Studies of galactic bulges in relation with bars have provided powerful constraints on their formation and evolution. While spectroscopic measurements in 2D have mainly focused on the interstellar component, two dimensional studies of the stellar counterpart have only become possible with the advent of integral-field spectroscopic surveys. Here we present new results from the BaLROG project (Bars in Low Redshift Optical galaxies), using the integral field spectrograph SAURON. Our 2D maps, combining several SAURON pointings per galaxy, extend beyond corotation and allow us to probe radial dependencies within and past the bar. We develop a new method to measure bar strength based on radial and tangential velocities derived from our kinematic maps and find a good agreement with the torque found via the photometry of Spitzer images. A comparison with N-body simulations using the two distinct torque measurements shows that early-type bars might originate from distinct dark matter (DM) halos. This results in higher DM fractions within the bar region for later types (>50% DM). We also compute line-strength indices to derive SSP-equivalent ages and metallicities and find enhanced iron features likely associated to bar-driven resonances.To complement this stellar population study we observed three bulges using the high resolution gratings (R=7000) of the WiFeS IFU. The large wavelength coverage along with the high spectral resolution allow the use of full spectral fitting methods to extract the bulges' star formation histories. We find that at least 50% of the stellar mass already existed 12 Gyrs ago, more than currently predicted by simulations. A younger component (age between ∼1 to ∼8 Gyrs) is also prominent and its present day distribution seems to be affected much more strongly by morphological structures, especially bars, than the older one.In this talk, we link the observed bulge properties to diverse formation scenarios taking into account results from cosmological simulations. We conclude that our in-depths analyses support the notion of increasing complexity in bulge evolution, which cannot be achieved by mergers alone and require a non-negligible contribution of secular evolution, especially driven by bars.