Neras Valhalla

Without the mural, Miss Angola's costume reads more 'ice queen' than 'waterfall.' Unfortunately I still think no costume has ever been improved by adding a giant mural, especially because they're never very well-rendered.

Miss Argentina's costume is inspired by a legendary Argentinian musician. Unfortunately those guitars wobble like crazy in motion, or this would be a solid 7/10.

Miss Armenia is dressed as A Specific Rock Formation In Armenia. Unclear on why the hat and pomegranate (?) prop were necessary, although without them this is dangerous close to just being an evening gown with shoulder pads.

Miss Aruba is a sparkly Sea Queen with a removable skirt. Groundbreaking.

Once again Miss Australia is just wearing a dress. This one is Uluru-inspired and more interestingly structural than the past several years of dresses, but frankly that is not going to cut it at this point.

Miss Bahamas has chosen "sexy pirate" and like. mission accomplised! that sure is a sexy pirate costume!

Miss Bangladesh is wearing a lovely sari, and I do like the way her giant lotus flower unfolded from around her on stage. This might be too tasteful for this competition, sadly, which feels like a weird thing to say about a woman wearing 15 pounds of gold jewelry.

It was shockingly difficult to get decent pictures of some of these outfits. There's no complete gallery anywhere I could find. I had to resort to combing random Instagrams to get something better than a blurry youtube screengrab, thereby ruining my algorithm for the forseeable future. I'm mentioning this now because Miss Belarus is wearing a flag gown with a wheat hat, which is boring.

This is not the first time Miss Belgium has been saddled with a poorly-made, cheap-looking costume at this competition, but oof this is a bad one. Nothing about it says 'swan,' the alleged inspiration. The parasol and the knee-highs are only adding to the 'girl at her first Lolita meetup who bought her whole coord from Amazon' vibe. Big yikes.

Miss Belize's toucan is so big that it's kind of wearing her, rather than the other way around. She's also smiling in a particular "I don't want to be wearing this' way that should be very familiar to fans of this competition.

Miss Bolivia does seem to be enjoying her costume! I could note that the headdress is very wobbly in motion and I generally disapprove of giant arm drapes, but you know what? I'm going to let her have this.

Is Miss Bonaire's Sea Queen doing anything new? Not really, no, but it's lavishly blinged-out and well-designed, nothing wobbles or tilts when she walks in it, and I like the octopus.

Miss Botswana's zebra gown is kind of giving Cruella de Ville, especially from the back.

Miss Brazil made the bold choice to put 1 billion sequins on a Virgin Mary costume. I guess it's not technically Sexy Virgin Mary because she's not showing much skin but like. c'mon.

Oh yikes. This is especially upsetting because last year Miss British Virgin Islands had such a genuinely clever and charming costume, and now we have this mess. Really just combining all my least favorite things -- arm drapes, bad murals, Just a Dress -- into one look.

Miss Bulgaria's rose-themed costume is visually impressive, but unfortunately it did not hold up In motion. She was visibly struggling to keep her balance, the rose 'wings' were drooping severely on one side, and she kept shedding feathers on stage.

This is Cabo Verde's first time being included in Miss Universe, and she seemed really excited about it, so I'm going to suggest she adjust her headdress slightly and move on.

Miss Cambodia is wearing vaguely historical gold and carrying a heavily-rhinestoned traditional string instrument, which is not quite voting Present but still kind of a safe choice. Insane amount of nose contour, though. She needs to have a talk with he makeup artist.

Miss Canada seems a little embarrassed about her maple leaf butterfly look. Which is fair.

On the one hand, Miss Cayman Islands was clearly struggling to walk in this costume. On the other hand, giant manta ray puppet. Tough call.

I do like Miss Chile's Tribute to Torres del Paine National Park, and I'm delighted to see a non-Scandinavian country getting in on the Snow Queen action, but the mural panels are never, ever going to improve a costume. Please stop doing this.

Normally I would be more critical of Miss China for veering so close to Just An Evening Gown territory, but she made the sleeve ruffles undulate in a really cool way that you need to see in motion to appreciate.

Miss Colombia's skirt is made of tragically cheap-looking fabric, and the bodice kind of looks like it's giving you the side-eye. Unfortunately this is giving 'intermediate-level cosplay' in terms of build quality.

I do love to see an ambitiously weird silhouette, but I'm afraid whoever built Miss Costa Rica's costume was not quite up to the task. There's a lot of wobbling and the train is badly wrinkled. I appreciate the attempt, though.