So, being competitive in the field of beauty, I try many products. Somethings work, some don't, and I learn a lot about application, a healthy lifestyle that I just didn't know before. I think all you non-beauty pageant contestants reading, especially fellow nerds can benefit.
Hair:
Joeseph's Indian Human hair extensions, glued on, are the best by far. My mother and I can't tell my real hair from my fake hair. They picked three colour strands to match mine and did amazing make-up, the best I have had on me. Joeseph's is in the mall, at Rideau Centre. Retail, these extensions cost $500. It's worth it though.
Styling: I can't do mouse with extensions and I was balding before due to post-traumtic stress. To stop the balding, I took Nutricap, which was great for my hair, my nails, and it grows fast with it. They are vitamins for the hair, and is the most effective thing I have tried.
I have tried hair irons, straighteners, curling irons, wide barrel, thin barrel, everything, expensive high-end to low end. Many of the ladies at Miss Universe used old fashioned curls. With my extensions, I used electric heating curls I bought at wallmart. I wish I had learned this before Miss Universe. The larger the curls, the better for long hair, looks more elegant. It brought a similar look to Joeseph's and smooth. A large barrel curling iron, and inch and a half in diameter with a straighter, like at the pageant, was the next best thing, but had frizzy results.
For the effect at the top, you curl all the hair at the top of your head horizontal, in one line. Then you get the hair at the crown out of the way. On the sides, you curl your hair vertically.
Hair spray is essential or the look will die. For the stage or an evening, lots of hairspray. For a date or job interview, much lighter hairspray that emphasizes shine.
Eyelashes:
Joeseph's fake lash secret: To make fake lashes look real, Joeseph's cuts part of the eyelash. Secondly, stick the fake eyelash to the beginning of the hairs of your eyelash. After it settles, add eyeliner again and masacra, and make sure the real and fake lashes merge seemlessly. Use a small paint brush, or a toothpick with the sharp edge remove to push down the fake eyelashes instead of your fingers. Your fingers could be at the bottom of the fake eyelash, but never at the top when applying.
Also, if you have fake eyelashes, keep eyelash glue and a small mirror and a small paint brush/toothpick with you at all times.
Miss Universe fake eyelash secret: Dry the eyelash glue for 2 minutes, until it gets tacky/sticky, put it on a tray. And then brush the bottom of the fake eyelash in the tray, so that you don't get too much glue on the eyelash, or its bad for the natural lashes and looks icky.
BIGGEST EYELASH MISTAKE: Applying eyelashes to the skin. They will fall off, guaranteed. You must apply them to hairs. Once I learned that, mine never fall off, even once when I accidently left them on overnight. Btw, don't torture your eyes, and leave them over night.
Fake eyelashes are too be removed with waterproof makeup remover, and cotton ear-buds for the ears, clean of course.
We were given an eyelash conditioner from Murual which was absolutely amazing. And yes, they do double the length of your eyelashes.
http://img2.timeinc.net/health/images/slides/well-rested-400x400.jpg
For that well rested look: two things work. 1) Botox if you are in your fourties or ruined your face by alnighters. 2) a good night's rest as a habit.
Late nighters aren't worth it. Flunk or drop the damned class, reduce your work load, use contraceptives! It creates a toll on your body, increases your chances of cancer according to a study with nurses, developmentally delays the brain.
By sleeping at decent hours, I was able to reduce the look of wrinkles, undereyes. My cheeks had already sunk and it was too late to do anything about them. Well, I reasoned, that was the cost of my thesis.
Crystalis Clinic restored my cheeks to what they were before my thesis and cleaned my skin with intensive laser treatment. For the first time in my life since puberty I am able to got outside without make up! They are fantastic! My mom tried the same on her hands, which started to age. The hands are young again! My mom had a youthful face and old hands from driving in the sun without gloves. Now her hands match her face.
Skin: At Miss Universe, almost all the girls used a fake tan body lotion. No one went tanning, used a tanning bed or any of that cancer-causing non-sense. Besides, it causes wrinkles, and ages the skin quickly. No beauty queen wants that! This summer, wear an SPF 50 lotion and tan at home!
I tried real versus fake tanning. Yes, I am bad, guilty as charged. I forgot to put on my lotion at a friend's beach party. I had tan lines, it wasn't smoothe. With tanning, the ladies used a tinted moisturizer. I mixed mined with a body lotion to flow smoothely. Use a light one that gradually builds. To even results, the ladies scrubbed the tan. If you got it on your hands, just use nail polish remover.
Live a healthy lifestyle, go to the gym, eat healthy, sleep healthy, and you'll look beautiful. I learned that any woman can be beautiful if she puts effort into her apperance and lives a healthy lifestyle. At the pageant, the yoga instructor won best body, and yes it was the most attractive one. Beauty in a way is signalling health. Yes, a lot of it is artificial, like cutting the hair, fake tanning, etc. but what isn't.
Beauty is elegant, looks natural, often isn't, and never endangers your health, but enhances it. I.E. Botox in your fourties, yes. Boob-job, no. Eyeglasses are not natural, medicine is not natural, but it enhances are lives. The key is to look naturally beautiful and healthy, and try to be healthy, kind and have a light from the inside that can only come from a good kind heart. On the stage or at night, it does require exaggeration to maintain the same look you have in the day or the darkness will swallow your features.
What is sexy: healthy body, walking right, back straight like a queen or goddess, a sweet personality, intelligence, a purpose in life, goals in life, strength of character (being nice but having strong boundaries where no means no), some originality balanced with being a teamplayer, elegance and good taste, long hair, and know thyself. Yes, long hair, even if you are 85. But a geniune smile from the heart makes a woman the most beautiful. Find that reason to smile, that person, that job, that relationship!
Halima with the mayor of the Hague, and a delegate from Madbakh of Toronto, in the Hague, Netherlands!!!! (Below, Michael Ignatieff at a Madbakh Women International event).
Madbakh
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, wearing a cap, talks with flood survivors in Jampur on Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010. He has been saying that Islamic terrorists may exploit the chaos and misery caused by the floods in Pakistan to gain new recruits, remarks echoed by U.S. Sen. John Kerry, who toured some of the worst hit areas alongside the president. (B. K. Bangash/Associated Press) 
