Soho

An early riser, and a sweet one.

Cashmeran holds it down, warm and faintly worn, more skin than wood, with sandalwood alongside doing the smoothing. Vanilla runs through the centre of it. Precious orris keeps a powdery grip on it and the sweetness never turns to dessert. Violet and peach blossom float over the top, closer to light than to flowers.

Cast-iron columns and cobblestones, sunlight dancing across both, and a street already full of creative energy at an hour when most of the city is not. Effortless is the right word for it. Elegant is the other one.

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.