‘With Beauty Pie I thought, why not skip the retailer and go direct to the customer?’

Entrepreneur Marcia KilgorE, 48, founded Bliss Spa in New York before moving to london to launch Soap & glory, FitFlop and now Soaper Duper and Beauty Pie, a members club that has earned her the title of “beauty disrupter”. She lives with her husband and two sons, 11 and 13.

My career path has been a long one! i started as a personal trainer in new York, but then got so exhausted that my skin got really bad. i learnt how to do facials, really to fix my own face, but then started doing facials on my personal training clients and loved it. i opened up a little one-room facial place, my clients started referring their friends and one room became three rooms, then Bliss Spa.

after i sold Bliss Spa i started another business, Soap & glory, then FitFlop. i sold Soap & Glory, started Soaper duper, which launched in Liberty and rolled out to tesco, and then opened Beauty Pie. i had to do a speech about my career recently and after FitFlop, i thought, oh my God, there’s another one? i get bored easily i suppose!

Beauty Pie for me is a selfish endeavour. i love the beauty industry, but the retail model isn’t working any more. there are probably 15 great factories who manufacture for all of the luxury brands, we all buy from these same labs, and the craziest part is a lipstick comes out of the factory costing £2, the brand sells it to a retailer for £12 then the retailer sells it for £25. Online you’ve got netflix, where people pay monthly to access great movies, i thought, how can i take my expertise, what i love doing – formulating products, skip the retailers and wholesalers, and go straight to the women? My idea was Beauty Pie, a members club where everyone can have the best beauty at factory cost prices.

i have two little boys, so my day always starts with getting my kids fed and off to school, then i’ll try and get in some type of exercise before going to the office. i have a lot of energy so i need to burn it off. i was very into hot yoga but it’s time-consuming to get to a studio so i’ve replaced it with putting on weights and walking up hills.

i would tell my younger self to “learn how to use a power drill!” don’t think that the stuff men generally do is because you can’t do it, take a class in how to fix your car, for example. Most things look really difficult until you try them, and then they’re not.

i certainly still have personal ambitions left – i would love to be really great at yoga. i would love to be a great mother and make sure that my kids are happy, well-balanced human beings who know how to deal with the ups and downs of life. i’d also love to have good hair, but i don’t know if it’s ever going to happen! >>