Living Beauty, Toronto’s luxury spa and retail destination on Dupont Street, has just celebrated one year since opening.
Living Beauty was founded by Mariam White, who spent over a decade running Living Beauty Inc., her B2B distribution company, identifying and championing beauty winners before they became household names — introducing brands like Biologique Recherche, Dame, Manucurist, and La Bonne Brosse to Canada’s top spas, salons and retailers.
She opened the Dupont Street flagship in 2025 to address a white space she kept seeing: a destination that brings together curated retail, expert-led spa services, and personalized guidance under one roof. One year later, the results have exceeded every internal benchmark.
Since opening: month-over-month growth averaging 86% since launch, and a customer base with a 51% return rate on services and 40% on products. The top 20% of customers are spending an average of over $7,000 CAD per year.
To reward that loyalty, Living Beauty recently launched the Living Beauty League, a points-based loyalty program that lets customers earn on every product purchase and treatment booking, unlocking perks, exclusive experiences, and early access as they go.
What’s behind that retention isn’t just the product edit — which has grown to include Westman Atelier, Flamingo Estate, Fugazzi, Allies of Skin, and others added over the past year — it’s a model built around fitting beauty into people’s lives, not the other way around. Every recommendation is personalized to how a client actually lives, and every treatment is part of a longer-term relationship with the team. That philosophy extends to the events program, which has become central to what makes Living Beauty a place people genuinely want to return to: the flagship regularly brings together brand founders, industry experts, and customers for everything from collage nights and beauty masterclasses to wellness activations and cultural panels — an affinity-driven approach to building regulars, not just shoppers.
In an interview with Retail Insider, White spoke about her business growth.
Question: You spent more than a decade identifying and introducing emerging beauty brands to the Canadian market. What made you decide that the right next step was opening your own retail and spa concept, and what gap were you trying to fill?
Answer: After more than a decade on the distribution side, I had a front-row seat to the Canadian beauty market. Canada has incredibly sophisticated beauty consumers. They are curious, educated, and discerning, but when it comes to beauty retail, I still felt we were underserved.
There are a few very big players that dominate the category, and while they serve a purpose, I saw room for something more personal, more high-touch, and more emotionally connected.
Living Beauty was born from that gap. I wanted to create a space where people could have real conversations, receive honest guidance, discover exceptional brands, and feel taken care of from the moment they walked in. It was never just about opening a store or a spa. It was about bringing expertise, service, discovery, and community together under one roof.
Q: Living Beauty has reported exceptional first-year growth and high customer retention. What do you believe have been the biggest drivers of those results, particularly at a time when consumers are being more selective with discretionary spending?
A: The biggest driver has been trust. Truly. People come to us with their skin, their insecurities, their goals, their routines, their big events, their post-baby skin, their aging skin, their tired skin, and the untimely acne breakouts. It is emotional. So the relationship matters enormously.
From day one, we knew the team had to be exceptional. Of course, they needed product knowledge and technical expertise, but they also needed warmth, intuition, and the ability to build real relationships. Our clients come back because they feel seen. They feel remembered. They feel like someone is actually paying attention.
We have also worked very hard to make Living Beauty feel like it fits beautifully into our clients’ lives. Yes, the experience is elevated, but it is also easy. You can come for a facial, replenish your products, get advice, attend an event, meet interesting women, and park right outside. That may sound simple, but for busy clients, those details matter.
Q: Your model combines luxury retail, spa services, personalized consultations, and community events under one roof. How important is that integrated approach to the future of beauty retail, and do you think traditional retailers need to evolve in a similar direction?
A: I think it is essential. The future of beauty retail cannot just be shelves of product because you can buy almost anything from your phone in 30 seconds.
Our clients live very full lives, and we wanted Living Beauty to become a place that could meet several needs at once. You can have a treatment, discover a new brand, learn something, see people you know, attend an event, or just take a moment for yourself in a beautiful space. That is very different from traditional retail.
I do think retailers need to evolve. The customer has already evolved. She is not thinking in silos like retail over here, spa over there, community somewhere else. She wants things to feel connected, seamless, and genuine. The retailers that understand that will be the ones that stay relevant.
Q: The Living Beauty League loyalty program launched after the first year. What have you learned about today’s luxury beauty customer, and how are you using loyalty and exclusive experiences to deepen long-term relationships rather than simply encourage repeat purchases?
A: What we have learned is that beauty is often tied to self-reward, and the Living Beauty League was created to continue that feeling. It is not about pushing people to buy more; it is about recognizing the clients who already choose to spend their time and money with us.
Even the most discerning luxury client is looking for value right now, and we understand that. For us, the savings are one way of recognizing loyalty, but the program is about more than a discount. It is about access, education, thoughtful experiences, and feeling known. Those are the details that turn a purchase into a relationship.
Q: Looking ahead, what are your priorities for Living Beauty over the next 12 to 24 months? Are you focused on expanding the concept, adding new services and brands, or refining the flagship experience before considering additional locations?
A: The next 12 to 24 months are about building on the momentum and making Living Beauty stronger. That means continuing to bring exceptional brands to Canada, expanding our treatment offering where it makes sense, growing our events and community programming, and making the flagship experience even more seamless and memorable.
Of course, expansion is part of the vision. The response to Living Beauty has shown us that there is a real appetite for this kind of high-touch, expert-led beauty concept. But I am not interested in opening locations just to say we have more locations. The magic has to travel. The service, the trust, the curation, and the warmth all have to remain intact.
So right now, our focus is on refining the model, learning from our clients, and continuing to prove that beauty retail can be much more than a transaction. It can be a destination. It can be a community. It can be a place where people feel genuinely cared for.
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