Lapis and Luxe is the most recent business to open its doors this year on the west side of Vashon’s town core.
Housed in the northern half of the former liquor store, Lapis and Luxe is owned by Kimberly Smoot, a licensed aesthetician, and Kathryn Tonnessen, an artist and herbalist.
The shop, which officially opened last Friday, sells organic skin care products and essential oils, jewelry, stained glass and watercolor artwork and is a skin care treatment and nutrition support center.
The store’s name reflects the interests of the two owners: Lapis refers to the wild-crafted — meaning sourced from the wild — jewelry created by Tonnessen. A Vashon resident for the past several years, Tonnessen makes necklaces out of stones from the island’s shores and earrings from feathers dropped by local birds and even the translucent backbones of squid. From the day the shop opened, Tonnessen’s jewelry has sold quickly, Smoot said. At the back of the store, three 6-foot panels of stained glass by Tonnessen portray a classic Northwest scene of Mount Rainier.
As for Luxe, the word refers to Smoot’s profession as an aesthetician. Before moving to Vashon two years ago, Smoot ran her business, True Skin, in West Seattle, leasing from two salons. Now, she can combine her skin care treatments, facials and peels, organic makeup, hair tinting and removal with her passion for nutritional support. She sells Eminance, an organic bio-dynamic skin care line from Hungary. She gives treatments in a room located at the back of the store and painted a soothing deep green, where she also offers her clients information and support for eating nutrition-rich foods.
“I give a full-on facial massage, which includes a leg, arm and scalp treatment, steam and mask. It’s really a lovely all-body treatment, and it’s different from what most people have had,” she said adding that while she is not a doctor, she talks to her clients about what she sees during the facials and how it might relate to nutrition.
Tonnessen, who Smoot calls a plant shaman, has worked at Cedarsong on the island and is currently going to school for acupuncture.
“She has foraged and taught classes,” Smoot said. “She harvests everything and is very knowledgeable. She is also very artistic — the downstairs of her house is an entire craft room. She has a storyline for where she collected (elements for) each piece of her jewelry. She is a plant shaman and herbalist.”
The duo plan to offer coffee and tea to clients who come for moxa treatments, a treatment that uses a plant Tonnessen harvests, which is said to help the circulatory system and pain management. They also envision a library with books on nutrition, some of which will be for sale. But the two are perhaps most enthusiastic about turning the open space, with its white walls and colorful carpets lining the wood floors, into a spot for workshops.
“We are excited to do workshops about the herbal (components) and how to create soaps,” Smoot said, “and I’ll be talking about nutrition. For now, we’ll offer what we offer, and then add the evening workshops.”
In addition to the skin care line and jewelry, the shop currently sells colorful handwoven bags made by the Masai in Kenya; earrings from Dakota Wolf, a former Vashon resident, plus watercolors by Smoot’s mother Suzanne Birch.
“We’ve already had great sales,” Smoot said. “We are happy with it, but the best part is that we are hearing that the space is calming, that it has a good feeling in here.”
