MISS SINGAPORE WORLD 2007
ROSHNI SOIN, 21

SHE was crowned Miss Singapore World in August. But after the fuss of that evening faded away, all Roshni Soin, 21, encountered was silence.

Instead of becoming an instant celebrity, the 1.75m-tall beauty could still walk down the street without attracting much attention.

She had entered the contest only to learn how to become more feminine, but was determined to do her country proud when she was crowned.

Soin, who sports numerous piercings and names her favourite bands as heavy metal ones like Metallica, Korn and Slipknot, had never owned a pair of high heels until entering the pageant.

So the fact that none of the contestants received any pageant grooming before or after winning could have been quite a stumbling block.

Other than her flight and accommodation, she has received only $1,000 travel allowance and a one-year supply of contact lenses to date.

She was not offered any training and had to source all her own clothes, make-up and accessories.

Photo/ ST; Make-up: CHERYL ZHANGE YI (mobile phone: 9756-7860) from the Make Up Room

Fortunately, the winner of the contest the previous year, Colleen Francisca Pereira, 25, took her under her wing.

Soin attributes the fact she can now walk in heels and get over her shyness to Pereira.

The former beauty queen - a briefcase babe on TV's Deal Or No Deal - even loaned Soin her own cocktail dresses for the Miss World contest in Sanya, China, earlier this month, after local designers wouldn't sponsor any.

However, local fashion brand M)phosis did provide casual clothes for free.

And Soin's mother, Gurdev Kaur, 44, 'sponsored' her to the tune of $1,000 to buy four evening dresses.

Armed with 40kg of clothes, make-up and shoes for her month-long stay in China, she found that airline China Southern would not budge on its 20kg luggage flight allowance.

Soin had to pay $650 herself to cart her extra luggage, although 'it was all essentials for the competition'.

Her luggage - one large and one small suitcase - paled in comparison to the six huge suitcases she saw being lugged by other contestants such as Miss Cyprus and Miss Thailand.

'Most of them had enough clothes to wear a different gown every day,' says Soin, explaining that new outfits help to attract attention from photographers, giving competitors an extra edge.

It was also an eye-opener to find that some contestants, like Miss Venezuela, would wake up three hours before breakfast to do her make-up.

In contrast, fuss-free Soin would take only around half an hour to do both her hair and make-up.

Soin's 10 dresses would have been woefully inadequate if she had not swopped with her roommate, Miss Sweden, who also shared her make-up.

Another contestant she got pally with was the eventual winner - China's Zhang Zilin, 23, because they were the only two contestants who were fluent in Mandarin.

Soin, who also speaks Punjabi and English, says Zhang 'helped me brush up on my Chinese and gave me make-up tips, while I helped her with her English'.

Despite all her difficulties and not being placed in the top 15, Soin, who can be seen on TV's Deal Or No Deal, has no regrets about her experience.

She reveals that she was approached by a top international modelling agency.

'I did my best, and the fact I was scouted shows that I stood out.'

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