Beauty Secrets of the Bulgarian Women

Beauty Secrets of the Bulgarian Women

Bulgarian women are famous worldwide for their beauty and overall attractiveness. I would like to share some of their secrets with you. First and foremost, Bulgarian women have great genes. Inbreeding is technically unknown in the Bulgarian culture and there is a nice variety of genes from Thracians, Slavic, Bulgarians and others. Second, the ancient standards of beauty of the Thracians and the neighboring Greeks are accepted firmly and followed through the centuries. It’s common for Bulgarian women to be usually well educated and with an innate sense of fashion style. Lots of foreign travelers have stated that indeed in Sofia and some other Bulgarian cities you can see the most  elegant women of Europe.

 

As we know, the physical appearance has to do a lot with the dietary habits. I would like to start with this fundamental topic.

 

1. Bulgaria is the one of the countries where the best tasting grains, vegetables and fruits in the world grow. The favorable climate of the South- European Balkan peninsula, close to the Mediterranean and the wonderful fertile soils makes it perfect for agriculture. As a tradition, in every Bulgarian household  you will obligatory find vines, veggie garden, fruit trees, various herbs used for cooking and for teas, and abundance of flowers. Without a doubt I can say that in Bulgaria I have tasted the best tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, peaches, apricots, berries, cherries, plums, grapes, figs in my life (the list can go on….), and also the best bread.  Bulgarian women are firm believers of cooking and baking from scratch and using the freshest ingredients preferably from their gardens or from well known producers.  Farmers markets are available every day everywhere and are the best place to find wonderful local produce. Neighterless to say, vegetables and fruits and the main staple of the Bulgarian cuisine and are eaten in big quantities in salads and stews; grilled, baked, fried, dried, pickled, or cooked and hermitized in jars and bottles for later consumption.  Beans and lentils are very widely spread and popular as well.  Also, Bulgarians believe that it is best to eat seasonal fruits and vegetables.

 

1. Bulgarians generally consume less meat than other countries, yet there is a big variety of amazing dishes with chicken, pork, veal (prefered than beef), and lamb, which are mostly baked, grilled, or stewed on slow fire.

 

1. Bulgaria is the country of yogurt. The bacteria Lactobacillus Bulgaricus can live only in the Bulgarian air thus it is exported all over the world from Bulgaria. Therefore, Bulgarians also eat yogurt in big quantities, literally every day. Yogurt is also used in face masks and other cosmetics and it’s the best remedy for sunburns.  It cools and heals almost immediately irritated and injured skin. Very important presence on the Bulgarian table also have cheeses such as feta and kashkaval.

 

1. Bulgarian women practice a strict schedule of meals which consist of breakfast in the morning, lunch at noon, afternoon coffee or tea, and usually light early evening dinner. The biggest meal of the day is the lunch and not the dinner. The lunch is usually a soup, main course and dessert accompanied by bread. Bulgarian women believe that it is very harmful to skip meals, eat at random times, and their meal portions normally come in a smaller well balanced size. In Bulgaria is rare to see overweight women and usually they preserve their good slender figures until much older age just by keeping naturally the main principle of eating in moderation and  balancing proteins, carbs and fats.  

          For cooking Sunflower and Olive oils, and sometimes butter are used the most.

 

1. Bulgarian women drink lots of herb teas, coffee (Espresso, Turkish, or Cappuccino) and often prepare home made juices from fruits and flowers. While sugar is consumed in moderation, they never use artificial sweeteners. Bulgaria is winemaking country and many people  produce homemade wine and hard liquor called rakia which are almost always consumed with meals. It is a custom to drink rakia with salads and other appetizers (and Bulgarians loooove salads and appetizers!), while red and white wines (or beer in the warm summer months) are paired with the main course.

 

Besides the perfect diet and the moderate sizing of the meals, usually all Bulgarian women love to walk every day while shopping or socializing with friends. Spending significant time walking in parks, old towns, mountain regions or at the beach, is a favorite pastime of the Bulgarian women.

 

Using the world famous products made of the Bulgarian oil – bearing rose is probably the best kept beauty secret of the Bulgarian women. The Bulgarian rose is a very popular ingredient in the skincare and fragrance industries — and with a good reason!  Rosa damascena can only grow in Bulgaria, it has a deep, potent scent and it’s valued for its pure essential oil, derived from the rose flowers. Fun fact: It takes a ton (1000 kgs) of rose blossoms, picked as they are unfolding in the early hours of dawn, to yield 1 kg of rose essential oil. That makes rose oil one of the most expensive essential oils in the world. Containing a complex array of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, rose essential oil has excellent emollient properties for moisturizing dry skin; it also offers antiseptic and astringent properties to treat acne skin, as well as anti-inflammatory properties that help treat redness and inflammation. Rose oil can also help refine skin texture, and control skin diseases such as psoriasis and dermatitis. Rose oil and rose water are wonderful hair treatments, too, they can prevent and stop hair loss, and increase the hair volume and shine.

 

Rose essential oil also possesses aromatherapy properties that calm and soothe as it lowers the concentration of cortisol (a stress hormone) in the body.  A recent study showed that rose and lavender oils can help treat anxiety and depression in postpartum women; while rose oil specifically has been shown to have a positive effect in treating depression. The exquisite scent of the Bulgarian rose is also one of the most powerful aphrodisiacs known to mankind.

 

Rose water is the perfect facial tonic of the Bulgarian women, and the rose oil in combination with other essential oils as carriers makes a perfect face or body oil. Few drops of this precious oil can be also added in any daily moisturiser. There are tons of healthy benefits if you consume water, oil and petals from the Bulgarian roses as well. We will discuss the best rose products for your digestive system in another blog. Stay tuned!