República

Sun, rendered as resin.

Amyris is the centre of it, lush and woody, and it grows in the Dominican Republic. Resina and benzoin thicken the warmth around it. Amber goes over the top early on. Dominican vetiver and olibanum take it out dry and faintly smoky, with botanical essential oils gathered on the island and fused through the rest of it.

Harvested and gathered in the Dominican Republic, then blended in New York. Something close to a sun-soaked spell, and a very earthy one. Modern with it, and the two do not fight.

La Boticá is a fragrance house rooted in Afro-Dominican heritage, working out of a Long Island City atelier where a small team handcrafts every release. Dawn Marie West founded it and composes the work, self-taught, arriving at fine fragrance after fifteen years in the arts, with a background as an art director and fine art photographer. Indigenous Dominican materials are the foundation: amyris, wild orange and cacao butter from the island, alongside palo santo gathered in Ecuador.

Seven eau de parfums, hand-poured candles, botanical body oils and incense make up the range, produced in small batches and in limited editions, and built to be layered. The fragrances are vegan and cruelty free, blended on USDA organic sugarcane alcohol and housed in Spanish glass from a Costa Brava maker, made with recycled content. A percentage of profits goes to The Dream Project, which runs education programs across twenty-seven Dominican communities.