Two Spokane women have taken an old word usually reserved for those who sell medicine to cure ailments and added a new meaning that doesn't center on prescriptions. Their downtown business focuses on providing homeopathic and therapeutic services rather than relying on medicinal means to help customers look and feel better.

The women, Sara Morrison and Alicia Smith, own Modern Apothecary, which occupies a 700-square-foot leased space at 9 S. Howard. The business offers massages, makeup services, and facials, and includes a fragrance-blending bar that enables customers to mix and match different essential oils to create custom scents that can be blended into any available beauty products.

It caters largely to career-oriented women between the ages of 25 and 55. Morrison says generally these women care about fashion, but want a healthy lifestyle without giving up style.

Since opening more than a year ago, the company has added the services of an esthetician. Paige Abbarno joined the company in January. She specializes in organic skin care and body waxing. Smith says Abbarno added services that weren't provided by Modern Apothecary and so the pair began to actively look into adding her to the store.

"I was referring my brides out to get facials at her previous place," Smith says. "It made sense to add her."

Smith, a makeup artist, does makeup for weddings, special events, and photo shoots, and is the staff makeup artist on major events for the Inlander, such as the makeup for the models in the "Best Of" issue released in March. She says all of her makeup is either vegan, organic, or all natural.

Morrison is a licensed massage practitioner. She provides a full range of massages, from therapeutic to deep tissue.

The fragrance-blending bar, another service offered by the shop, enables customers to create their own mineral makeup, custom fragrances, and organic skin care and personal care products.

"The blending bar was our brainchild," Morrison says.

The process of creating a product through the blending bar starts by nailing down what kind of scents the customer likes, be it fruity, floral, herbal, or spicy. Morrison says the next step is to find what products the customer would be interested in. From then on, it's a process of elimination with the more than 150 available scents, she says. The final scent is then able to be blended into any of the available skin care products.

Smith says she enjoys being able to provide the opportunity for customers to create their own special fragrance.

"It's fun to make people feel that special," Smith says. She says once that custom fragrance is created, customers can save the scent on file, allowing them to come back and get additional products with that same scent.

Prices for blending-bar products range between $12 and $15, or customers can get three for $30 for most eight-ounce products. Morrison says skin care products that have more expensive oils, like tamanu oil and jojoba oil, cost more.

Tamanu oil comes from nut kernels of the Tamanu trees typically found in Southeast Asia and is known for its ability to generate new tissue growth. Jojoba oil comes from a small shrub generally found in Mexico and the Sonora desert in Arizona and contains vitamin E.

Vegan skin care products don't contain any animal products and generally aren't tested on animals, while organic products don't contain any artificial additives.

The shop, which has a relaxed, soothing atmosphere, has retail space located at the front of the store where the blending bar and makeup products are located, as well as additional seating space along one of the walls. The massage area is in a second room behind the retail space.

Prior to opening Modern Apothecary, Smith and Morrison attended massage school together in 2004 and later worked in retail in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene. Morrison worked for several businesses doing massage work, while Smith was a makeup artist for Nordstrom.

"We crunched the numbers and figured out how much we were spending on rent at other places, and it made more sense to go out on our own," Smith says.

While at school, Smith says the pair learned about the benefits of aromatherapy and they expanded from there.

Smith says her desire to be able to tell customers what ingredients were in the beauty products they were purchasing led to her interest in starting the shop. She says skin care and beauty products typically contain ingredients meant to increase shelf life.

"By the time you're getting Christmas fragrances, they've probably been processed six months before that," Smith says.

She says a common additive is dimethicone, a silicone oil that is added to products such as shampoo to make hair shiny and smooth. Smith says dimethicone can also be added to lotions for a smooth, silky feel.

"People like that feel," Smith says. "That silky, smooth feel is something that's been ingrained."

She contends that people who use skin care products should be aware of the ingredients in what they use.

"Your skin is a sponge," Smith says. "What you put on your skin, it isn't just wiping off; it's soaking up."

She says she tries to buy products for the shop mostly from West Coast suppliers. Her makeup products and bases come mostly from Seattle and Oregon, and essential oils come from a company in California. Smith says whenever possible, they get essential oils that come from their country of origin for quality and therapeutic purposes.

Keeping in line with the sustainable theme of their business, Smith says the shop offers a discount if customers bring in their own clean bottle or other container to store the products they create.

Smith says business has remained steady since opening. She says she and Morrison both had established clientele from previous jobs that they brought over to their new business. She says typically for Morrison, bookings for massages peak in winter, while remaining low in summer; Smith, who caters heavily to weddings, sees her peak in summer, and makeup appointments taper off in winter. Smith says the differing peak seasons mean they feel they are able to provide one-on-one customer service year-round.

Currently, Smith says the two don't have any plans to expand the business. She says she wants to keep the business small because she wants to continue to know her customer base.

"We want to play a role in everything they get so we know they're getting a quality product," Smith says.