"Yes, but everyone is beautiful to someone"
About this Quote
Aucoin’s line lands like a gentle rebuttal to the whole beauty-industrial complex: yes, there are standards, hierarchies, “ideal” faces that get rewarded. But the sentence pivots on but, refusing to let that be the end of the story. It’s not a kumbaya claim that everyone is equally attractive in some abstract, self-esteem-poster way. It’s narrower, more realistic, and therefore more radical: beauty is relational. It happens between people, inside appetite, memory, obsession, affection. “To someone” is the key phrase, stripping beauty of its supposed objectivity and handing it back to human perception, with all its quirks and biases.
The intent feels protective. As a celebrity makeup artist who made supermodels and movie stars look mythic, Aucoin knew exactly how manufactured “effortless beauty” really is. That insider knowledge could curdle into cynicism; instead, he uses it to widen the frame. The subtext: the mirror is not a court. Your face isn’t a verdict. If beauty is partly a story someone tells themselves when they look at you, then you’re not locked out just because you don’t match the dominant template.
Context matters: the ’90s and early 2000s were peak gatekeeping, when magazines and casting directors enforced a narrow ideal, even as queer culture and nightlife were quietly remixing glamour. Aucoin’s work celebrated transformation without pretending it was destiny. This quote is the humane companion to contour and highlighter: a reminder that the most convincing spotlight often comes from being seen, not corrected.
The intent feels protective. As a celebrity makeup artist who made supermodels and movie stars look mythic, Aucoin knew exactly how manufactured “effortless beauty” really is. That insider knowledge could curdle into cynicism; instead, he uses it to widen the frame. The subtext: the mirror is not a court. Your face isn’t a verdict. If beauty is partly a story someone tells themselves when they look at you, then you’re not locked out just because you don’t match the dominant template.
Context matters: the ’90s and early 2000s were peak gatekeeping, when magazines and casting directors enforced a narrow ideal, even as queer culture and nightlife were quietly remixing glamour. Aucoin’s work celebrated transformation without pretending it was destiny. This quote is the humane companion to contour and highlighter: a reminder that the most convincing spotlight often comes from being seen, not corrected.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Love |
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