The Kevyn Aucoin Beauty brand has remained in business since his death, and is still sold in multiple stores, including Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Sephora, and Space.NK. The Tori Amos song "Taxi Ride" from her 2002 album Scarlet's Walk is a partial homage to Aucoin. He made a cameo appearance in a fourth season episode (Episode 2: "The Real Me") of the long-running HBO series Sex and the City. He was a major fan of the Comedy Central show Strangers With Candy and appeared in an episode alongside Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert as a funeral makeup artist (Season 2, Episode 4: The Goodbye Guy). In the show Fat Actress debut episode "Big Butts", Kirstie Alley's female hair and makeup artist goes by the name Kevyn after her inspiration Kevyn Aucoin.

Kevyn Aucoin Beauty Official Makeup Site – Kevyn Aucoin Beauty

His story is inspiring, and heartbreaking. Read on for more on the most celebrated makeup artist of his time. As a child, he was effeminate, loved Vogue magazine and all fashion magazines, blasted Barbra Streisand and was completely fascinated by makeup. He was relentlessly targeted by bullies for much of his childhood but, despite this adversity, his passion for makeup always prevailed. He borrowed makeup artist Way Bandy’s 1977 instruction manual entitled Designing Your Face: An Illustrated Guide to Cosmetics from the local public library (failing to ever return it), and increasingly saw physical transformation through makeup as his way out of small-town life, once saying: “If I could just make things look better, things would be better.”

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In 1986, Vogue’s sittings editor Polly Mellen booked him for a cover shoot that would be shot by the legendary fashion photographer Richard Avedon. The virtually unknown model was young, with bombshell brunette hair, pillowy lips, and what was to become her signature beauty mark…a young Cindy Crawford. This cover – and, more specifically, Crawford’s meticulously painted face – pushed Aucoin’s career into gear. Alan Cumming, Tori Amos, and More Attend the 2017 Emery Awards Honoring Kevyn Aucoin". Vogue . Retrieved November 22, 2017. DOC NYC 2017 Women Directors: Meet Tiffany Bartok — "Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story" ". Women and Hollywood. November 15, 2017 . Retrieved November 22, 2017. Eight months after moving to Manhattan (where he spent his first winter in an unheated Hell’s Kitchen walk-up), Aucoin got his big break when he was booked to do Meg Tilly’s makeup for a spread in Vogue, which would be shot by acclaimed fashion photographer Steven Meisel.

STORY OF: Celebrity Makeup Artist Kevyn Aucoin THE STORY OF: Celebrity Makeup Artist Kevyn Aucoin

Over the next three years, Aucoin did the makeup for 18 American Vogue covers as well as numerous covers for other fashion magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar and Cosmopolitan. In fact, between 1987 and 1989, he did nine Vogue covers in a row as well as seven Cosmopolitan covers. He was part of a movement that pushed fashion into the mainstream in the early 1990s, and it was Aucoin who changed the way high-profile models did their makeup, ultimately transforming Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Paulina Porizkova into supermodels and cultural icons. He realized he was gay at age six. [5] His parents were unaware of their son's sexual orientation; his mother later said, "I didn't think Kevyn was a sissy; I just thought he was a gentle child." [2] Years later, his parents became staunch advocates for LBGTQ rights, and started a chapter of P-FLAG in Lafayette. [2] [6] Entertainment Weekly Staff (October 10, 1997). "Fashion etc.: Inside Kevyn Aucoin's celebrity makeup book, 'Making Faces' ". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 16, 2020 . Retrieved May 16, 2020. I tried to recreate one of Kevyn's looks on Lisa Marie Presley, which has always been one of my favourites. It's a far cry from anything he could do before he passed away, but I felt like sharing for the sake of the review. I should also note that the instructions regarding application are far from ample, but personally I skimmed over these parts.

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Perhaps it was his perception of his own appearance that made Aucoin such an empathetic makeup artist. “I got called ugly most of my childhood,” he would later say. “I was told I was ugly constantly.”

Making Faces - Kevyn Aucoin - Google Books Making Faces - Kevyn Aucoin - Google Books

Later, Aucoin would work with Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido on their Inoui line. [12] He would later be approached by both Vincent Longo and Laura Mercier to endorse their eponymous lines, [ citation needed] but decided to launch his own brand, Kevyn Aucoin Beauty, in 2001 instead.Read this in The Internet Archive. I'm sure the original coffee table book must be more impressive with larger and clearer pictures. But I'm glad I read it anyway. Kevin draws faces with expertise. I liked reading about his past as well and feel very proud that he survived his turbulent adolescence growing up as a closeted gay teen in a conservative small town. Now, he is one of the most notable makeup artists of our generation and seeing him live his truth and release such popular makeup products is very inspiring. The book would be a great introduction to beginners of makeup and fans of Aucoin. Aucoin's philosophy was that every woman is beautiful within, and makeup was simply his tool for helping her discover that beauty. He wrote a regular column about this philosophy for Allure. A comment he made in a 2000 column, calling members of the National Rifle Association "morons", drew a record amount of mail and a few death threats. [8] It was such a big deal for both of us. We worked together a lot after that. If I worked five days in a week, three or four of them were with Kevyn,” Crawford recalled years later.