which I so not like, and I thought that the actress Kristen Stewart playing Bella Swan looked pretty grumpy and odd...)

Being introduced to the whole scene that way I asked my friends whether they knew Twilight. Of course, they did!! I heard from a couple of great people that they read the books and fell in love with Edward Cullen, which made me so curious and I got geared up with the books, the DVD of the first movie, and even the very own make-up palette of Victoria from Luna Twilight.


So, I was ready to sink into this magical world that everyone seem to love ... but then, oh well, I felt NOTHING! I made it to the second book and I just couldn't continue. I did not feel like being part of the story at all. I thought the characters were designed very badly and that nothing made sense to me. I did not get why this story was being told. Oh boy, I never actually read a book imagining myself reading the book instead of being drawn into the story - if that makes any sense to you. So, my immediate reaction was: I must be strange!! Why does everyone identify with the characters but me?!

Luckily, my friend who writes for the Rolling Stones magazine pointed out a very good article to me that was featured in the magazine. It's written by a professor for literature and explained very well why the story just couldn't work for me (I partly studied Theater, Movie, and TV Science at university, so maybe I'm prone to high expectations when it comes to media...). I was so glad to hear I might be sane after all!!

So here's what Dr. S. Keppler-Tasaki said:
From the psychologist point of view Twilight is a phenomenon mainly for young adolescent people because it deals with suicide (or mortality in general) and the fear of sexual intercourse (you remember the whole fuzz as to why they can't have sex...). Not particularly aiming at that age group, though, it is very typical for vampire literature to tell their story of a female protagonist who is just about to getting married because this is the period of time when desires are least secluded. The clergymen can't prevent that the creature marries the human... this has long been told by numerous vampire "legends". What makes Twilight different is that the horror element seems to be completely missing - and in fact, the vampires inherit the Christian thoughts of salvation and convention. They are altruistic folks, they play baseball, go to the prom, and so forth... Edward is portrayed as an immortal simply to be an über-husband: he is more perfect than any other man could ever be. He looks like a beautiful sculpture, he protects his love with his enormous strength, and he is exceedingly wealthy, too... So, the catch about Twilight is that there is no edge, no twilight zone, whatsoever. Everything's set to go the conventional way. The complex vampire figure seems to be degraded to a decent pop-culture brat.
Wow, I've actually arrived where I started - and I'm seeing a light so dim (a great song by The Black Heart Procession btw.) I know, maybe this is just the opinion of someone who cannot feel the love for this guy (nor the girl)...

But there's still the Luna Twilight make-up and I have to say that I quite like the palette! The slim matte packaging with black shiny trees embedded on the lid make the tiny box look quite elegant and the lip glosses, the eye-shadows, and the blusher have surprisingly good quality! I do find the colors are a bit of a mis-match, though! I would not wear them all at the same time, it could appear too much like some bad Halloween joke. Just leaving the blush and the darker gloss aside would do the trick already. I would save those for other looks.


you see above:
1 + 2 = lip gloss
3 + 4 = eye-shadow
5 = blush

Here's my question to you:
What do you think about Twilight - the books, the movies, the merchandising - the whole hipe?! I'm completely aware that I'm being very controversial here!!

Bless, ur gypsy

official make-up web-page: http://twilightbeauty.com/lunatwilight.aspx

Dianne Brill - lip gloss, body cream, & brushes

Hello summer lovers,

I hope all is well and you enjoy some lovely days!! I am gonna post about a fairly uncommon brand- the beauty range of Dianne Brill who was an It-girl and model for Vivienne Westwood and the like... she even wrote her own books (quality aside: "Boobs, Boys and High Heels"), which I would never bother to read... her make-up and fragrance line is superb, though! I LOVE the lip-glosses, they are wrapped like little truffles and are very nourishing for the lips. The color stays nice for a long time compared to other conventional lip glosses. It's a fun purchase, for sure! I've got the Vitamin Treatment Lip Gloss with patented lip plumper in pinoir, a pinky shade. Unfortunately, you can't really see it well on the pictures. The lighting is just impossible and I look horrible- my apologies!! (I was super frustrated cause I'd been trying so hard to make the Korres Watermelon Tinted Moisturizer work for me - but I just couldn't! I liked the powdery consistency so much but it settled unevenly on my skin, ugh!)
Anyways, back to Dianne Brill... my absolute favorite is the Body Cream! It has that delicious scent of spices, woods, and exotic fruits. The cream melts right into the skin but leaves no shimmer. I would definitely prefer the Body Cream over the fragrance because it smells much more delicate and special!
Moreover, I treated myself to two brushes: The Smokey Eye Liner and the Eye Liner/Lip brush. They are real quality brushes, I feel like they are "indestructible". I use the lip brush all the time (for lips only, though, otherwise it would not be very hygienic) because unlike other lip brushes the tip is fairly wide and makes it possible to apply a good amount of product onto the lips. The eye liner brush is not my favorite, I get along better with the MAC 219 for the purpose of a smoked out effect around the lash line. The Dianne Brill brush would be ideal for precision application of eye shadow into the crease. I just hardly ever do that.

What are you guys doing tonight? Watching the World Cup games?!
Do you have days when you feel disappointed in a product you had high hopes in but you realize it's just missing that certain edge?!

much love,
Sam xx


official web page: http://www.diannebrill.com/

From Sophisticated to Bohemian... in no time!

