Openly gay make-up artist to the stars Kevyn Aucoin, 40, whose clients included Cindy Crawford, Britney Spears and his favorite…Cher…died May 7 in New York of complications from a metabolic disorder…he had been diagnosed with and treated for a pituitary brain tumor during the past year.
“During his youth in Lafayette, La., Aucoin would rip out photos from magazines and try to replicate the models’ makeup on his sisters,” The Advocate reported. “He moved to New York in January 1983 with then-boyfriend Jed Root, spending his time on making up models for free, looking for his break. That break came eight months later, when Vogue magazine booked him to work on a shoot of Meg Tilly being photographed by Stephen Meisel. He did his first cover in 1986, working with Richard Avedon.”
Other stars he worked with included Janet Jackson, Sharon Stone, Courtney Love, Madonna, Julia Roberts, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Aucoin was the author of Face Forward, Making Faces, and The Art of Makeup, and started his own product line.
Aucoin was also an activist, including for gay issues. Along with his adopted parents Thelma and Isidore Aucoin, Kevyn Aucoin is survived by his partner Jeremy Antunes; his brother, Keith, and sisters Carla and Kim.