Kevyn Aucoin

Fights with my father were really quite brutal. I would not live his vision. I would not become who he wanted me to be. Everything I did was criticized. I would spend three months drawing something and show him, and he would look up from his paper and just look back down. I got no approval from him for anything I did that was creative.

I was a regular little boy who also enjoyed things that girls did.

I made a crash landing here on Earth on February 14, 1962, in the Shreveport Catholic Charities Home for un-wed mothers. The infamous Bonnie and Clyde lost their lives just miles from where I was born. Like outlaws ourselves, my birth mother and I were on the run from the day she found out I was part of her.

While traveling around the world, I've had the opportunity to work with every living beauty icon. I've learned to appreciate idiosyncrasy. The fact is, there is really no such thing as 'normal' - everybody's different, and that is the essence of their beauty.

My entire mission in life is to help women take over the world. Not by force (the route so many men have taken since the beginning of time), but with compassion, perseverance, and love.

Kids threw rocks at me, told me I was ugly and left death threats in my locker.

It's our hearts and brains that we should exercise more often. You can put on all the makeup you want, but it won't make your soul pretty.

When I was growing up, the men in my life were abusive; women were the ones I ran to for comfort.

The faces I see in the modeling industry can get dull.

That's why I began doing makeup in the first place: I was hoping that through helping people see the beauty in themselves, I could try and find it in me.

I'm very passionate about what I do.

I'd rather have huge success and huge failures than travel in the middle of the road.

I also have this incredible love for women.

Growing up, my ideals were Barbra Streisand, Cher, and my mom.

Another thing that's pathetic is this rule that you have to look ugly to get respect as an actress. Jessica Lange had to make herself look really bad to prove that she had amazing talent.

Perfection is boring. If a face doesn't have mistakes, it's nothing.

I didn't know what gay was. There was no such thing when I was growing up. I knew I had crushes on boys, but I didn't think there was anything wrong with that until I started to hear about it from the other kids in school.

There are two types of people in the world: people who are passionate about things, and people who've had their passion punched, beaten, or whatever out of them.

I spent much of my life hiding.

I don't use 'always do this,' 'never say that' and I never give advice because I'm not the end-all, be-all authority.