The scent of a rose... hypnotic, evocative, seducing
Hello, I’m Silvia! Once upon a time, I fell in love with a rose garden, and ever since, I am naturally high. I got an overdose of rose and I simply can’t get enough. I was born in the city of Guns & Roses - Kazanlak, a controversial place where sweet-scented rose fields coexist with heavy machine guns and ancient Thracian treasures. Besides the mesmerizing rose fields, Kazanlak is home to a gun factory, a violin factory, and the ruins of the Odrysian Kingdom. Interesting isn't it?!
Rose addict by nature, rose dealer by destiny
The year is 1982. This is me and my beloved Aunt making a rose wreath in the rose garden of my Grandfather; my Mother is taking the picture.
Sadly, these people are gone now.
My Family devoted years to cultivating tenths of thousands of Roses, until the day came when I had to take over the family rose garden. It was a rather sad moment that marked my life forever.
I was alone, walking the thorny, muddy rose fields, remembering the close ones that departed this world. My tears became pure rose water. I was roseoverdosed and drowned in grief. It was during these walks in that rose garden that I went through a personal transformation finally resulting in something beautiful. And here I am, still standing with my thorny oil-giving roses, being curious about the years yet to come.
Every petal a dream, every thorn a reality
I have a complex relationship with Roses - I feel them, I pursue them, I abandon them but I always come back to them. It’s like a dreamy color-coded love affair. I think the oil-giving rose - Rosa x Damascena is the one to blame for my endless curiosity and evolving interest in natural aromatics. I love big, sexy florals. Roses can turn ouds creamy and make fruits flirtatious. They can blow your head away. Like the criteria for beauty in all realms, Roses are constantly evolving, along with my appreciation for them.
My dream is to be able to keep the family rose garden and to share my knowledge about roses with as many people as I can, so they can also experience this flower in a deeper and more meaningful way.
In the beginning, it was difficult to understand these prickly, unruly rose bushes, but with time I learned how to take care of them. Now I am using the rose blossoms from my garden tо produce rose essential oil, rose water, and rose tea.
Roses made me explore the connection between the natural and the ethereal world. Do you know that, as the Sun rises, the roses gradually yield their essential oil to the air? You must be swift and pick them before it becomes too hot and too late. By midday, they are only half as potent as they are at Sunrise. It is almost like racing against the Sun. Once picked, the blossoms go through steam distillation yielding Rose Essential Oil and Rose Water. Distillation makes the invisible - visible. The ghostly, unseen fragrance of roses is captured and transformed into liquid essence. Pure magic!
Roses are my cultural DNA
The Queen of all flowers has always been as full of mystique and meaning as it is of thorns. The Rose has been a star-scent in perfume history, an astringent and soothing agent in cosmetic formulae, a regenerative ingredient in aromatherapy, a flavoring agent in gastronomy, and a symbol of beauty and love beyond all means. The ultimate flower with power!
With time, I developed a huge respect for these oil-giving flowers. Roses are beautiful to look at, but they also have been put to practical use almost as much as they have been idealized and associated with sensual pleasure.
It's tempting to imagine that picking roses is a romantic job. The colors, the scents, the sunrise! Except that, picking the blossoms one by one, soon wears you down, as does the heavy sack holding the flowers. After each rose season, I emerge exhausted. Each overdose of rose is a gamble: will it kill me or make me stronger. Let's see what the next one will bring!
And yet, watching rose-pickers from all different backgrounds and generations has made me fall in love with human nature. It's a spiritual ritual, one of a kind. My life has become an endless journey inside a R.O.S.E. C.L.O.U.D. I dream in roses, I deal in roses. It feels intense, rich, precious, mysterious, special, playful, dewy, juicy, fragile, blurry, boozy, spicy, syrupy, and sentimental.....
