Company Profile
Gurwitch Products, L.L.C.
Company Overview
Gurwitch Products markets, manages, and distributes Laura Mercier Cosmetics and RéVive Skincare. Gurwitch Products just celebrated its 13th anniversary. Our luxury products are sold in 27 countries at 840+ high-end retail locations. To find out more about our brands, please see www.lauramercier.com and www.reviveskincare.com.
Company History
Gurwitch Products
Founder Janet Gurwitch joined forces with famed makeup-artist Laura Mercier in 1996, after realizing the imminent paradigm shift in the beauty industry, propelling niche lines to the forefront of the cosmetics business. Now available in 840+ stores in 27 countries, the Laura Mercier line includes an extensive color collection, a skincare line, a bath and body collection, an instructional video, book, and eCommerce site.
Prior to co-founding Gurwitch Products, Janet Gurwitch was the Executive Vice President at Neiman Marcus, where she set the strategy for and oversaw the ready to wear, accessories, shoes and cosmetics departments from 1992-1995. Gurwitch began her career at Foley’s department store where she remained for 18 years, the last five of which she was the Senior Vice President of Merchandising.
In 2008, Gurwitch Products also acquired RéVive Skincare which was founded by Dr. Gregory Bays Brown. Using Nobel Prize winning technology, RéVive Skincare is known for regenerating skin at the molecular level and its fast, glowing results without surgery. The entire skin care line is based on the indisputable fact that as skin ages the regeneration process slows.
In 2008, Gurwitch retired as CEO and left the company in the good hands of President Sharon Collier, who helped her start and build the company. Collier was promoted to President and CEO of Gurwitch Products. Collier manages and oversees Laura Mercier’s and RéVive's day-to-day business operations, as well as strategy development and retail negotiations.
Gurwitch Products is currently owned by Alticor, Inc. and is a former subsidiary of Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. Gurwitch Products has two offices in New York City and Houston.
Laura Mercier
Raised in Provence, Laura Mercier began her training at age 17 when she entered painting school in Paris. After deciding to shift her talents from the canvas to the face, Mercier attended the Carita School where she specialized in makeup application. Subsequently, she was asked to represent the school as a makeup artist and instructor. Before long she began working closely with Thibault Vabre, a well-known French makeup artist.
In 1985, Laura Mercier moved to New York when she was asked to join the team to launch American Elle. She immediately began working on advertising campaigns for Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdale's, and Clairol, as well as editorial spreads for magazines including Elle, Vanity Fair, Glamour, and Seventeen. While working with clients such as L'Oreal, Maybelline, Victoria's Secret, Gap, Banana Republic and many other cosmetic and clothing companies, Mercier began working with Madonna on her looks for print, television and film. Subsequently, Mercier entered into a four-year contract with Elizabeth Arden designing the makeup looks for all of their advertising campaigns and she also worked with Chanel on the company's beauty advertising campaigns in France.
In 1996, Mercier developed her own line to benefit women of all ages and skin types. She personally created the colors to satisfy the needs of her clients, based on a classic and always-current palette, rather than seasonal trends only. The line, now in its tenth year, is available in 700+ stores in 25 countries and has expanded to include skincare, bath and body and fragrance lines. Mercier makes national and international public appearances throughout the year at stores including Neiman Marcus, Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Nordstrom stores.
When she is not traveling for photo shoots or working in the lab perfecting and creating new products, Mercier divides her time between New York City and Bellport, New York.
Dr. Greg Brown
Like Manolo Blahnik and Oscar De La Renta, noted plastic surgeon, Dr. Gregory Bays Brown knows how to make women look and feel beautiful. He has created the world’s most effective skincare line - RéVive - -signaling the first merging of rigorous science and haute-couture skincare.
It all began when Dr. Brown established a laboratory to conduct a two million dollar study on healing severe wounds of burn victims. In his research, he discovered a bioengineered molecule called EGF (Epidermal Growth Factor) -that when applied to burns and wounds, dramatically accelerated healing in all patients tested. It was then, that Dr. Brown had his moment of revelation: this was the same molecule that regenerated aging skin. He was compelled to apply the same intensive scientific attention to skincare. He set up a laboratory within the burn research unit convinced that the only way to obtain the fluid-filled skin of youth was at the molecular level -with EGF. He proved that in a cream form, he could give women what they really want: the vibrant skin of their youth.
