A few weeks ago, I received an email from Elise Garland PR, letting me know that Marie Drago, the brand guru of Soap & Glory in the UK, would be in Melbourne for a whirlwind trip, and if I would be interested in getting an one-on-one interview with her? Soap and Glory? Well, mother may I!

Still, it would be my first one-on-one interview with someone, so I was quite anxious thinking up of questions to ask (okay, it’s technically not my first interview, since I have interviewed quite a number of people for engineering jobs donkey years ago. But that was boring stuff and this was fun :P). So, armed with my trusty blogging notebook and iPhone to be used as a voice recorder, I headed to Kit Cosmetics at MYER Melbourne CBD.

Before I go to the interview, let me give you a bit of background into the brand that is Soap & Glory.

Soap & Glory is the brainchild of Marcia Kilgore, who is one of the beauty industry’s heaviest hitters. She founded the revolutionary Bliss Spa group, mail order catalogue and wholesale cosmetic business whose customers now include prominent retailers from Neiman Marcus to Bloomingdales, Sephora and Selfridges. Kilgore has been credited with single-handedly igniting the day spa boom of the late nineties. Among industry insiders, she has been referred to as ‘the new Estee Lauder’ and has been described as being as in?uential in the spa business as Elizabeth Arden was to early cosmetics trading.

Having sold Bliss twice – first a majority stake to LVMH, Moet Hennessy – Louis Vuitton in 1999, and then the final shares to the behemoth Starwood Hotel Group in 2004 – the now 41-year-old Kilgore remains an entrepreneur at heart. In August 2006 after completing a transitional year with Bliss, she launched Soap & Glory, a masstige bath, body, and beauty product line which launched exclusively in the UK at Harvey Nichols Department store, rolled out nationwide into Boots stores in September of 2006, and then launched exclusively with Target in the US in August 2007.

Kilgore’s injection of fun and entertainment into her products, and the philosophy that ‘you shouldn’t have to spend an arm and a leg to moisturise one’, is the key to Soap & Glory’s global expansion and appeal.

Kilgore’s first foray out of the cosmetics arena, the FitFlop – inspired by both her love of flip flops and desire to squeeze a bit of exercise into her increasingly hectic schedule,– is taking the functional footwear industry by storm. The FitFlop. It’s the flip flop with a gym built-in, was designed in conjunction with a London-based University’s biomechanics department. Launched in the UK in May 2007, and in the US in June 07, the FitFlop has now sold over 4 million pairs in 30 countries.

All signs suggest that Kilgore – a woman who once said her biggest fear was that she might be branded a ‘one hit wonder’ – has a little less to worry about.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Marie Drago, who’s the brand guru of Soap & Glory in the UK. She has a delightful French accent which made me want to drag her out to a nearby cafe, and talk shop over macarons and cappucinos, instead of the noisy MYER 😛

Beautyholics Anonymous: Soap and Glory has the famous Sexy Motherpucker lip plumping gloss, undereye concealer and bronzer. Will it expand to fun, affordable makeup like eyeshadows, eyeliners, blushes, etc in future? What about perfumes?

Marie Drago: Well, we’re currently in discussion about producing eye makeup so you never know, you might see something in future. As for perfumes, we already have an eau de toilette in the UK (Editor: nope, we don’t have it here in Australia :(). We also have the body mist (Mist You Madly), which is available in Australia.

BA: Oh so we don’t actually have the full range of Soap and Glory here?

MD: At the moment, no. We took the range of bestselling Soap and Glory products to be launched in Australia.

BA: I think it’s amazing that Marcia Kilgore (by the way, it’s not pronounced Mar-sha, which I thought it was, but Mar-see-ah) has expanded to what is now very popular footwear, the FitFlops. Since she was heavily involved in the beauty industry, what with Bliss and Soap & Glory, was it a big risk for her to launch FitFlops, which I’m guessing may be something out of her comfort zone?

MD: Oh no, Marcia is nothing but a risk taker. It’s not so much a risk for her in terms of footwear, because she was a personal trainer before Bliss and Soap & Glory. She was in the fitness industry well before Bliss, she’s always been very interested in keeping your health and exercising, that it was a natural step for her. Plus she loves the challenge!

BA: Who comes up with all the fun names for Soap & Glory products. I mean, you have Sexy Motherpucker. That is a kick-arse name.

MD: Believe it or not, Marcia came up with every single name for Soap & Glory. We would be throwing ideas and brainstorming for names in our meeting rooms, and she would come up with the funniest names. If you read every the description behind every product, all those fun facts? Marcia came up with them too! She wanted something fun and cheeky for beauty products, compared to many of the more classic beauty products out there. It’s fun for people who are taking a shower, who also gets to read what’s on the jars. Kinda like the back of cereal boxes!

BA: Of all the Soap & Glory products, which are your top 4 bestsellers?

MD: Ah the top four bestsellers! The first one would be the popular Sexy Motherpucker, which is a crowd favourite. Next we have the Righteous Butter Body Lotion, which is really light and absorbs very quickly. Then there’s The Scrub of Your Life, a smooth body buffer and last but not least, Flake Away, which is a spa body polish.

BA: What’s your favourite product from Soap and Glory?

MD: Oh mine would definitely be the Flake Away. I’d be really sleepy in the morning, and using this just wakes me up. I really like it!

BA: This is a question from a friend of mine. She’s a huge fan of the Hand Food, and has bought goodness-knows-how-many tubes. She’s wondering if you do sell this in bulk, or a larger pump bottle? 😛

MD: Hahaha that’s very good to know that she loves the Hand Food and that she’s such a good customer! I’m afraid there isn’t going to be a larger bottle for the Hand Food; in fact, we’re coming up with a travel-sized one that you can easily slip into your purse!

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During our interview, Marie showed me a couple of new Soap & Glory products which is about to be launched in Australia:
– Sit Tight, a sit-activated special lower body firming formula (available 22 August)
– The Breakfast Scrub, which is a body scrub with cleansing agents (available at Kit Cosmetics now)

The idea of Sit Tight came about when Marcia was at long meetings and conferences, and she thought that with all the sitting down, she should still be able to, say, work the bum. And that’s what Sit Tight does. You simply appy it onto your bottom and thighs before putting your clothes on. The firming formula works effectively when you’re sitting down. Now that’s a genius of an idea if you ask me.

The Breakfast Scrub smelled amazing. I was asked to guess what it smelled like, and all I could think of was cinnamon (another reason as to why I could never make it into Masterchef). It actually smelled of maple syrup pancakes! It’s breakfast on your skin. Oh heaven.

So there you go, my first one-on-one interview. A few hiccups here and there, but I think I did pretty all right 🙂 It was a real pleasure meeting Marie, having a bit of one-on-one time with her and getting to know the brand, and the person behind it, much better.

Don’t forget to check out Soap & Glory when you’re at Kit Cosmetics. My pick? The Hand Food, surely!