Dear readers,

as much as I love to talk about make-up, fashion, and all things beautiful - sometimes I can't be bothered to spend all that much time doing my make-up routine. I remember one day in particular, when I had 2 hrs to have pictures taken in an old building looking as neat as possible and immediately after dancing on a roof top during sunset appearing all free and watching the world go by... I had no time to redo my make-up whatsoever, so I had a little thought beforehand on which cosmetic products might be working for both settings. Once applied, I could forget about "my face" and just focus on everything else...

So, which make-up style has a jolie and a gypsy in common?! I came up with this idea:


I used the Clarins Truly Matte Foundation (shade 02- pale ivory) and the Express Compact Foundation (shade 02- porcelain beige) and dotted some liquid blush from the Rouge Bunny Rouge Decadent Duo (color: enredo) on my cheeks. The gloss of the duo (color: samba) went on my lips, of course. For my eyes, I put on the gorgeous shimmering mauve mineral Overshadow by The Balm (shade: If you're rich, I'm single) all over the lid and into the crease. I lined and smudged my eyes with my favorite Benefit kohl pencil (color: sable). I knew that it was supposed to be a hot day and this kohl pencil could smear up in humid weather, so I let the liner dry a little and then put it on a second time before smudging it with the sponge tip. Please note that this pencil is discontinued. They got exchanged with the Benefit automatic liner duo pencils. I tested them when they first came out and I thought they were awful! They did not go evenly on my lash line and when I tried to smudge them they were gone immediately because their texture was way too creamy! So, I stocked up on the older ones before they disappeared :) To finish my look I put on 2 coats of the Benefit Bad Gal Lash mascara (in black). Et voilà!

This is kinda what it looked like in the end...

The clothes you see:
gyspy couture - Chacok (skirt/dress), Aubade (top)
jolie couture - Aubade (top), H&M (jacket), leggings- no idea which brand!


I had a fun day thanks to the awesome photographer Andrea Lavezzaro!

Are you surprised sometimes by how easy it is to change your outward appearance? What tells you more about a person? Their dress-code, or their behavior?
I have the feeling that everyone ultimately judges others by their words and actions but it takes a little while until we get a clear picture... in the meanwhile, we have no choice other than to "look" at each other... in the internet world this might be particularly hard but I'm eager to make a contribution to keep it a personal and fun place to hang out.
your gypsy xxx

Arriving ~ The Reason why I became a blogger - A RBR eye make-up query!

Welcome dear ladies,

I am so excited that lovely Tali of The Gloss Gloss mentioned my gypsy blog in one of her recent posts! Seriously, she is the reason why I started blogging in the first place...
This little tale goes like this:

A while ago I threw out most of my make-up collection because I was sick of finding tons of unloved make-up and skin "care" products in every corner. I realized that my skin is far too sensitive to cope with the amount of chemicals I was putting on my face on a daily basis. Ugh!

The brands, however, I could not say good-bye to were:

- Benefit
- Rouge Bunny Rouge
- Dianne Brill
- Mac
- Becca
- Bare Minerals
- The Balm
- some Clarins, Clinique, Biotherm, and Avène

I'm gonna post reviews of these brands in upcoming posts...

Ok, so after everything else went straight into the garbage bags I realized that I actually did not get along well with my RBR eyeshadows 'When Birds Are Singing...' (I've got 7 of them!!) and my 2 RBR 'Smithereens of Stars' eye-glosses. I had been using all the crappy eye-shadows each day and now that I got only my "favorite" products left - I had no clue how to make them work!!

As RBR meanwhile seemed to have disappeared from the European market there was no sales assistant available that I could ask how to prevent my eye-products from settling into my crease. My only hope was to google the brand... and what I found was a you tube video recorded by Tali discussing her RBR haul (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtNjp318W5M). From her I learned that zuneta.com still carries the line and there was absolutely no hope for pimping the eye glosses. Great, this information could've saved me A LOT of money early on!! What I do to calm me down is that I still use'em on my brows and the inner corners of my eyes where the sticky gel consistency cannot do much harm... Tali had absolutely no problem with the shadows, though, which made me wonder what I did wrong (I did not have an account to ask questions at this stage). Still bothered by the lack of eye-color variety on my lids I continued to surf the world wide web, ultimately signing up for blogger.com because it was so interesting to read Tali's reviews and opinions daily. Later on I took a look around who else was there. I found these beautiful fairy eyes by Replica on her Visionary Beauty blog (http://visionarybeauty.blogspot.com/2010/05/deep-smoky-green-eotd-from-rouge-bunny.html). I was so stunned by her enchanting deep smokey eye that I asked her how she did this! She answered that she used eye-primer. Unfortunately, I avoid those items because they are full of silicons and preservatives, both of which my eyes have bad reactions to when heavily applied (for example, I need to use contact lens solution without preservatives, otherwise my eyes turn instantly red!). From now on, I'm taking Replica's alternate suggestion and either put on some powder or nude eye-shadow as a base. It really helped me big time! So, thank you all for helping me out so much and for getting me hooked on this beautiful cause of sharing ideas and little wisdoms xxx

These are my 7 + 2 little sinners...

So far I learned that the shadows can get wet without losing its smooth consistency and that indeed the powders have a creamy feel to them once applied - no messing on my cheeks whatsoever... with an eye-primer, this surely is a perfect product! If you ask me, don't care at all about the eye-glosses :( (please note that the eye-gloss tubes show the earlier first version, the new design can be seen here: http://www.rougebunnyrouge.com/cms/smithereens-of-stars/)

My ultimate question is: What are your eye-shadow secrets? Do you change your application routine depending on whether it's hot/humid or cold/dry? Do you throw out your expired make-up regularly?

A huge thank you for noticing that I'm around, you guys are great!!
Cheers, ur Sam xx


for official website visit: http://www.rougebunnyrouge.com/