As part of the Morning Lazziness series highlighting empowering women who are making a remarkable impact with their ideas, I had the pleasure of interviewing Barbara Gomes.
Cuticle-B-Gone was invented by an all-female powerhouse team. Inventor, Barbara Gomes, created this nail tool out of need for her own family. Barbara’s mother, a Breast Cancer Survivor who was left with a lymphedema arm, put her at a high risk for infection. Unable to cut her mother’s painful hangnails, Barbara filed them. Years later, Barbara found filing our cuticles was a better option and created a longer-lasting manicure. Cuticle-B-Gone is a safer and more effective way to manicure your nails as cutting cuticles leads to damage and risk to infection. Barbara now runs the brand alongside her two daughters, Danielle and Gabrielle. Due to the powerful story behind the product, the brand continues to donate a percentage of their profits to breast cancer awareness to this day.
In this interview, she delves into the challenges, successes, and wisdom she has gained from over a decade of transforming online businesses.
Is there a quote, mantra, or philosophy that guides your decision-making and leadership as a beauty entrepreneur?
We try to base every decision that we make in business and life on a quote my late husband would always say, “Love is the most powerful force in the universe.” We believe that when you operate from a foundation of love, it’s hard to make a bad decision. The whole reason I invented the Cuticle-B-Gone tool is because I felt that it could help people. When we added the nail oil, it was essential that only safe ingredients were used and that it was packaged in glass containers.
Here is our signature question: “What Are The 5 Things You Need To Overcome Self-Doubt and Build Confidence?”
- Do not be afraid to do something wrong, you will only learn from it.
This was a lesson that I learned in my previous career as a ballerina and dancer, and I’ve tried to carry it with me throughout my life and teach it to my children. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone falls down, it’s how you get back up that matters. I performed in two shows a night for the Folies Bergere in Las Vegas, I was a founding member of the Nevada Ballet Theatre, and I danced in Liberace’s Residency at the Hilton, among several other shows. I didn’t fall often, but it happens. It happens to everyone. Dancers are taught to get back up as quickly and gracefully as possible. Most of the time, people didn’t even notice that I had made a mistake or fallen. If I had pounded the ground, or stomped around upset, or run off the stage—the audience would’ve known that I made a mistake. Instead, you need to get up, remember what step tripped you up, and get on with the show.
- Surround yourself with supportive people.
When I told my daughters that I wanted to move forward with the Cuticle-B-Gone idea, they told me to go for it and asked how they could help. If they had said, “I think you’re too old”, “How do you even know where to start?”, or “That’s going to be too hard”; I probably wouldn’t have done it. You can’t silence the naysayers, but you can share your ideas with the people you know will support you.
- Focus on the progress that you’ve made and don’t dwell on the mistakes.
Cuticle-B-Gone didn’t come to life overnight—it’s been a journey built on persistence and small, steady steps forward. Like any growing business, we’ve faced our share of setbacks. We’ve poured time and resources into events that didn’t deliver the results we hoped for, but each experience taught us something valuable and brought us one step closer to where we are today. Rather than focus on what was lost, we took an analytical look at our process. We asked ourselves: is there a better way to approach events like this? What worked? Did we gain social media followers? How are our displays looking? What drew people to our product? This way we are able to learn from each situation, even if it didn’t deliver the results we had hoped. Building a company is a growing process, and this is how you grow, pains included.
- Ideas are great, but it’s action that matters.
You can have a million great ideas, but you won’t truly know their value until you take action. And once you finally take that leap, all the fear that surrounded it begins to fade.
When I first came up with the idea for Cuticle-B-Gone, it didn’t feel like some grand lightbulb moment—it was more like decades of quiet frustration. I was tired of rigging cuticle and nail tools that either didn’t work, weren’t safe, or damaged the nail and manicure. I figured if I was struggling with this, other people probably were too.
Still, the thought of creating and launching a product from scratch was overwhelming. I had doubts. What if no one else cared? What if it failed? But eventually, I reached a point where I realized sitting on the idea was more uncomfortable than the risk of trying. When Covid hit and our lives came to a halt, I knew that it was now or never. I could either have a great idea or take action and have a nail care tool that provided a better, safer, longer-lasting way to care for your nails.
- Always be open to change and the input of others within your trusted circle.
When I first came up with the idea for the Cuticle-B-Gone tool, it was just a single attachment—the paddle head. I shared it with my daughters, and while they loved the concept, they immediately saw ways to improve it. They suggested expanding the design to include more functionality, and I listened. Together, we reimagined the tool, eventually creating the four unique attachments that make Cuticle-B-Gone what it is today.
To bring our idea to life, we had a prototype 3D printed. Then, we cut out file templates of the attachments and glued them onto the prototype so we could test it out. It was such a surreal and exciting moment—far from the final version, but it was real. Holding something I had only pictured in my mind was incredible. What made it even more special was that it had evolved into our idea. My daughters’ suggestions didn’t just improve the tool—they made it better than I could have imagined. It became a true family collaboration, and that made the entire process even more meaningful.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I’ve always tried to teach my children that happiness is a personal choice. It doesn’t come from a relationship, a new car, or a promotion—those things might bring temporary joy, but true happiness has to come from within. You have to choose it, every day.
If I could inspire any kind of movement, it would be a self-love movement. I’d encourage people to give themselves grace, to embrace the little (or big) acts of care that nurture love from the inside out. I truly believe that love is the most powerful force in the universe—and it has to start with how we treat ourselves. Because when we genuinely love ourselves, there’s less space for hate, judgment, or fear.
So take time for the small things that bring you closer to yourself—whether it’s five quiet minutes, a walk in the sunshine, or yes, even a little cuticle care 😉. Self-love doesn’t have to be extravagant. It just has to be intentional.
