LAND OF HEALTH

The strive of modern people to eat healthily and to use nature-friendly cosmetics is not just another fashion and a whim. The planet is suffocating under the tonnes of plastics that humanity generates by the minute, and the effects on the organism of artificial colourings, additives and preservatives in mass food and cosmetics are yet to be studied.

Bulgaria is a country that is beginning to unleash its potential as a health products producer. Located where the continental and the Mediterranean climates meet, it has the best of both zones. Its soils and air are clean due to reduced industrial production. That is why in it grow and are cultivated many plans without which healthy living would be impossible.

The oil-bearing rose is probably the best known of these. It arrived in the Bulgarian lands as early as the 17th-18th centuries, and has for centuries been in the basis of perfumery industry. In the recent years its beneficial qualities in skincare have found a growing application. Rose oil cosmetics can be now bought from every store, but consumers who insist of quality and origin, and hence on sure results, choose the products of certified manufacturers.

Marista Club: The power of Bulgarian oil-bearing rose

The beneficial qualities of Bulgarian rose oil can hardly be overestimated, the same goes for Marista Club's cosmetic products (www.maristaclub.com). The Bulgarian company combines century-old traditions in rose oil production with the most advanced technologies. The result is high-quality cosmetics of natural oils, certified for quality and origin. Before it ends in the hands of its happy owner, each product is carefully developed and tested. Marista Club has a solution for every type of skin and age. The Rosa Damascena & Q10 series makes the skin soft and aromatic, and restores its youth and freshness. The White Rose & Olive line is a harmonic blend of the strongest sides of the two source plants, and keeps the skin healthy and beautiful. Rosa Damascena & Argan is for the ladies who want to hold back the appearance of the signs of time on their faces and to protect their skin's elasticity.

In Bulgaria grow about 750 herb and healing plant species. Of them, about 250 species are used in medicine, perfumery, cosmetics, such as goat's-head, Leucojum snowflake, perforate St John's-wort, sideritis or Mursalski tea, smoketree, rose hip, juniper, marigold, lemon balm, mint, hawthorn, lavender, coriander, linden. Most of those grow wild and their power is yet to be studied, but, tellingly, old Bulgarians believed that "there is a herb for every illness." According to statistics, about 80% of Bulgarians try to heal with herbs first before looking for conventional treatment and drugs. However, in the recent years the power of this Bulgarian wealth is now used in cosmetics, too.

e Lek: Natural cosmetics that helps

For millennia, people have found help for bigger and smaller health problems in what nature provided – herbs, healing plants, bee products. Today we find their analogues in the catalogue of e Lek (Sofia, 12 General Parensov St, phone: +359 879 480 041, www.tovaelek.com). The Bulgarian producer of certified organic cosmetics offers creams, lotions and herbal balms that care for our beauty effectively. The team of e Lek is also dedicated to natural care for the health. The range of products for apitherapy (healing with bee products) and the series of natural oils and herbs help the natural healing processes and protect from pathogenic microorganisms.

For most people nuts are just food, a way to have an energy boost or something to snack on between meals. But nuts are charged with beneficial ingredients. In recent years in Bulgaria a lot of nuts are imported, such as pecan and macadamia. But thanks to the excellent climate conditions in the country grow as well walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, apricots and peaches whose nuts are charged with beneficial ingredients.

Nonspecialists can hardly learn everything about nuts' beneficial qualities, but there are already companies that aim to study as much as possible and to turn nuts into a source of health and beauty.

Healthy Oils: Power of nature

Charged with energy, vitamins and other beneficial ingredients, nuts are in the basis of healthy living. The family boutique company Healthy Oils (Sofia, 2 Okolchitsa St, phone: + 359 887 163 966, www.healthyoils.eu) is dedicated to the mission to provide its clients with nuts and natural cosmetics with nut oils of the highest quality. Located in Prolom Village, near Karlovo, the company works with carefully selected raw material from clean regions in Bulgaria. The nuts are dried on the sun in a natural way and are then cold pressed. As a result the products made of them are clean, without chemical preservatives and additives, preserving at a highest level their beneficial qualities. Healthy Oils products are certified from the Vegan Society UK and are suitable for vegans and vegetarians, and for everyone who insists on the quality of natural products.

When talking about manufacture of healthy products from local Bulgarian plants, we should not forget the efforts of producers who create conditions for organic cultivation of oil-bearing plants, herbs and nuts. Only this guarantees the end consumer that their food and cosmetics are made of ingredients which are environmentally friendly and are really healthy.