There’s no other make up artist who successfully executed the fantasy of a flawless face and demystified the mask of glamour quite like Kevyn Aucoin (Feb. 14, 1962 – May 7, 2002).
The late, great beauty genius left his alluring legacy on countless Vogue tear sheets and at every major red carpet event during his brief, yet influential life and career as America’s pre-eminent make up artist. Aucoin empowered every woman with the Fundamentals of Art 101 with his insightful step-by-step beauty bibles, Making Faces and Face Forward. The meticulously art directed tomes showed women across the globe (beauty-savvy or not) how a simple swipe of highlighter here and a strategically placed smudge of brown there could instantly create dimension and depth.
His expert formula for a runway ready face didn’t end at application; Aucoin was particular about the ingredients in his namesake cosmetics brand, which remains authentic to his original recipes. The tightly edited collection features densely pigmented colors and highly concentrated, botanical-rich foundations in a full spectrum of shades and professional tools of the trade—all very reasonably priced. Below are a few of my must-haves and you can pick them up (along with the rest of his collection) at Bergdorf Goodman.
