“The most extraordinary experience that I can have with another person is to show them their beauty because someway, somehow, showing someone else their beauty, you see the beauty in yourself,” Kevyn Aucoin once said. A man dubbed the original celebrity makeup artist, a 6′4″ cosmetics legend who sculpted the faces of the biggest supermodels and celebrities in the ’80s and ’90s, Aucoin has left a legacy that is still alive and thriving today. Makeup artists used to be kept behind the camera; today they are celebrities in their own right.Before there were the MUAs of today, there was Kevyn Aucoin. Long before the selfie or live stream was invented, Aucoin was busy filming hundreds of hours of behind-the-scenes footage on a handheld camera. Over two decades after founding his own makeup line, the Kevyn Aucoin Beauty range is still going strong, showing that timeless, inclusive, and high-quality formulas and colorways have no expiration date. In fact, in 2024 the power of makeup is stronger than ever, from before-and-after pictures on Instagram to live on-air makeovers and reality television shows like Glow Up and Instant Influencer. If anything, the more time passes since Aucoin’s heyday, the more we are all waking up to exactly how groundbreaking his work truly was.BeautyMatter spoke to brand founders and makeup artists Fiona Stiles and Jillian Dempsey, as well as Head Brand Ambassador and MUA at Kevyn Aucoin Beauty Drita Paljevic, about the makeup artist’s influence.An Inspiration to All“Kevyn was iconic in his approach to beauty by really understanding how critical lighting is for the end results.