\u201cHe always talked about the wizard behind the curtain: You have to hold a little back and still keep a little bit of that magic.\u201d That\u2019s how Eric Sakas remembers Kevyn Aucoin, the legendary makeup artist he shared a life and career with for nearly ten years. Now, Sakas is letting some of that magic out, with Saving Face <\/em>($17), a debut novel drawn from the world they lived in.<\/p>\n Sakas has been carrying this story for more than 20 years. \u201cWhen Kevyn passed away in 2002, a few years after, I really reflected on my time that I spent with him,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to tell a story about behind the scenes with my experience in the beauty and fashion world, but I wanted to tell it in a way that had glimpses of the truth but was not really the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He first tried it for television. Around 2006 or 2007, a devoted Sex and the City<\/em> fan, he pitched the concept of a working makeup artist in New York to creator Darren Star, who, Sakas says, loved the idea. After he wrote a pilot, though, it didn\u2019t move forward. But the characters never left him. \u201cI\u2019ve had these characters in my mind for the past 20 years,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re really an amalgamation of people that were in my life, people that I\u2019ve worked with, people that I\u2019ve known.\u201d<\/p>\n Now they\u2019re in Saving Face<\/em>, released September 28 and available on Amazon. The novel follows Derrick Sands, a small-town Texan who moves to New York with his best friend, Scottie, and a pair of battered makeup kits. Derrick carries a photo of Aucoin in his wallet. He\u2019s drawn into the orbit of Lena Zembericos, a singer, actress and fashion icon on the verge of a comeback, and the life he dreamed of begins to feel within reach. But being needed starts to feel like being loved.<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote Saving Face<\/em> as a love letter to Kevyn and to all the makeup artists who devote their lives to their artistry,\u201d Sakas says. \u201cI wanted to celebrate the people behind the famous faces, whose own stories are rarely told.\u201d The pull of that hidden world is part of what he loves. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved the behind the scenes more so than the performance itself. There\u2019s just a seductiveness to that whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n Fiction lets him share Aucoin\u2019s story without quite<\/em> telling it. \u201cThis was a way to tell their story without telling Kevyn\u2019s story, but telling Kevyn\u2019s story,\u201d he says. He has written the real one, but isn\u2019t ready to share it. \u201cBeing that close to Kevyn and his story still has a lot of love and pain, and I\u2019m working through those issues\u2026even this long after he\u2019s gone from this world.\u201d<\/p>\n Courtesy of Eric Sakas<\/sub><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Courtesy of Eric Sakas<\/sub><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ask him what the famed MUA would have made of social media, and he doesn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cHe\u2019d be an empire! He\u2019d be the next Cond\u00e9 Nast, really,\u201d Sakas says. \u201cHe would tell the story and his world from a real point of view that was truthful and honest, and take the viewer behind the scenes.\u201d Never entirely, though, as he stresses a few times over our chat that Aucoin always held \u201ca little back.\u201d<\/p>\n Sakas holds a deep archive of Aucoin\u2019s photos and videos, and for the past six months he\u2019s been posting pieces of it to @ericsakas, including footage with Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Cher and Gwyneth Paltrow. \u201cI can never get enough of it,\u201d he says. And neither can those who view it: \u201cPeople reach out and say, \u2018Thank you for sharing this. Thank you for keeping his legacy alive.\u2019 Some were part of that world, and some say, \u2018I wasn\u2019t a part of that world, but he really inspired me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n A younger generation is finding Aucoin, too, he says, \u201cthrough his books and through other artists that post.\u201d He points to Mario Dedivanovic (Makeup By Mario), as one who credits Aucoin as the source of the contouring technique he learned. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard, but it\u2019s also at the heart for me,\u201d Sakas says. \u201cIt always makes me smile, and I just think, \u2018Wow, Kevyn is still out there inspiring people.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The business of makeup artistry has changed, too. \u201cWhen Kevyn was around, he was commanding a rate of $5,000 a day,\u201d Sakas recalls. \u201cI\u2019d find it hard to find an artist in this industry who commands that kind of day rate today.\u201d He attributes much of it to social media. \u201cIt\u2019s much more democratic in terms of giving younger artists a chance to get a career in makeup artistry,\u201d he says, though there are \u201cso many artists that are really, really good today, so few celebrities to go around.\u201d Some artists, he adds, hear from publicists asking them to lower their rates, even though the celebrity\u2019s own rate hasn\u2019t changed. Still, he sees the upside. \u201cA lot of them have created their own businesses, which is also very encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n What does he hope readers take from the book? \u201cThe message of being true to yourself is something Kevyn always talked about, and certainly I\u2019ve learned from him,\u201d Sakas says. \u201cA lot of times people look for fulfillment outside themselves, but then eventually come back to [themselves] to get that fulfillment.\u201d The friendship between Derrick and Scottie is the book\u2019s chosen-family thread and one Sakas hopes sticks with the reader. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful story about friendship and about being true to yourself and finding yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n Sakas is already at work on a second book that takes Derrick to Los Angeles, with a third likely returning him to New York. \u201cIt\u2019s really his journey as an artist,\u201d he says. He hopes to turn it into \u201csome type of series or streaming, something to bring the characters to life.\u201d He also wants to give Aucoin\u2019s work a physical home. \u201cI have an archive of his materials that I\u2019d love to, someday, find a place to show his work and honor his legacy in a bigger way.\u201d Until then, he’s letting a little more magic out\u2014and holding a little back\u2014exactly the way the wizard would have wanted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.sanity.io\/images\/0vv8moc6\/newbeauty\/43015a2d45a76592869f138389c35af14ff2ff0f-2468x3465.jpg?w=1200&auto=format&q=70\")
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