Kevyn Aucoin

Kevyn Aucoin is considered the world’s first celebrity make-up artist, he succeeded at this while battling many difficulties in his private life. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana and bought up in Lafayette, Louisiana by his adopted parents Isidore Adrian Aucoin and Thelma Suzanna Melancon. He also had three adopted siblings Carla, Kim and Keith. His upbringing was far from conventional as he was brought up in a strict Catholic family yet he realized he was gay at the age of six, something his parents struggled with at the beginning. These difficulties carried on at school where he was bullied throughout for his sexual orientation, the bullying included his teacher spanking his bare bum in class and classmates chasing him home in a truck. He soon dropped out and enrolled in beauty school in hope to learn more, however he ended up teaching the class. The fears of inadequacy from his bullying never quite left him. 

His family soon came around to the idea of Kevyn being gay, Thelma and Isidore even started The Lafayette Chapter of Parents and worked with the Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays organization for 15 years. "I never missed a meeting," Isidore says proudly. "Marriage is between a man and a woman, according to Webster's dictionary, but I feel that there should be a law so that same-sex people could make a commitment recognized by the government. I looked at Kevyn's boyfriends exactly the way I look at my other children's spouses, just like a married couple. My whole family looked at them that way -- up through Eric."

From the age of nine Kevyn had suffered from a rare condition where a tumor on the pituitary grand that causes an overproduction of the growth hormone, which is called acromegaly. To deal with the relentless pain Kevyn took prescription drugs that lead to a long term addiction. He was urged to seek help by his friends and family, especially when he started to collapse on set. This was not only bad for his health but also for his business, as when the word spread that he had collapsed on set at Cher’s music video, his work load started to deteriorate. He was taking medication such as Vicodin, Lorcet, Xanax and soma to relieve the join pains, headaches and insomnia associated with the disease. In the end he died in 2002 of liver and kidney failure because of Tylenol Toxicity, Tylenol is an ingredient in both Vicodin and Lorcet.

Doing make up for celebrities such as Cher, Naomi Campbell, Julia Roberts and Cindy Crawford, Kevyn was renowned for his work, and also for his charm and charisma that helped him get to that level of professionalism. Gwyneth Paltrow once spoke of Kevyn “The best thing about him doing your make-up, is that it allows you to spend time with him.” He was responsible for many of the beauty stylings of the 1990’s such as Cindy Crawford’s lipliner, Christy Turlinghton’s arched brow and Brooke Shield’s matte lips. He even had time to write three best selling books expressing his unique aesthetic. These were The Art of Makeup, Making Faces and Face Forward. To add to accomplishments he is the only make up artist to have ever received a CFDA Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, he got this award in 1994.

His love for make up artistry started when he began creating looks on his sister Carla, his first was a tangerine-coloured lipstick when she was 6. We know this as he documented all of his looks on Polaroids. As well as this he experimented with haircuts and making clothes. 

Once his schooling was finished and at the age of 18, Kevyn set up a small make up counter. He offered lessons for $30 to women who were wear $3,000 dresses so they often refused his services. He wanted to be taken more seriously so moved to Baton Rouge in Louisiana. Unfortunately as a male make up artist who was also gay he was still not accepted and he was even assaulted by a security guard at Godchaux’s, a local department store. He finally made the move to New York with his boyfriend of the time Jed Root. Hoping to get noticed, Aucoin started with doing test shoots for models including Paulina Porizkova. When this didn’t seem to be working he took matters into his own hands. He dressed Jed up in a suit from the Salvation Army so he could pose as an agent and took his book into Vogue. Linda Wells (editor of Allure) talks of the incident “I was an editorial assistant in the beauty department at Vogue, and he would just plant himself in front of me. He was more passionate and more obsessed than any other person I’ve met in my life.” He successfully gained acknowledgement at Vogue and spent the next year and a half working with Vogue Photographer Steven Meisel.

Revlon hired Kevyn in 1983 at that age of 21, as creative director for Ulitima II line of cosmetics. Only a year later he was creating a groundbreaking line called The New Nakeds (also known as The Nakeds). This was a revolution and embraced differences. He created foundations with yellow undertones rather than the norm at the time, pink or peach. He created eyeshadows, lipsticks and blushes that had very neutral, brown based tones which was very far from the usual sparkly and vivid cosmetics that were so on demand. It was the first line that solely based its products on skin tones.

1986 was the year his career took a drastic change when he worked with supermodel Cindy Crawford on the cover shoot of Vogue. This pathed the next two years in which Kevyn created nince Vogue Covers in a row and Seven Cosmopolitan covers. He was on high demand during his peak and could command as much as $6,000 for a session and have months booked full of work. As well as all of this Kevyn was writing a column for Allure, creating a line with Shiseido (a Japanese Cosmetics giant) called lnoui line, he endorsed Vincent London and Laura Mercier’s eponymous line and finally launched his own brand “Kevyn Aucoin Beauty”.

Reference:

Levy, A. (). Makeup Breakup. Available: http://nymag.com/nymetro/urban/gay/features/6236/. Last accessed 5/12/14.

Graham, M. (2014). Remembering Kevyn Aucoin. Available: http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/4039/Remembering_Kevyn_Aucoin. Last accessed 5/12/14.

Wikipedia. (). Kevyn Aucoin. Available: https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Kevyn_Aucoin.html. Last accessed 5/12/14.

Wikipedia. (). Kevyn Aucoin. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevyn_Aucoin#Career. Last accessed 5/12/14.