Marcia Kilgore (born October 16, 1968) is a Canadian born

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

who has founded several companies in the beauty industry in the United States.

Early life and education

Kilgore was born in

Outlook, Saskatchewan Outlook is a town in west central Saskatchewan, Canada about 80 km south-southwest of Saskatoon. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River downstream from Gardiner Dam and the Coteau Creek Hydroelectric Station. History Settlement ...

. After graduating from high school in Canada, she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to study at Columbia University. Unable to attend the university due to missing a student loan deadline, she began working as a personal trainer, eventually working for a number of celebrity clients. She also began taking classes part-time at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Career

Bliss

Bliss Spa was founded in 1996 by Marcia Kilgore. During college, she became a personal trainer to make money. Soon after she decided to take a course in skincare, largely because she had personally suffered from acne since her preteen years. She began giving

facial A facial is a family of skin care treatments for the face, including steam, exfoliation (physical and chemical), extraction, creams, lotions, facial masks, peels, and massage. They are normally performed in beauty salons, but are also a com ...

s to her friends out of her East Village apartment. She opened her first single-room office in New York's Soho district in 1991, followed by the opening of a three-room mini-spa called Let's Face It! in June 1993. In the late 1980s, Kilgore opened Let's Face It!, a skincare treatment center, in

. Inspired by her own preteen struggles with

acne Acne, also known as ''acne vulgaris'', is a long-term Cutaneous condition, skin condition that occurs when Keratinocyte, dead skin cells and Sebum, oil from the skin clog hair follicles. Typical features of the condition include comedo, black ...

, she opened Bliss Spa in 1993, continuing to cater to celebrity clients. To accommodate increasing demand, Kilgore opened the first Bliss Spa in SoHo in July 1996. Bliss sells a line of beauty and health products, many of which are meant to allow customers to recreate the spa experience at home. Bliss spa is credited for starting the mid 1990s spa boom. Its products and services are marketed with humorous names and slogans, and by a playful "Blissgirl" character illustration which appears on products, catalogs and the company website. She is almost always dressed in a signature white towel and Bliss’ Softening Socks and Glamour Gloves. In 1999, she was approached by

LVMH LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (), commonly known as LVMH, is a French holding multinational corporation and conglomerate specializing in luxury goods, headquartered in Paris. The company was formed in 1987 through the merger of fashion house ...

who wanted to buy stake in the company, though still allowing her to remain Executive Director. With the newly found access to capital, Kilgore expanded the business by opening another

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

location. She later launched Bliss-Labs, a product line of Bliss Spa focused on skincare products and bath treatments. In January 2004,

Starwood Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. was one of the largest companies that owned, operated, franchised and managed hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties. It was acquired by Marriott International in 2016. ...

acquired Bliss spa from

for $25 million. As part of the acquisition, Starwood launched Bliss Spas in several of its W Hotels in an effort to move its W hotel brand into the resort business. The first to be opened, that same year, was Bliss 49 in the

W New York Union Square The W New York Union Square is a 270-room, 21-story boutique hotel operated by W Hotels at the northeast corner of Park Avenue South and 17th Street, across from Union Square in Manhattan, New York. Originally known as the Germania Life Insuran ...

. During the next two years spas were opened in the company's hotels in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, and

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Soap & Glory

In 2006, Kilgore launched Soap & Glory, a line of affordable bath, body and cosmetic products. Soap & Glory was bought by Alliance Boots in 2014. The business was influenced by H&M offering affordable designer products through

fast fashion Fast fashion is a term used to describe the clothing industry's business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and High fashion, high-fashion designs, mass production, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail stores qui ...

and newly raised environmental awareness during the time. It was launched at Harvey Nichols and Boots in Britain with almost $100 million of revenue over a few years.

FitFlop

In 2007, Kilgore founded FitFlop footwear, which is a brand of biomechanically engineered shoes and sold globally. Uma Thurman fronted their 'Shoes For Superwomen' campaign in 2017 and 2018.

Soaper Duper

In October 2016, Kilgore launched Soaper Duper, a range of naturally-derived, vegan and cruelty-free bath and body products, with recycled and recyclable plastic packaging.

Beauty Pie

In December 2016, Kilgore launched Beauty Pie, a direct-to-consumer, membership-based luxury beauty products on-line brand.

Awards

2004 Bliss Soho wins Conde Nast Day Spa Awards. 2009 Innovation of the Year Award from Harper's Bazaar Magazine. 2020 Beauty Independent announces Beacon Award Winners. 2021 British Vogue Beauty Award winner.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilgore, Marcia 1968 births Living people Businesspeople from Saskatchewan Canadian women company founders New York University alumni Canadian expatriates in the United States Columbia University alumni 20th-century Canadian businesswomen 20th-century Canadian businesspeople 21st-century Canadian businesswomen 21st-century Canadian businesspeople People from Outlook, Saskatchewan