As a girl who has lived in the city for nearly 10 years, I’m proud to call myself a real New Yorker. And according to one of the city’s personal style bibles “Sex in the City,” living in New York for 10 years means you are indeed a real New Yorker.

This city is tough, there is no doubt about it, and it takes a certain type of person to survive it. You have to be aggressive, fast-paced, ambitious, assertive, street-smart, hectic, hurried and stressed. Want to live here yet?

Despite the craziness, it is, of course, the greatest city on Earth. All the chaos is so, so worth it.

As a sucker for any story titled “The French Girl Beauty Formula” or “Can You Bottle Up French Girl Beauty,” I thought to myself, “wait a minute, what about New York girl beauty?” Most of us own more black clothes than we care to admit, we like to talk about how busy we are and as it relates to beauty, we have an obsession with mastering that “no makeup” look. We’re about as distinctive as they come, so it’s about damn time we had our own beauty guide.

With the Fall 2016 shows right around the corner, I started thinking about myself and my fellow editors I see backstage, season after season. Inspired by the city that never sleeps and my striking counterparts, this is the ultimate guide to New York girl beauty.

*Please ignore my humid hair in these pictures.

Step #1:

Step #2: We don’t’ really have time for makeup. We are too busy. We like multi-taskers like Le Metier de Beaute Anti-Aging Complex. This adds a hint of glow and a bit of color, so we don’t look deathly pale. Which we are. It also has retinol in it, which will make us look fresh. 

Step #3: We embrace being pale. We have tossed out all of our old self-tanners (from pre-New York) and stocked up on SPF (hey Tatcha). When we find ourselves in situations where we have to be in the sun, we freak out, apply zinc everywhere and hide in the shade. This is easy to do considering all the tall buildings that surround us.

Step #4: We, like our French friends, prefer to keep our eyebrows thick, yet groomed a la Glossier Boy Brow.

Step #5: We can’t live without a hand moisturizer. Every girl has their own favorite, but this is mine: Tatcha Soothing Silk Indigo Hand Cream.

Step #6: We find ourselves out a lot, probably more than we would hope. So when we are at home, we beautify. We sleep in a serious night cream that we pray will undo the damage from the past week (hello pollution… and alcohol). Jenna Rennert from Vogue.com beauty uses Decléor Nourishing Night Balm to luxuriate. I have tried this now too and can attest to it’s powers. I also cherish my hands, so I indulge in this at-home paraffin and coconut wax treatment (if its good enough for Oprah’s “O” list, it’s good enough for me).

Step #7: We go nuts for anything that says “glow,” “luminize” or “highlight.” RMS Beauty Living Luminizer and YSL Touche Éclat are very popular, but two of my new favorites are Kismet Lovely Illuminators and Too Cool for School Highlighter in Mother of Pearl.

Step #8: When it comes to our lips, we can go one of two ways. During the day, we will keep it easy with either a balm or stain. Dior’s new and limited edition Lip Glow in Lilac is addicting. At night, it’s all about the matte long-wearing lip. Le Metier de Beaute just launched Moisture Matte Lipstick and they’ve got the prettiest colors.

Step #9: On our hair, we rely on an oil because, as you now know, an oil is the solution for everything. Shu Uemura Essence Absolue is my favorite.

Ready to take on the concrete jungle, yet?