Kevyn Aucoin: Celebrating Faces

To Kevyn Aucoin, a face was a canvas. Armed with eye shadow, mascara and powder, he transformed faces into impeccable, detailed, flawless works of art, whether it was his mother’s mug, a secretary’s or Cindy Crawford’s.

He made it look easy and effortless. The legacy of his work can be seen in his three books, “The Art of Makeup,” (HarperCollins, 1994) “Making Faces,” (Little, Brown, 1997) and “Face Forward” (Little, Brown, 2000). Aucoin died Tuesday in New York from complications from a pituitary brain tumor. He was 40.

“I’ve watched a lot of makeup artists who would do a certain face and that same face would be on everybody,” said Joanna Schlip, who met Aucoin 15 years ago when she assisted him in Milan on an Italian Vogue fashion shoot.

“He individualized the face. He didn’t try to make everybody the same. He brought out the beauty in each woman instead of looking for flaws to fix,” she said. Schlip recalled how Aucoin transformed Lisa Marie Presley’s face into Marilyn Monroe’s in his “Making Faces” book. “He could see Marilyn in Lisa Marie and brought that out. That was one of the things I picked up from him. I see what’s beautiful about a client.”

Collier Strong, a 13-year makeup artist, remembers Aucoin’s artistry. “He really elevated the world’s opinion of makeup. He used makeup not for enhancement but for transformation.”

“If you’re a makeup artist or in the industry, you knew Kevyn; he was such a presence. He just contributed so much,” said makeup artist Carol Shaw, who never met Aucoin. “Thank God his books are around. I know he’s up there doing Audrey Hepburn’s makeup as we speak.”