The Premiere show has become the industry’s best place to experience top talent and education. Stylist from all over the country and from many parts of the world come to Orlando to attend and Muse The Salon once more was part of it.

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 The successful fashion show promotes the artists, designers, models, entertainers and film makers in our community. Our beauty artist “Amra” was asked to be in charge of make up. The fashion show was filled with painters, photographers, Fashion Designers, Models, Directors, Film producers, Actors, Actresses, Performing Artists, and other artistic souls. Of course our favorite artist was Amra, who as usual, did a phenomenal job with the makeup.　

About Amra: Amra has had a life-long love affair with fashion and style and beauty. She is a certified aesthetician and has received training with some of the innovators in the world of skin care such Yonka and Skin Deep Cousmeceutical among others; Amra has also trained under world renown make up artist Moncho, official make up artist of major beauty pageants and fashion shows around the world.

About Boss Magazine: Boss magazine showcases local models, designers, artist and photographers. Boss informs you about the trends from the streets and runways of NY, Paris, LA and Miami.

How do you define beauty? Is it by size, by perfect hair or a perfect smile. If you flip through the pages of an American fashion magazine, you may think beauty is narrowly defined… But when talking about beauty one must keep an open mind. What one finds true beauty someone else might find outrageous, weird or even ugly. In a recent trip to Venezuela, a country where beauty seems to be regarded as a value, I decided to explore the subject a bit deeper. Venezuela currently holds the record for producing most beauty queens around the world than any other country and most of its success is attribute to Quinta Miss Venezuela.

With the Help of my good friend, Moncho, (official make up team member of the miss Venezuela beauty pageant), I spend a day at the “Quinta miss Venezuela” This renown beauty school is where aspiring beauty queens come to get groomed. Thousands of entrants apply for the pageant each year. Some young women would try for up to five or six years consecutively trying to get one of the 26 to 32 titles that will enable them to compete in the final pageant, who ever makes must pass by the schooling given right here.

A big wooden door with a crown carved into it gives way to its entrance and as soon as you walk in you get a view of  the grand staircase leading to the second floor. A velvet couch, an extravagant chandelier and pictures of the many beauty queens representing Miss Venezuela.

I arrived there wearing tennis shoes and cap it was a rainy day, but as soon as I came in I knew this was not a excused for all the ladies wearing six inch heels and walking on marble floors .

A lady with groomed silver hair stood at the top of the stairs calling in make up artists and hair dressers to begin a briefing on the today’s meeting. I didn’t know who she was, but by the way she stood, walk and spoke I knew she was the boss.

I decide to explore this place. I began by joining the make up class, where curios young ladies look at me, and welcome me with no problem. After the class they take a quick break and move on to their next class. The house keeps very busy, with fashion designers, stylist and among others. I observed these beautiful girls they seem to be very focus, but as soon as they notice my camera the instinctually strike a pose.

The briefing was over, I joined Moncho and sat down to with other hair dressers; we decided to order a box of pastry for everyone. Apparently hair dressers have a sweet tooth everywhere. That’s beauty! I asked Moncho who was the Lady with the silver hair, he said her name was Maria Kallay, coordinator of the Miss Venezuela. She seemed to be doing a million things at once in such a natural way that it make me take note on how any corporation should be run. She could manage about 15 hair dressers and make up artist, along with around 25 beauty queens, and around 10 other employees while meeting with hopeful fashion designers that came in for appointments hoping their creations would be feature in the coveted event. I then remember Moncho had received a call from her while we were at the airport, she wanted to know that we had arrived on time. How does she finds the time?

Most of the creative team comes from various part of the country, they are all successful in their own right and are carefully chosen for this job, I met a hair dresser that flies back and forward from New York and another one that lives in Brazil. They all know and appreciate the prestige that being part of the team the cares for the most beautiful women in the universe means. I was a bit surprised by the calmness of so many artist in one room. This is beauty!.

About an hour later the big wooden doors open and in walks Mr. Osmel Sousa, the beauty guru, accompany by his bodyguard. He says hi to everyone and proceeds to the upper floor where his office is. Almost Immediately, Mrs. Kallay began calling all artist for the meeting to begin.

