Cher's Favorite

Background:

“It's our hearts and brains that we should exercise more often. You can put on all the makeup you want but it won't make your soul pretty.” Kevyn Aucoin

One of the most well-paid celebrity make-up artists in history, New York-based Kevyn Aucoin, born in 1962, died in 2002, was famous for providing to the laywoman's demand to feel beautiful. He was the recipient of the first-ever Council of Fashion Designers of America Award for makeup artistry. First coming to the attention of public when he was booked by Vogue magazine to work with Meg Tilly and Steven Meisel in September 1983, Aucoin went on to create impressive resume by doing makeup for popular celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Vanessa Williams and Courtney Love, to name a few. He was the favorite of Cher and Janet Jackson, and has done multiple video shoots and album covers for both. The author of books like “Face Forward” and “The Art of Makeup” was also noted for transforming celebrities into other celebrities or other people entirely with the use of costume and makeup, including Winona Ryder into Elizabeth Taylor, Tori Amos into Mary Queen of Scots, Hilary Swank into Raquel Welch, and many others.

Aucoin was an activist. He was remembered as a narrow-minded person with potent views and vocal about gay rights. Aucoin knew that he was gay when he was six years old. Although it was not a pleasant revelation, his family were supportive to his differences. In 2000, he married his partner, Jeremy Antunes, in an unofficial ceremony in Hawaii. Prior to the marriage, Aucoin was romantically linked to Eric Sakas. They maintained good relationship following their breakup, and Sakas became president and creative director of Kevyn Aucoin Beauty.

Adopted

Childhood and Family:

“I was the first of four children they adopted, and like every family in America," Kevyn says, and laughs, "ours had its share of dysfunction.” Kevyn Aucoin

Kevyn Aucoin was born on February 14, 1962, in Shreveport, Louisiana, and adopted a month later by Thelma and Isidore Aucoin. His parents later added three more adopted kids (Keith, Carla and Kim) into the family. Kevyn did not meet his biological parents, Nelda Mae Williams and Jerry Burch, until 1992, when he was 30. He also had two half-sisters, Jeanna and Christy, from his birth father's family.

As a child, Kevyn, who was raised in Lafayette, Louisiana, used to take pictures of his younger sisters with his own makeup creation. He learned the craft by reading fashion magazines and studied the work of makeup artists such as Way Bandy. He later attended a Louisiana beauty school, which proved to a discouraging experience for Kevyn.

In May 2002, Kevyn was died of liver and kidney failure because of Tylenol toxicity. He was diagnosed with a rare pituitary brain tumor in October 2001, and has since became addicted to prescription painkillers used to treat the extreme pain from his condition. This became the cause of his death.

The Art of Makeup

Career:

Louisiana-born and raised Kevyn Aucoin hooked up with his boyfriend-turned-agent Jed Root, and moved to Baton Rouge in 1982. There he found himself working at a shop in which he did women's makeup and sold skincare product. Accompanied by Root, Aucoin headed to New York in January 1983 to try his luck as a makeup artist.

Aucoin and Root had hard lives in New York. They lived in a walkup apartment without heat during the winter before finally finding an apartment in Hell's Kitchen. During that period, Aucoin did test makeup on models for free, while waiting for his big break. His partner helped him on all his shoots. The two frequently worked for 16 hours per day.

After struggling for eight months, Aucoin finally scored his first break when he was hired by Vogue magazine to work on a photo shoot of Meg Tilly, with Steven Meisel photographing. The work was amazing, and Aucoin continued his partnership with Meisel for the next year and a half. Aucoin's first first magazine cover arrived in 1986, thanks to his partnership with the classic sittings editor Polly Mellen. He did his first cover with Richard Avedon. A few days later, he was booked to do another cover.

Aucoin landed more covers for the next three years. During 1987-1988, he did nine Vogue covers and seven Cosmopolitan covers. Despite his hectic schedule, the makeup artist only earned $200 for each Vogue cover, but he kept doing the work in order to get commercial work like cosmetics and fashion ads, music videos, CD covers, and publicity shoots.

With motto “it was far more important to help a woman feel beautiful no matter what, and that makeup was simply his tool for helping her discover herself ,” Aucoin could eventually reach his goal of becoming one of the most renowned and well-paid makeup artist in history. To that point, he had worked with numerous A-list celebrities such as Tina Turner, Cher, Janet Jackson, Courtney Love, Vanessa Williams and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Aucoin had published such books as “Face Forward,” “Making Faces” and “The Art of Makeup,” all of which were non-fictions. He had a monthly column called “Kevyn's Corner” in Allure magazine and also penned frequently for In Style magazine. As a published author, Aucoin was known for his fondness of taking celebrities and using makeup and costume to transform them look alike other celebrities, or other people totally. He transformed singer Tori Amos into a Cherokee princess named Mary Queen of Scots, Martha Stewart into Veronica Lake, Christina Ricci into Édith Piaf, Liza Minnelli into Marilyn Monroe, Winona Ryder into Elizabeth Taylor, and Hilary Swank into Raquel Welch, among others.

In September 2001, Aucoin launched “Kevyn Aucoin” cosmetics line. It was in the following month that he was diagnosed with a pituitary brain tumor, which led to his death seven months later in May 2002.

Awards:

• Council of Fashion Designers of America: Makeup Artistry