Sunday 23 June 2013

Beauty | Face Oil Review: MUN No.1 Aknari Oil & E-Interview with creator Munemi


MUN No.1 Aknari oil is a night-time face oil that is applied before bed in order to repair the skin, prevent fine lines and wrinkles, and brighten the under-eye area. It's creator is a New York celebrity make-up artist and beauty expert Munemi Imai. She made this product using three ingredients; prickly pear seed oil, argan oil, and rose essential oil. This combination is 100% organic.

The first thing I noticed after opening the box (Red Pear was kind enough to gift me a bottle to review for my readers!) was that the packaging was really adorable. If you have read my reviews before, you understand that packaging is a big factor for me! The bottle and pump is black with a dark blue label decorated with little stars and a moon. After pumping a drop onto my finger (I use it very sparingly, it is potent!) I immediately noticed the smell. It has a moderately strong smell, and is mostly rose essential oils. Since I have been using this oil at night, every time I smell it I instantly think of climbing into a comfy bed. The consistency is definitely that of a thinner oil, and it makes working it into your skin that much easier.

Once applied, it is extremely hydrating. I like to apply this oil to only the problem areas on my face; these areas include under my eyes (I have very poor dark circles), the faint smile lines around my mouth, and the faint frown lines between my brows and on my forehead. Although these problem areas are only visible to me, I understand that with age they will not be getting any better. If you would like to use this product in the morning or day, be sure to apply this oil minimally. I've noticed it has faded these lines and 100% stopped the formation of more. It is very hydrating to my normal/dry skin and I have used it on my entire face in place of moisturizer when I have been without, with great results.

As promised, I have an E-Interview to share with you guys right from the product creator, Munemi Imai! This is what we talked about:




Me: How did you formulate the name for MUN No.1 Aknari? It is very interesting!
Munemi: “MUN” is the brand name, and it’s a part of my name Munemi. Also my nickname is Moon, so that is the pronunciation for MUN.

No.1 came from the number of the test formulas of essential oils that I tried.  Every formula had a number.  Test formula No. 1 was a more complex blend of essential oils and it ended up that pretty much everyone loved the simple rose scent, which was the essential oil in  formula No.1.

Aknari is Prickly Pear in Berber, the language spoken by the indigenous people of Morocco.


Me: What inspired you to create such an oil?

Munemi: I had been tossing around the idea of creating my own skin care products and was doing some research, but in the beginning it wasn't focused on “organic” or “100% natural” products. 

However, after not feeling well for a period of time and not knowing why I decided to review my diet and change the way I looked at food and the personal care products we use.  After about 2 months of eating really clean, with things like veggies, fruit, raw nuts and rice soups I realized that not only had my health improved but I also felt mentally better. During this new diet I read some books on how many toxins we consume from our food, as well as from our personal care products which we use daily.  Our skin is our biggest organ and it absorbs trace amounts of anything that we come in contact with both good and potentially harmful.  So I decided to switch my skin care routine to all natural products.  So I started mixing raw ingredients at home creating classing oils and facial oils.  In a very short period I saw an improvement, my skin was less dry, and I used to have these stripes of red with bumps along my smile line area and I always had to use concealer to hide them, but now the stripes went away and my skin completely cleared.  I think I had had an allergic reaction to some unknown  ingredients in the creams that I had been using.  I have pretty sensitive skin so I was always careful with what I used and I thought that I was choosing the most gentle high quality creams, but it still was not gentle enough for my skin.  As much as I liked products that were "100% natural" I was feeling that there was something missing in the "Organic & 100% natural" skin care products.  There were many products that were really nice, but they weren't effective enough for anti ageing.  I had begun to see sings of aging on my face for example the forming of fine lines and dark circles under my eyes.  So I decided that I wanted to create a product that actually delivers the results and and lives up to its promise of being 100% natural.  And here it is!  I can confidently say I now have less or almost no fine lines or dark circles under my eyes.


Me: The packaging of this oil is gorgeous; how did you come up with the designs?
Munemi: I worked with my friend, Fiona IP, who is a creative director on the logo and packaging. I had gone to Morocco to do research and I met our star ingredient, Prickly Pear Seed Oil!
My trip was so amazing, and I fell in love with the Sahara desert, that i was telling everyone about it.  It was my trip that inspired Fiona to go to Morocco and take the same route that I had taken.  This was before we had begun working together on our packaging.  We when did come together to work on MUN she already had many very good ideas and inspirations from her Moroccan experience. We were both inspired by the night sky in the Sahara, the Moon, and the sky full of stars above the sand dunes.

I hope you enjoyed! Please visit the Red Pear website to purchase this product. 

Luck & Love,
Kaylee Slater

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