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/cyndiramirezChillhouse Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/chillhouseValeria's Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/valerialipovetskyValeria's TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@valeria.lipovetskyNot Alone's Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/notalonepod Not Alone's TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@notalone.podShop my look from this episode:https://shopmy.us/collections/6367477WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT:Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices