Kevyn Aucoin

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Kevyn Aucoin (February 14, 1962 in Shreveport, Louisiana; died May 7, 2002) was a make-up artist and photographer who was well known for catering to the laywoman's need to feel beautiful.

Aucoin grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana, to parents Thelma and Isidore, who adopted him as an infant.^[1] He had three siblings, Carla, Kim, and Keith. He struggled his way to the top of the professional makeup industry by emphasizing the beauty within. His motto was that 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. A proponent of the philosophy that every woman is beautiful within, he was one of the most well-paid celebrity make-up artists in history.

Singer Tori Amos transformed by Aucoin into a Cherokee princess

He worked with hundreds of A-list celebrities like Cher, Janet Jackson, Tina Turner, Courtney Love and Winona Ryder. He became a highly in-demand makeup artist, often acquiring $10,000 per session for photo shoots or award shows. As a published author (The Art of Makeup, Making Faces, and Face Forward), he was fond of taking celebrities (and various other men & women, including his mother) and using makeup and costume (and sometimes prosthetics) to make them look like other celebrities, or like other people entirely. He transformed Tori Amos into Mary Queen of Scots, Lisa Marie Presley into Marilyn Monroe, Christina Ricci into Édith Piaf, Hilary Swank into Raquel Welch, Winona Ryder into Elizabeth Taylor, and Martha Stewart into Veronica Lake, among others.

Aucoin lived with his partner, Jeremy Antunes, whom he married in an unofficial ceremony in Hawaii in 2000 and thereafter referred to as his husband. He had also previously been romantically involved with Eric Sakas, who after their breakup remained close friends with him and became president and creative director of Kevyn Aucoin Beauty.^[2]

In October 2001, just one month after launching his own cosmetics line, Aucoin was diagnosed with a rare pituitary tumor. He had been suffering from acromegaly resulting from the tumor for much of his life, but it had gone undiagnosed. He died in May 2002 of kidney and liver failure due to Tylenol toxicity, due to an addiction to prescription painkillers used to treat the extreme pain from his condition.^[2] A musical homage, called "Taxi Ride," was written for him by longtime friend Tori Amos.

Beyond his talents, Aucoin was known as a kind and gentle person who brought joy to the people around him.^{[citation needed]}