I posted a video in my car saying I stopped getting my nails done and my life got better. That was it. One less appointment, one less thing to manage. I thought I had cracked the code, and the code was nails.
Then the internet lost it. Twice.
The first time, women were relieved, like nobody had told them opting out was allowed. A year later, it came back and turned into something else entirely. First, I was broke for not doing my nails. Then, I was rich for not doing my nails. My little video ended up next to Carolyn Bessette in think pieces, and I am over here just trying not to drive to a salon.
So I called Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton, who built Chillhouse from one SoHo salon into the brand that created the press-on category.
She said the part I had not thought about at all: when I skip my nails, it gets called quiet luxury. When a woman of color skips hers, it can read like she is not keeping up. Same bare nail, completely different verdict.
I had become the poster child of a trend I never signed up for, and I had not once considered whose hand it was on.
We stayed there for a while. Why we go after each other so hard over our own faces. Whether we quietly judge other women, which she answered honestly instead of pretending she does not. What her mother's spa in Queens had—a room full of women talking for hours—that we do not really have anymore. Why she builds loudly and improves quietly. And what it is actually like to build a company with the man you are married to, which is its own thing entirely.
At the end, I asked her what women are not saying out loud right now. She said she wishes we could fully own being who we want to be and not feel bad about it. We can change, we can stay the same, and we can do whatever we want.
I think a lot of women need to hear that right now.
Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton is the founder and CEO of Chillhouse, the self-care brand she built from a single SoHo salon into one of the most influential beauty companies of her generation.
She is the woman behind Chill Tips, the press-on line that helped redefine what nail care even is. An Inc. Female Founders honoree and one of WWD's 40 of Tomorrow, she partnered with Kiss Beauty Group in a deal that keeps Chillhouse independent, staying on as CEO with her team and her SoHo flagship intact.
She is a wife, a mother, and a proud Colombian-American—the daughter of an esthetician who started with a single chair in Jackson Heights and grew it into four stores. The Queen of Chill.
Cyndi's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/cyndiramirez
Chillhouse Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/chillhouse
Valeria's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/valerialipovetsky
Valeria's TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@valeria.lipovetsky
Not Alone's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/notalonepod
Not Alone's TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@notalone.pod
Shop my look from this episode:
https://shopmy.us/collections/6367477
WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT:
0:00 – I posted one video about my nails
2:16 – Why she called the Queen of Nails
3:37 – The year it came back and changed shape
5:37 – Becoming the poster child she never signed up for
6:39 – The part that did not sit right with her
7:52 – Are we bored, or is everything a trend?
8:57 – Who actually wears bare nails
10:06 – The question nobody wanted to ask out loud
11:01 – Valeria pushes back: status or race?
12:23 – Why beauty is so loaded
12:41 – Burgundy hair, black eyeliner, and needing a flag to carry
14:15 – So I'm trending now?
15:29 – Wait, I have a choice
15:36 – Russian mother, Colombian mother, same rules
17:10 – Her mother's chair in Jackson Heights
17:38 – What those rooms full of women had
19:18 – Building Chillhouse and self-care as a necessity
21:04 – Why people still crave the salon
25:59 – Holding two truths: organic and Botox
28:08 – The Botox conversation she was scared to have
29:18 – Why she talks about what she gets done
30:33 – The magazine where Valeria did not recognize her own face
31:15 – Cyndi's teenage modeling years
31:56 – Do you judge other women? Be honest
33:44 – Judging as a mirror, not a verdict
33:54 – Each other's greatest critics, each other's greatest teachers
34:46 – The real takeaway from the bare-nail discourse
35:07 – Recession indicator to status symbol
36:42 – The poster child of having fun with beauty
37:45 – Finding a personal style and dressing like a chameleon
38:29 – Being the face of the brand
40:09 – 2020: putting nails in women's hands at home
41:21 – The pivot, the pandemic, and making payroll
43:12 – The intuition she never second-guessed
43:43 – Why intuition is the business skill
47:28 – Build loudly, improve quietly
50:35 – When vulnerability goes too far
52:34 – Leaving New York to find solid ground
53:51 – Building a company with the person you married
57:06 – The real version of building with your husband
59:02 – The coach they needed and the next version of themselves
1:00:34 – Rapid fire
1:02:28 – What women aren't saying out loud
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