The people behind TrueScent
What remains
is connection.
Colleagues became good friends. Today TrueScent connects us: discovering the right fragrances and experiencing them in person.
Jacques Barcha · Idea, fragrance concept & development
Two flags.
One difference.
I was born and raised in Upper Austria; my parents come from Lebanon. For a long time I kept my roots at a distance – the language, the heritage, the culture.
What I didn’t understand back then: a piece of those roots saved me.
At 14, during a dark time, I started writing poems. They were my outlet. I wrote in German, but the soul in them also came from the Arabic songs my mum explained to me. From a culture where poetry is part of everyday life. From my mum’s love, my dad’s strength and Lebanon’s defiant resilience.
When I started TrueScent, I simply liked perfume. While building it, that changed. Fragrances became a language for feelings, memories and what makes me who I am.
Along the way, I also discovered a connection to my roots: Terre d’Hermès, Blackpepper and Hwyl – three of my favourite fragrances – all contain cedar. The symbol on the Lebanese flag.
I had been carrying a piece of my heritage with me all along, without knowing it.
Two flags. The same colours. The difference is the cedar.
I am the cedar. Ana arz lubnani.
Jacques Barcha – Founder
Peter Leitner · Technology & infrastructure
One fragrance.
For this chapter.
I’m Peter. I’m from Bavaria, and I’m really a classic one-fragrance person. Rather than collecting or comparing hundreds of perfumes, I tend to have one fragrance that accompanies me through a particular chapter of my life. Right now, for example, it’s Terre d’Hermès. It simply feels perfect for me at the moment. When that chapter ends, a whole new search begins in a universe I don’t know my way around as a fragrance novice.
That’s exactly why I immediately understood what Jacques wants to achieve with TrueScent. From my own experience, I know how valuable it is to find the perfect fit. It’s about more than the smell. It’s the reassuring feeling of getting it right every day – intuitively and with complete confidence.
TrueScent should make that experience accessible to everyone. Including when you’re ready to explore a new direction.
You don’t have to be an expert. You just have to find the right fragrance.
And then it carries you.
Peter Leitner – Co-founder