Marcia Kilgore = beauty expert

TeenVogue's Maura Lynch interviewed Marcia Kilgore, the foundress of my two favourite skincare companies - Bliss and Soap & Glory. The following is the article.

There was this moment after I started Bliss that I was between facials, and I ran around the corner into the spa's lobby area and saw Calvin Klein standing there shopping from my shelves," recalls Marcia Kilgore. "I thought, 'That's when you know you've made it, when Calvin Klein buys something with your name on it!'" Since then, Kilgore's Bliss has become a beauty giant (with more than just one celebrity fan). But long before she was creating clear and radiant skin for her clients, Kilgore was searching for a way to clear up her own face. "I had terrible skin and had suffered from acne from the time I turned twelve," she adds. "After eight years of cover-up, sulfur masks, and topical antibiotics, I thought I'd go to facial school to sort myself out." At eighteen, she left her small town in Canada for the bright lights of New York City— "I took a crash course in skincare treatments at the Christine Valmy School on Fifth Avenue, and the rest is history!" Now, after ten years at Bliss, Kilgore is finding skincare success again with Soap & Glory, a line of bath and body products that launched in 2006. "You shouldn't have to spend an arm and leg to moisturize one,"says Kilgore. It's no wonder then, with such a philosophy, that the line calls Target's shelves home. Adds Kilgore, "The clientele is groovy enough to want fun design, and clever enough not to want to spend a lot to get it." So what does one do after launching two internationally successful brands? "If I had my way, I'd be a singer," she jokes. "Tell that to my vocal chords, which aren't as cooperative as, say, Alicia Keys'."

Love her. Love her. Love her.