Simultaneously, in his thriving practice, Brown was growing frustrated with the limits of plastic surgery. To his great disappointment, Brown realized he could achieve success surgically but only to a point because, even after surgery, the skin still looked lackluster. “You can get rid of a turkey gobbler” says Dr. Brown, “and take out bags, but surgery cannot give you the succulent soft skin you had in your twenties.” As a Harvard and Emory trained plastic and reconstructive surgeon for 20 years, he was not willing to join the pack of plastic surgeons performing increasingly extreme face-lifts, at their patients request, because he knew that wasn’t the solution.
Dr. Brown was the first doctor and scientist to apply the bioengineered version of EGF into skincare. The scientist who led the discovery of EGF went on to win a Nobel Prize for it in 1986. Dr. Brown's own findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1989. He won the cosmetic patent for EGF in 1994. Through perseverance, Dr. Brown realized his dream and launched RéVive to the public in 1997.
“I’ve been using RéVive on patients since 1991,” says Dr. Brown. “I was able to show real results objectively with biopsies to prove we increased cell turnover. There is nothing surgically that can do what RéVive does -to give you that dewy-glow and luscious, youthful skin. There is no single magic bullet in aging but we can already delay plastic surgery with RéVive products. If you use it religiously, RéVive will decrease the magnitude of the surgical procedure needed.”
Dr. Brown’s aim is true: he wants to help people attain what is reasonable to achieve with skincare. Certainly no one would accuse him of building his plastic surgery business! As he says, “I would have been a much richer man if I hadn't done RéVive. All my savings have gone into it but I know it improves quality of life. Women look and feel better about themselves without going through the agony and risk of surgery. If I had to do it all over again I wouldn’t change a thing.”
In 2008, Dr. Brown sold his company to Gurwitch Products, remains as an Executive consultant, and makes personal appearances for promotional events educating his clients of the science behind his skin care line.
Notable Products / Brands
Laura Mercier Cosmetics, RéVive Skincare
Notable Clients
http://www.lauramercier.com/about_clients.php http://www.reviveskincare.com/news.html
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
CEW ACHIEVER AWARD Laura Mercier 2004 - Janet Gurwitch 2004
Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer (Allure & InStyle Best Award)
Laura Mercier's two award-winning concealers, Secret Camouflage (for the face) and Secret Concealer
Laura Mercier Metallic Creme Eye Colour (Town & Country Best Award)
InStyle’s 2005 “Best Beauty Buys” included the Oil Free Foundation, Pink Champagne Lip Colour, Foundation in Porcelain Ivory and for the second year in a row, Laura Mercier’s Tinted Moisturizer.
InStyle’s 2004 “Best Beauty Buys” included Laura Mercier’s Lip Kisses and for a third year in a row, the Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage.
Town & Country’s 2004 “Best Beauty Products” included Laura Mercier’s Foundation, Tinted Moisturizer, Secret Camouflage, Translucent Setting Powder, Secret Camouflage Brush, and the Sheer Lip Colour.
In 2003, Allure’s “Best Beauty Awards” recognized Courtisane Lip Colour and Cosmopolitan’s “Beauty Awards” included the Laura Mercier Eye Paints.
In addition, Laura Mercier has received numerous awards for her involvement in campaigns on behalf of Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Valentino and Alberta Ferretti, as well as for her cover designs for Vogue (working with photographer Steven Meisel for ten years), Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire and Allure. In addition to Sarah Jessica Parker and Julia Roberts, Laura Mercier’s current clients include Madonna, Susan Sarandon, Juliette Binoche, Isabella Rosellini, Brooke Shields, Ellen Barkin, Celine Dion, Meg Ryan, Ashley Judd, Meryl Streep and Julia Ormond.
For ReVive Press, please see--
http://www.reviveskincare.com/press.html
Benefits
Health PPO, Dental PPO, Flexible Spending Accounts with 2.5-month rollover, 401(k) with discretionary match, Corp Holidays, Sick Pay, Vacation Days, Personal Days, Maternity Pay, Gratis Product, and Auto Allowance.