“I dream of being a French woman.” This sentence is said by thousands of American women. They see French women as if they were all the daughters of Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve or Coco Chanel. They admire their beauty on screen and in magazines. They admire the elegance of Isabelle Adjani, Sophie Marceau and Marion Cotillard. So why are French women beautiful?

Lots of American bestsellers have tried to answer this question. Mireille Guiliano unlocks the simple secrets of French women’s diet with French Women Don’t Get Fat, Jamie Cat Callan’s French Women Don’t Sleep Alone reveals the secrets to French love and Debra Ollivier’s What French Women Know, About Love, Sex and Other Matter of the Heart and Mind goes beyond stale ooh- la-la stereotypes of French women challenging the notion of sex, love, etc. However, none of these authors has been able to answer the question in a scientific way.

Personally, I strongly believe that the answer is in the attitude and in the confidence French women have. They get that “je ne sais quoi,” this elegance coming from their self-confidence. Oscar Wilde said, “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance,” this is a good start. To love oneself is clearly the first step to shine.

“What makes French women irresistible and beautiful is their confidence, abandoning all stereotype of how a woman should be or behave but having that innate quality of fearlessness makes them stand out,” says SunHee Grinnell (Beauty Director / Vanity Fair).

At the end of the day, there is no magic formula, but I encourage you to read the book recently released by Mathilde Thomas The French Beauty Solution: Time-Tested Secrets to Look and Feel Beautiful Inside and Out. This book is on its way to become the next bestseller. Thomas has created a luxury cosmetic brand named Caudalie, and reveals her secrets, this time based on science and true research.

She shows how women everywhere can adapt the French philosophy to their own lives and find a beauty routine that will make them feel beautiful for the rest of their lives. “I hope people will see The French Beauty Solution as the very best of the French attitude toward beauty and skincare filtered through my experiences of learning what American women truly want. I have dedicated my life to discovering and harnessing the most potent ingredients from nature, and this book is infused with the knowledge as well as incredibly useful tips from some of the best beauty scientists, estheticians, and professions around the world,” Thomas said.

In France, women approach beauty as an essential and pleasurable part of the day. They take great pride in their routine and consider it a life-long and active investment, but one that is simple, enjoyable, and makes you look good and feel good.

American women, by contrast, are all about the quick fix—the elusive product or procedure that will instantly solve a nagging beauty problem, even if it’s painful, expensive, or unhealthy. If these products fail to live up to the hype, women give up on them and move on to the next new thing.

The French Beauty Solution covers everything from how to use natural ingredients like oil and honey to wash your face, what foods to eat for healthier hair, skin, and nails, and how to determine your skin type. It includes interviews with doctors and dermatologists to explain why certain things work and others don’t and what are the most important things to consider when figuring out which products to use. It also explores the amazing properties of grapes, the foundation of most Caudalie products, and introduces an easy three-day grape cleanse that European aristocrats have been using to detox for hundreds of years.

Why are French women beautiful? “They have inner sense of style, they live in one of the most beautiful city of the world, they are surrounded with beauty, they have this savoir faire and they have this inner chic that everyone wants to get, everyone wants to understand, they don’t try too hard, they are stylish, yet they are not too sophisticated, they know by heart the art of the no makeup makeup,” Thomas said.

Who are the Caudalie aficionados? “Alessandra Ambrosio loves our Eau de Beauté, Katy Perry loves our Eau de Raisin…”

Your family owns the famous Château Smith Haut Lafitte, based in Bordeaux, France. Is it true that wine makes women more beautiful? “It has been clinically proven that the young red wine are loaded with polyphenol and especially resveratrol and if you have one glass of red wine during your meal you have less risk of cardiovascular disease, it is the French paradox; it makes you happy, it produces endorphin so you glow”

As a conclusion, I would like to end this article by saying: take care of yourself, drink red wine every day, and more important: keep loving yourself!