The Lipstick Page Forums Beauty Blog: Kevyn Aucoin Kevyn Aucoin Posted by Dain, Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:03 PM (Eastern) Perhaps no makeup artist is as celebrated as Kevyn Aucoin. Along with Bobbi Brown, he is the other major figure of the Nineties. His list of clients is the a-list itself, from Gwyneth Paltrow to Tina Turner to Audrey Hepburn to Britney Spears. Even more uniquely (at least, among makeup artists, being background people by definition), Kevyn was no less famous himself. Perhaps because he found beauty in everyone, and consequently everyone else found beauty in him. As to that, I can only shrug. Having not known him myself, the accolades of the rich and famous... well, they mean little. Kevyn was a makeup artist of consummate virtuousity. He transcended such limitations as gender, style, genre, time (both in the sense of "time period" and "age"), and even god-given genetics. Limitations, surely, that prove insurmountable even to most professional makeup artists. He could transform a man into a woman, contemporary celebrities into long-gone figures, normally fresh-faced ingenues into smouldering sirens, ordinary woman into supermodels with sculpted features. And back again. It certainly takes an artist of surpassing skill to disregard the otherwise immutable features of a woman's (or a man's) face. But, for all that, Kevyn's work remained the stuff of glossy magazines, not real life. And while he may have been la crème de la crème among celebrity makeup artists, his influence is not particularly pronounced either in the industry or in consumer habits. Perhaps such influence is subtler than we might imagine. Perhaps not. There are, I think, several reasons for this. Firstly, Kevyn was a master of fantasy makeup. That alone is sufficient to pull one out of real-world influence. Kevyn was capable of transforming women across time and space. Miraculous, yes, but what would be the use of doing so, for the rest of us mortals? Most women don't traffic with high-fantasy makeup in their day-to-day existence—which is to say, they don't want to actually look like Barbara Streisand, or a man, or... err... a mascara-smeared, sparkle-skinned Gwyneth Paltrow. It would be the cosmetic equivalent of living in the world of The Lord of the Rings, speaking in the language of The King James Bible. Sure, they might inject some colorful eyeshadow or red lipstick into the normal order of things, but not usually with the intent to make themselves look like someone other than themselves. Complete transformation is an amazing thing, but... would you really want to look like someone else? What is wrong with the real you, pray? Of course, Kevyn did work his magic on ordinary women (besides his celebrity friends and family members), but it was still always with a sense of fantasy. Great faces to look at, but... hard to live in. Another detractor was his infamously heavy hand. Kevyn, of course, was well aware of the criticism. I think it is to his credit that he didn't seem to care. There is an anecdote, in one of his books (A Beautiful Life, I think), in which Kevyn is working on Kate Moss, and he declares, "Now I'm going to give Kate a really natural look. I'm going to use the minimum possible makeup..." (something like that). He then proceeds to slather on greasepaint with abandon. Both Kevyn and Kate burst out laughing. And you know what? He's right. When the medium is the runway and film, then what matters the amount of makeup? The camera is much more critical than the human eye, and the lighting is harsh and unforgiving. The technique for film is very different from real-world makeup. His very ability to transform a woman's face depended on his ability to obliterate it first. Cindy Crawford reminisces (again, I forget which book) that "Kevyn first erased the face, and then he literally drew it back on. Kevyn's makeup was a mask, a beautiful mask." Amazing, but not very practical. It takes skill, and time, and vast quantities of product (including, among other things, contour powder, face tapes, spirit gum, and so on...). One cannot traipse the streets in layers of greasepaint and pancake without looking a bit overdone. Making Faces indeed; natural makeup, it isn't. And yet another. His expertise was superlative, his vision, sublime, but where is the innovation? I can think of a few, vaguely, but mostly they were in line with the trends that many other makeup artists were employing at the time. He has certainly left a mark, but somehow, it seems more the responsibility of his celebrity fan-club than through reaching out to the average woman. It is my humble opinion that Kevyn was more the exemplar of a zeitgeist than a trend-setter. Some of the favorites I remember: Cream foundation, used selectively, more as concealer than foundation? Kevyn used a now-discontinued Dior foundation; many others were fans of Shu Uemura's Nobara Foundation. His own Sensual Skin Enhancer is a great example of such a product, par excellence. It is concentrated pigment, in a dazzling array of skintones. Benetint: A sheer reddish liquid that spawned a gazillion knockoffs, in myriad formulations. Smells like roses, because it mimicks the color of red roses squeezed (once tried this, just to see if it was so) and of blood naturally rushing to the skin, both. The story has it, it was created for strippers to tint their nipples a flattering hue. Kevyn applied this universally (indeed, it is quite a universal color), but not just on the cheeks, on the temples and chin, too. He contested it was a far more natural and flattering flush, and I agree—that is the most natural way to apply blush. To this day, I do the same, unconsciously. Prescriptives Softlining Pencil in Fig: This is so spot-on. A shimmery violet-charcoal as liner. I don't think anyone pushed this color before he did. It is the perfect shade of eyeliner, that dusky violet that shimmers. Now, there are gazillions of them, from MAC Prunella Eye Kohl to Stila Poise. There is a reason why Bobbi Brown's much-lauded Gel Liners' bestseller is Violet Ink. Some variations are more purple-black, some, more violet-grey. Some have pink shimmer, some gold, some red, some silver. The principle remains the same: violet-grey is the natural color of shadow on the skin. The color of undereye circles, and even of physical shadows. Not black (which is harsh, and skin is a mixture of colors, not black and white), not grey (again, there is a great deal of color in the skin, though grey is softer), not brown (natural enough in color, but not of shadow, but rather, increased melanin concentration, so a very different sort of natural). It looks good on everyone; not like "color", in the traditional sense, but a sort of super-flattering definition. It is not a color that clashes with anyone's eyes, and indeed enhances most eye colors. blood red lipstick: In a time of the pink-brown lipstick hegemony of Bobbi Brown, I am, simply, thankful to see that Kevyn kept the torch of red lipstick alive (though it is now in danger of being submerged under endless hordes of fruity glosses). He was always a champion of red lipstick, and with good reason. It is classic. white shimmer liquid highlight: Kevyn was a big fan of a Make Up For Ever Aquarelle (I don't know if it's still available), in a simple white frost. He used it to highlight. I don't use such things, so I can't attest to the effect, but I suspect Pat McGrath's fanaticism for sheer highlighters can at least be partly attributed to Kevyn's devotion to the MUFE original. His own line has a version. taupe shimmer shadow: Seems sorta basic, yeah? Kevyn favored Sweet Dreams, by Vincent Longo. (I like NARS Ashes to Ashes or Shu Uemura ME Silver 945.) It softens black eyeliner for a smoky look, smolders in the crease, and can cavort innocently (sheerly) on the lid for a little depth. It is something that works easily without much effort. The teleogy is the same. Kevyn was famous for celebrating women, for seeing them as beautiful—as they were, and as they could be. A great artist, and his work will be missed. RIP. sources: Picture courtesy www.kevynaucoin.com. Quotes paraphrased from A Beautiful Life (I think). For examples of his work, I suggest his book, Making Faces. There are others, but that is his best, I think. 0 Comment(s)    Email this post Rants, raves, and musings on all things cosmetic. 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