Outside the classroom, the mother of one of the contestant waited for her daughter. She is mesmerized with Moncho and is hoping her daughter will be assign to him for make up. She tells me she waits for her every day, this is her daughters’ dream, but not the only one dream, she says. Her daughter is also attending college and has always been a good girls so supporting her dream is more important than winning “of course I want her to win, but we do not discuss winning we focus on the experience whether she wins or looses, the experience will remain and we want to protect her and make the bets of it” that’s beauty!

Then a short man approaches me to offer coffee, I had seen him coming in and out of the house through the day. Bringing food and drinks, caring papers, talking to everyone. He tells me to call him MotoMan, because his job is to run errands for the ladies in his motorcycle. As the girls when on to their next class, and the meeting with Osmel had began the house became silent. I sat on the round purple velvet couch to talk to MotoMan. He tells me he is been working there for 12 years, and I learn that the team that runs the Quinta Miss Venezuela is a very close one. . I ask if he finds the girls frivolous, he tells me that the girls are the sweet and kind. I also learn that they are collecting money to buy MotoMan a new Motorcycle. That’s beauty! At that moment I see this gorgeous beauty queen walking tours the door, she hugs MotoMan good bye; I offer her a pastry, by her expression one may have thought I was offering her crack. MotoMan says she is soon to go to the Miss world International. Oh well, more for me, Personally I think she could have use that pastry.

MotoMan knows everyone in this place and he is well-respected, he gives me the scoop on everyone, I ask if he feels comfortable approaching Osmel with a given issue, he says, absolutely “we know how busy he is and I’ve been here long enough to be able to handle most situations on my own, but when necessary I do go to him and he is always willing to listen and offer solutions to me and anyone else. I asked him about Mrs. Kallay, he smiles and says, Mrs. Kallay is the support wall in the house, she spends more time there than anyone, she takes care of each of the girls as if they were her daughters, she organizes everything, I tell him that it seems to me that she is the real deal behind the organization maybe more than Osmel? He says, they work hand by hand they depend and count on each other. At this point I think to myself if MotoMan carefully choosing his words, in any case, he says that there is not boss between Karey and Sousa. MotoMan seems very loyal to his bosses. That’s beauty!

Though Sousa is the recognizable figure of the institution, something tell me that Kallay makes it happen. In any case and whatever it is, it works. What I got from all of his info is that Quinta Miss Venezuela, is a real home to many and that they take care of each other, “we do not allow anyone to interrupt our harmony, everyone here is treated with respect, they are part of one family” says MotoMan. That’s beauty!

Venezuela’s beauty pageant has been in the media a lot, not only for being the country to hold most international crowns, but also for being accused of using plastic surgery to improve their contestant. During an interview this question was brought to beauty guru Osmel Sousa to which he reply, isn’t a nature contest. It’s a beauty contest, and science exists to help perfect beauty. There is nothing wrong with that.

I couldn’t tell if this girls have any plastic surgery, but if they do, I would like to have the doctors number. What I sow where young women working very hard to prepare themselves

There is no such thing as ultimate true beauty because you can not compare beauty. We do not live all following the same standards or principles; we do not have the same ideals. We are different, so is beauty. To me this was and interesting experience, and I found beauty everywhere. I cant wait to go back and see MotoMan new bike.

Interesting Fact:

What country has the highest rate of plastic surgeries?

In proportion to the quantity of inhabitants:

• USA
• Brazil
• Spain

In quantity not related with inhabitants (including foreigners in “medical tourism”)

I first found out about the keratin treatments a few years ago during a trip to South America. In a tropical country of hot weather and a community of wide- ranging hair types from straight, curly or frizzy, fine and coarse, every one had shiny smooth hair.

My research at the beginning led me to some skepticism. What was this treatment that could be used on all hair types regardless of the condition of the hair, and bring such a great result? How come the world doesn’t know about it? I have been in this industry for many years and it has been a long time since a new service came around that impressed me as much as this keratin treatment.

Keratin is an extremely strong protein, which is a major component in skin, hair, nails, hooves, horns, and teeth, but was this all?

