Perfumer. Founder of JAN BARBA. Warsaw, Poland. Established 2015.
Bart didn’t arrive through luxury counters. While studying in the UK, he became fascinated by natural cosmetics and the power of raw materials themselves. A practical need — solving his own skin issues — became a doorway, and scent followed naturally.
With no lab and no shortcuts, he started at home. He unearthed old cold-cream recipes, recreated them in his kitchen, and learned by doing. Three years later, after launching skincare in 2015, he released his first fragrance in 2018, built on ingredients chosen for effect, not for filler.
Aiyoku, created in 2020, set the tone. Inspired by Alex Kerr’s Lost Japan, it moves from a fresh citrus light into mossy green and finally into an earthy, woody quiet that evokes cedar houses breathing with the hills. It reads as place and time more than as pyramid, a landscape you can wear.
Each scent must move the brand forward. He starts with an idea, a list of materials, and mood boards to share his intention. Intuition leads, structure refines. Winter in Poland helps: the minus-five air, the silence, the scentless cold, all forming a clear studio for new chapters. Natural materials stay central, not as a claim but as a discipline, valuing richness over filler and purpose over decoration.
JAN BARBA is craft and tradition applied to modern life. The name began as a figure, an imagined herbalist with a beard, and became a standard: products made from high-quality ingredients that add aesthetic and practical value. Originals, not iterations. Fragrances and skincare that feel lived with, not performed.
“I recreated them in my kitchen.”
