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 to not 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.

It got heavier than either of us expected for a conversation about fingernails. 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, we can do whatever we want. I think a lot of women need to hear that right now.

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

Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/valerialipovetsky

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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