I had no idea what I was going to run for today’s Friday I’m in Love. I have something for next week, but that would call for a photo, and my hair is in no condition to be captured online for all eternity.

Have you guys noticed that my hair is always a mess? I feel like I talk about it nonstop. Seriously, if I didn’t think I would look exactly like my dad, I’d shave it off. Girls that can pull off shaved heads are dead sexy to me. Doesn’t it sound so freeing? My friend that does my hair would probably stab me to death with her scissors if I asked her to just shave it off. I like to make her do things to my hair she doesn’t want to do, but that would probably be too far. She’d snap!

Lucky for me, during a conversation with a friend last night, I mentioned this book, and my brain hamster started running on her wheel.

Making Faces by Kevyn Aucoin, $16.01

You’re looking at my own well loved, bruised and battered (mmm….battered) copy here. I’ve hauled this book around with me from house to apartment to pool house to house to apartment to house to apartment to house since 1999. You can’t tell from this picture, but the pages are coming loose and it’s full of random bookmarks. I love this book. I’m not exaggerating. I have actual love in my heart for this book. If they ever stopped printing it, I’d put my copy under lock and key, in an underground bunker, behind some of those lasers you can only get past if you do sexy butt wiggles all around them.

It’s like this: if George Michael’s video for “Too Funky” is my origin story, then Making Faces is my time spent on a Chinese mountain with Pai Mei, learning the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.

Kevyn Aucoin was an extremely gifted and talented artist. His techniques and advice still hold up, and even at nearly 15 years later, his looks aren’t dated. This book covers nearly everything you’d need to know about starting out in makeup, and taking your makeup to the next level. It has segments on skincare and prep, facial structure, shading and highlighting, brows, foundation, concealer, liner, lashes, lips and cheeks. It even has a little bit on cosmetic surgery. He doesn’t just tell you about eyeliner and lipsticks, he talks about different eye and lip shapes. He doesn’t just tell you about contouring, he shows you in an exaggerated, easy to follow way, where everything is supposed to go. He’ll teach you how to build a face that will highlight your best features, or, he’ll teach you how to completely cover your eyebrows so you can draw on new ones. This book is brilliant. Completely.

After he teaches you the basics of makeup, he shows you wearable looks for many, many, many different faces and occasions, following that with more in depth costume and heavy transformation looks. The step by step instructions are easy to follow and well illustrated, and the photos are totally stunning.

This is so beautiful, it hurts my heart.

I mean, look at freaking Courtney Love up there!! I’ll admit to having a soft spot for her looks through the years, disheveled and otherwise, but come on. This look, this photo, it’s really something ethereal.

SIDE NOTE: When I was, like, 13, I told my mom I wished I looked like Courtney Love and she was all, “LIKE A HEROIN ADDICT?!?!” And I was like, whoooah, yeesh, calm down. I just wanted to have real big boobs and be able to wear one of those clingy satiny dresses without rolls showing. Hey, one out of two ain’t bad.

All the years I’ve had this book, I still break it out to check myself. I feel like I can still learn from it, even though, not s my own d, my own makeup skills are above average.

Please, please buy this book for yourself. I promise you will be completely enthralled, entertained and educated.

Buy “Making Faces” HERE.