Kevyn Aucoin was a wonderful makeup artist who saw natural beauty in many and helped accentuate their features.

He was born on February 14, 1962 in Shreveport, Louisiana at a Catholic Charities Home for un-wed mothers.

His mother, Nelda Mae Sweat, was a scared, pregnant sixteen-year-old with strict Baptist parents. His father, a handsome football player named Jerry Burch, didn’t believe that the baby was his.

He was only a month old when he was adopted by an Aucoins family name. Kevyn grew up in a small town Lafayette with three other adopted brothers and sisters. At the age of eleven he began making up his little sister Carla into a disco diva. While Carla was his source of inspiration, Barbara Streisand was his subject for painting and sketching.

Kevyn realized he was gay at an early age. It was hard fitting in a small town like Lafayette. Kevyn instantly became a target for his classmates. He was tormented physically and verbally.

At the age of 16 he moved out with his friend Glenn. Since neither of them had a job, they relied on their parents for food and other necessities.

One night Kevyn and his friend Glenn met a drag queen. Kevyn became mesmerized by the power of makeup he had seen on this drag queen. Soon enough, Kevyn started inviting more drag queens over to his apartment to do their makeup. That September, Kevyn had to start junior high again. As soon as he began, the tormenting physically and verbally began again. Kevyn received death threats at school and he was also beat with rocks. One time two teenagers even tried to run him over with a truck. Finally, he dropped out of high school at the age 15. After he dropped out of high school he thought he would definitely fit in beauty school. 1978-1981. Kevyn asked his father for $900 to cover the tuition but Kevyn soon discovered that it turned out to be a waste of time and money because he knew way more than the teachers when it came down to makeup and hair both combined. Soon, he found a job behind a cosmetics counter at a local department store.

Following Kevyn’s break up with his boyfriend Glenn, he moved to New York. In New York, Kevyn found work doing make-up for a porn magazine called Cheezy.

Within a year, Kevyn was hired to work with Meg Tilly on a Vogue shoot. It was a milestone for Kevyn because he started working with models such as: Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss and celebrities including Tina Turner and Cher. Over the next couple of years, Kevyn did make-up for 18 covers of Vogue and 7 for Cosmopolitan.

During the 1990s, Kevyn refused to promote products for Vincent Longo and Laura Mercier because he was only going to receive 5% of the profits. Instead, Kevyn launched a new line of beauty products, the Kevyn Aucoin collection, which he was going to launch on his own web site–keyvnaucoin.com.

Kevyn’s make-up style truly defined the nineties. He brought out the beauty with classic touches. Kevyn had a unique vision that was completely transformational. He could completely “erase” someone’s features, and create a new face. He could glam up anyone, turn men into women, bring back faces from the past, and add shadow, texture, and features that were non-existent.

Kevyn’s advertising work for Ultima was the result of ‘Naked‘ a line he helped to design and he also had been hired to revamp for Shiseido.

1994. Kevyn wrote three books: The Art of Make-up, Making Faces, and Face Forward.

1995-1998. In 1995 the Council of Fashion Designers gave him the only award that they had ever given a make-up artist.

In 1997, his book: Making faces made it to number 1 on the New York Times best-seller-list.

In 2001, he played himself in the film The Intern, he also played the part of a make-up artist in the film The Zoolander, (2001). Later on in 2001, he played himself in two episodes of the t.v. show The Sex and the City.

October 2001, just a month before launching his own cosmetics line, Kevyn was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He died May 2002 due to kidney and liver failure.