As a girl curious about her entrepreneur mother’s spa, Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton liked to talk to manicure clients about their nails. As a young woman in New York looking for a massage, she couldn’t find anything that spoke to her generation. The city had plenty of luxury spas and low-end services, but nothing for the everyday, modern New York girl on the go.

Ramirez-Fulton saw an opening for an affordable spa that felt aspirational and clean, like a pallet cleanser with a hint of California cool. She opened Chillhouse in the Lower East Side in 2017, and the spa soon became the it-spot for stressed out New Yorkers to get relaxed shoulders and stunning art painted on their nails.

After moving to a bigger space in Soho, and just before Covid-19 hit, Ramirez-Fulton was weighing an expansion with a product that could encourage bold expression and self care. Press on nails fit perfectly. Nail art gel was the spa’s No. 1 service, and she wanted the brand’s first package product to be something she could control from concept to application.

Ramirez-Fulton launched Chill Tips in August 2020. The timing coincided with a pandemic cultural shift in wellness and self-sufficiency, with consumers baking their own bread, styling their hair and doing their own nails. Chill Tips was a game changer and has been driving growth ever since, with tips selling at a rate of 1 every 50 seconds, a hyper-engaged community growing to 170,000+ followers, and awards rolling in, including being named one of Oprah’s Favorite Things 2024 and an Allure’s Best of Beauty recipient.