Marcia Kilgore is a Canadian born entrepreneur who has founded several companies in the beauty industry in the United States.
Early life and education
Kilgore was born in Outlook, Saskatchewan. After graduating from high school in Canada, she moved to New York City 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.
Bliss
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 often credited for starting the mid 1990s spa boom. Its products and services are market 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. 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 facials 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. To accommodate increasing demand, Kilgore opened the first Bliss Spa in SoHo in July 1996. In January 2004, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide acquired Bliss spa from LVMH for a reported $25 million in cash. 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 in New York City. During the next two years spas were opened in the company's hotels in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas.
Career
In the late 1980s, Kilgore opened Let's Face It!, a skincare treatment center, in New York City. Inspired by her own preteen struggles with acne, she opened Bliss Spa in 1993, continuing to cater to celebrity clients. In 1999, she was approached by LVMH 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 location. She later launched Bliss-Labs, a product line of Bliss Spa focused on skincare products and bath treatments. In 2006, Kilgore launched Soap & Glory, a line of affordable bath, body and cosmetic products. Soap & Glory was bought by Alliance Boots in 2014. 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. 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. In December 2016, Kilgore launched Beauty Pie, a direct-to-consumer, membership-based luxury beauty products on-line brand.