A red flag would eventually appear. The Keratin treatment was originally called the “Brazilian treatment” because it originated in Brazil. It turns out that the original formula contained an ingredient called formaldehyde, which is a poisoning substance strong enough to preserve cadavers.

First it’s important to understand small amounts of formaldehyde are present all around us, it occurs naturally and is found in many man-made products.

The questions arose because the formaldehyde used in manufactured products breaks down slowly under normal circumstances and is not rapidly released into the environment.

However, heat and moderate humidity levels hasten the breakdown and release of the chemical. Over exposure to this chemical has been found to cause health risks.

Aha! This is why this had remained under the carpet for so long.

About a year after my discovery an Italian company would develop a new type of keratin treatment that uses aldehydes instead.

Aldehydes are found in essential oils and often contribute to their favorable odors, e.g. cinnamaldehyde, cilantro, and vanillin.

Finding this safer option I decided to give it a try. I contacted the company and arranged for an in-salon class.  Several salons were invited to attend and together we began spreading the news to our clients.

The results were incredible and as the news spread many other salons began offering the service and many others began preaching against it. I would see new clients coming to my salon with dry and fried looking hair telling me they had a keratin or a Brazilian treatment. I was in shock their hair did not look nearly as good.

I began paying attention to the market, and learned that many salons that were offering the service had not being trained nor had they done the proper research; consequently treatments with high volume of formaldehyde were introduce to the public, furthermore the proper application method was not being followed.  On October Allure reported that salon samples tested “contained at least ten times more formaldehyde” than an industry medical panel considered safe.

As people began questioning this keratin treatment others continue requesting it. And so companies from all over began coming with more solutions.

Nowadays many other safe keratin treatments are available. Sadly other products have opted for dishonest marketing claiming their keratin treatments are formaldehyde free. The issue is that if stylists and their clients think that a product is formaldehyde free, they may not follow the same stringent safety protocols as they would with standard formaldehyde products. This is compounded by the fact that many of these brews, whether ether, urea, or similar mixes, absolutely share the characteristics of, or convert into, a potent cousin of formaldehyde. Often the resulting compound, when heated converts into a form of raw unrefined formaldehyde.

The FDA has no authority to require pre-market safety assessment in cosmetic products and maybe it should. The Personal Care Product Council’s Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel completed an extensive review of formaldehyde in 1984 and listed it as “safe as used” in cosmetics within certain specifications. These specifications include using it in quantities of less than 2%. CIR also advises, “Formaldehyde should not be used in products intended to be aerosolized.”

As of right now the Keratin treatment enthusiasm is at its peak, and it is my opinion that properly selected and properly use this treatment is a great tool and poses no more danger than hair color. However consumer and professionals have to do their own research and be responsible, not following gimmicks and trends, marketing strategies and false promises.

For tips on selecting a safe Keratin Treatment read our Tips

Muse The salon is committed to offering only the safest available products in the market. To schedule a consultation call 813-258-2558

More Ways to help the oil spill

Clients are very exited to learn that their hair will be use for a good cause and looking good never felt so great 

Hair by Monica Ponce                             

At this time of year, I am always thankful for the many friendships that my business has enabled me to develop. I have learned many things but, most importantly, the value and power of understanding and building upon the strength of diversity. Through my clients I have grown so much. You have remained my inspiration…

 Happy 2010 to you and all of your loved ones! Monica Ponce

The pageant started with stunning performances by contestants. All contestants presented their best in the Indian and the Evening Gown segment after which the top ten were selected. The top ten contestants then amazed the audience with their talent which included Bollywood dances, Kathak, Bharat Natyam, Bhangra, Fusion along with singing. Winners of the various sub-contests were Miss Virginia – Miss Beautiful Smile, Miss Texas – Miss Beautiful Eyes, Miss New York – Miss Congeniality and Miss Connecticut – Miss Photogenic.

Miss India USA is the longest running Indian pageant outside of India. The twenty-eighth annual pageant was organized by the New York-based IFC, headed by Dharmatma Saran, Founder and the Chief Organizer of the Pageant.