Vanity tour: How to Look Expensive author Andrea Pomerantz Lustig

As the author of beauty book How to Look Expensive and a contributing editor at Glamour, Andrea Pomerantz Lustig has made a career of finding the best beauty products on the market. Her home office, bathroom and closets in her Upper East Side apartment are brimming with skincare, makeup and hair care from high-end brands, including NARS and Dior, as well as drugstore favorites such as L’Oreal.

Her favorite NYC beauty resources

DS Studio 74 E 79th St between Madison and Park Aves (212-879-5555, dsstudionyc.com)
Pomerantz Lustig often stops by this boutique salon for a blowout. “I walk my son to school and go straight there afterwards to get my hair done,” she says. “The owner [Demetris Potamianos] is Greek and his private-label products all smell like Santorini. It’s very low-key.”

Jin Soon Natural Hand and Foot Spa 421 E 73rd St between First and York Aves (212-249-9144) • 23 Jones St between Bleecker and W 4th Sts (212-229-1070) • 56 E 4th St between Bowery and Second Ave (212-473-2047) • jinsoon.com
“I discovered [owner Jin Soon Choi], or I should say she discovered me,” says Pomerantz Lustig, who first met the nail guru while she was the beauty and fitness director at Cosmopolitan. “She was a manicurist at a little salon in the East Village and she contacted me and said, ‘I want to do your nails.’” The two became friends and Pomerantz Lustig eventually hooked Choi up with an agent. “Within a week she was doing Cindy Crawford’s nails. She turned it into a real business, and now she has her own polish line. It’s a very edited collection and they are all expensive-looking shades.”

Sephora Locations throughout the city; visit sephora.com
This beauty megachain is Pomerantz Lustig’s preferred resource for finding duplicates of expensive products. “I love the Sephora Collection for that reason because the items are all really affordable and you can match things up easily,” she explains. Pomerantz Lustig, who served as Sephora.com’s pioneer editor-in-chief, is also a fan of the store’s Beauty Insider rewards card. “You can save so much money by signing up for that,” she notes. “It’s like frequent flyer miles and you really get free products.”

Space NK 968 Lexington Ave between 70th and 71st Sts (212-288-3212) • 99 Greene St between Prince and Spring Sts (212-941-4200) • 217 Columbus Ave at 70th St (212-362-2840) • spacenk.com
Pomerantz Lustig picks up many of the high-end products in her expensive makeup kit from this modern apothecary, which she swears is generous with samples. “You can get away with going in there and not even buying anything and you’ll get a month’s worth of products [for free],” she declares.

Tracie Martyn Salon 101 Fifth Ave between 17th and 18th Sts (212-206-9333, traciemartyn.com)
Socialite-approved hair and makeup stylist Paul Podlucky (paulpodlucky.com) first turned Pomerantz Lustig on to this cult British facialist. “He told me girls who don’t want to go for plastic surgery go to Tracie Martyn,” she recalls. “The facials are amazing but they are such a splurge, so you can’t go very often. If you’re going to spend the money, it’s good to go somewhere where you’re really going to get results.”

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