Within a cozy, vibrantly colored storefront loft tucked above a busy West Los Angeles street lies a little oasis that captures both the beauty and the wonderfully laid-back rhythms of life in the Caribbean.

Open the door to Marietta’s Chattel House, which offers natural, handmade body care products created by international celebrity makeup artist Marietta Carter-Narcisse, and your senses will swear that they’ve been transported to the tropics.

Thick, hand-hewn soaps with alluring names like Caribbean Queen, Obeah and Pomche Crème lie in open wicker baskets, perfuming the air with the island scents of jasmine, musk and citrus. Tins of nourishing mango, shea and cocoa body butters are wrapped in beautiful gilded drawstring pouches. Anguilla Bath Salts, rich with essential oils, are studded with an array of exotic flower petals and herbs.

Everything here -- from the scents, sights and names of the oils, scrubs and soaps -- is lushly evocative of the different regions, cultures and food of the Caribbean. A gift from Marietta’s Chattel House is like having a little piece of paradise wrapped up in raffia and brown paper, ready to take home for your own island party in the tub.

The studio that is home to her new cosmetics company is affectionately called “Marietta’s Chattel House,” after the indigenous, brightly painted movable homes of her native island, a striking blend of who Marietta Carter-Narcisse is. It is a marriage of her extensive knowledge in the beauty industry as a motion picture makeup artist with her background in chemistry. And it is all inspired by a fascination with herbs and flowers that began when she was growing up in Barbados, watching her mother use plants from their own backyard to concoct medicinal teas.

She launched Marietta’s Chattel House in June 2001 to share the love of her rich heritage by offering quality, hypoallergenic beauty products, handmade with natural ingredients and a lot of Caribbean groove thrown in for good measure.