“Definitely, beauty is not enough,” Miss Universe Philippines 2022 Celeste Cortesi sighed at a recent women’s empowerment talk in Opulence Design Concept in Greenbelt 5, Makati City.

Following her failure to reach the Miss Universe semi-finals, pageant fans blamed Cortesi for derailing the Philippines’ 12-year Miss Universe semi-finalist streak, which took a toll on her mental health.

“To prepare for Miss Universe, it took a whole year of preparation — walking, Q&A, everything I needed to succeed and eventually win. So it takes a lot of grit to take to that stage and I went through a lot of challenges since then,” she admitted.

“I have to be on top of the game all the time, every single day… the sacrifices and the things that I really just go through, when you really want something, you want to get the crown. You know, just being always on top of the game is one of the biggest challenges that I encountered.”

After failing to snag the crown, what saved Cortesi from her troubles is founding her own lip-care and cosmetic brand Asul, named after the Filipino word for “blue” and her Italian heritage.

“Right after Miss Universe, I was going through my moment when I didn’t win. So I kind of try to find to still keep going and do what I love. And so, I decided to create my own business and my own lip care brand,” she narrated.

“After a year of developing the brand, I was a team of one from the start. And now, we’ve expanded to 15 to 20 people working with the company within the span of a year. I got a lot of grit from a lot of preparations and things that need to get done to just bring the brand out there.”

For everyone who also failed in life, her advice is to just keeping rising despite adversaries, plus the proverbial turn your lemons into lemonade.

“I always thought that Miss Universe was my path to follow, but definitely, it brought me what I value the most right now.”