A Meet & Greet with Soap & Glory

Marcia Kilgore, founder of Soap & Glory, talks scrubbing, the importance of showering responsibly, and what makes her giggle uncontrollably. To inject some of her humor in your daily rituals, leave your name and email address in our comments field for a chance to win the following:

• Sexy Mother Pucker XL Extreme-Plump Collagen Lip Shine

• Clean On Me Creamy Clarifying Shower Gel

• The Righteous Body Butter

• Make Yourself Youthful Rejuvenating Face Serum
  

Enter by Thursday, 10/27, 9 a.m. PST, and we'll choose 3 winners at random. Good luck!

Beauty & the Blog: How did you start your business?

Marcia Kilgore: I had terrible skin, and had suffered from acne from the time I turned twelve. After 8 years of cover-up, sulfur masks, and topical antibiotics, I thought I’d go to facial school to try to sort myself out. One summer, I took a crash course in skincare treatments at the Christine Valmy school on Fifth Avenue, started giving facials to friends on my living room floor, and the rest is history.



B&TB: Did you have a beauty background before you launched Soap & Glory?

MG: Uh, that would be an affirmative! I was a personal trainer as a teenager, moved to New York when I was 18, went to skincare school to fix my own oily face, and opened a little salon called LET'S FACE IT. When that got bigger, I opened a bigger place and called it BLISS. I sold Bliss in 2004 so I could focus on having a family, and launched Soap & Glory in 2006 as a hobby, really. (Fair to say, it's now the biggest hobby I have ever had.)



B&TB: How did you come up with Soap & Glory’s cheeky names? Walk us through your creative process.

MG: We brainstorm with the team at Headquarters, and surf the net looking for phrases we can ‘modify.’ I walk down the street on a sunny day and suddenly, a light bulb goes off and I start giggling uncontrollably. The inspiration comes from everywhere. However, as with everything, you have to have input to have output. The most important thing for creativity is being able to read, look, absorb, and see new things. To talk to people, listen, learn. Like they say, creative in, creative out.

B&TB: Your brand advocates the 2-Minute Rinse. Do you practice it yourself?
MG: At Soap & Glory, we sell an awful lot of shower gel. So, in a ‘greening’ meeting last year, a sustainability specialist told us that the BIG PROBLEM we’d be facing in the not-too-distant future was WATER SHORTAGE. It hit home that we should try to get people thinking about showering responsibly. The whole idea is about getting people to use less than 2 minutes of RUNNING WATER when they shower. It's not the overall shower time. You can scrub, soap up, shampoo for as long as you like, just don't leave the tap running the whole time. If everybody did a 2-Minute Rinse even three times a week, rather than a 20 minute shower, the water saving would be pretty profound.
And OF COURSE I practice it myself. I've got it down to a science. I can probably even do a 1-MINUTE RINSE, when pushed. (If you've got a minute, I'll show you how.)
 


B&TB: Since coming to the States, have you observed any differences between American and British beauty rituals?

MG: I lived in New York for 15 years, actually, so I'm pretty au fait with beauty rituals on both sides of the pond. The main difference between European beauty and American beauty is the sheer level of perfection expected in America. Teeth are whiter. Hair is glossier. Makeup is more perfect. Imperfections are disguised, hidden, or fixed. In Britain, while women are definitely into grooming, it's a little messier, a little more 'devil may care', and done with perhaps a little less focus. I remember when I first arrived from New York thinking how unkempt everyone's hair was. Then I realized it rained all the time, so trying to have dead straight locks all day was futile. If I had to sum it all up, I'd say British beauty is just a tad less competitive, while American beauty is awe-inspiring. 



B&TB: Share some British beauty slang with us.

MG: Sadly, I am a technological product ingredient geek rather than a street-smart beauty slang slinging type. I can talk you through the action of imidazodinyl urea, hyaluronic acid, and how dihydroxyacetone tans dead cells though. Any takers? Anyone? Anyone? 


B&TB: Your products have the most beautiful scents. Tell us about your favorite scents.
MG: I'm addicted to our original Soap & Glory pink scent. It's in many of our bath and body products and has a top note of bergamot and rose, mid of strawberry, peach, and ozone, and a drydown of musks and sandalwood.
I love it because it's fresh, clean, a little fruity, and just feminine enough without being overpowering. I don't like when you walk through a room and can 'name that fragrance', but I like fragrance. Soap & Glory Original Pink is perfect because it makes you feel 'finished', without screaming 'SCENTED'. 
 
I also have a farmhouse in the south of France, so inevitably, I love lavender, but I don't necessarily want to smell like a bunch of sprigs.


B&TB: Can you reveal a few beauty tips you swear by?


MG: Scrub often. It's like a gym for your skin. (You can even do it daily as long as your skin isn’t sensitive. Face and body, both, with formulations that fit, a gentle one for the face, and something more robust for your body. Scrubbing stimulates circulation, which improves the oxygen levels reaching your skin, which makes everything look healthier and function better at a cellular level.

Keep your face out of the sun (SPF everyday please) or in ten years, you’ll be wearing it as your neck.

Blush. Should go on the balls of your cheeks where it would naturally happen if you, say, ran up a hill. Start your makeup there, and everything else falls into place better. 




B&TB: Any new products in the works that you can tell us about?

MG: More flavors in our legendary Body Butter, an even faster working version of our award-winning Make Yourself Youthful Regenerating Serum, the world's greatest everyday antiaging Moisturizer, a lip balm that will beat up everybody else's lip balm. I'm also open to suggestions, so please SEND 'EM!