theSKIN x Puni Petals

@ 2025-02-04 14:04:40 -0800

Your favorite brand's favorite florist, Puni Akkasintawagkui, of Puni Petals invites us into her home and her bathtub to yap about the business of florals, her skincare rule of three and her origin story. 

How did you get into florals & what prompted you to build Puni Petals?

I was into everything! I was (and still am) a jill-of-all-trades and flowers was another wonderful expression of creativity that I felt a strong gravitational pull towards, I really couldn’t place my finger on why. Flowers have been so mesmerizing to me. With the encouragement of my favorite florist at the time, Forma Floral, I gave myself $50/week to go to the actualflower market in DTLA (not Trader Joe’s or Whole Food Flowers) and I promised myself that whatever I made from that trip I will put up on this little IG channel using my alter flower girl ego, “Puni Petals.” After a while, I didn’t really have room to keep all these arrangements I was making, so I started selling them to friends to just cover the costs. And then strangers started messaging me for them. From there I built a website, created a quick order form and voilá! Puni Petals “the business” was born. So it was all a fast but natural progression, but I really believe that Puni Petals “the girl” has always lived within me–I just let her out.

Do you feel that your roots & background have influenced your creative expression, & if so, in what ways?

Growing up in Thailand has given me this innate optimism on life that I truly believe that only Thais possess. This sense of ease and deep focus on the good things in life. I think it’s because it’s such a sunny and fertile country that everyone is generally happy as a baseline and doesn’t take things so seriously–we are called “The Land of Smiles” for a reason. This gave me the ability to incorporate a lot of play in my creative expressions, which I think is the most important thing.

How do you balance the craft of florals with the business side of being an entrepreneur?

It is a dance! The very fast transition of doing flowers as a little hobby to running a full flower studio that is a business with sections that’s not just flowering but logistics, finances, administrative, staffing, marketing, community partnerships, new business outreaches etc. was very daunting at first but I came to find a lot of joy and fun in it as well. I came from a family of entrepreneurs that has always been very encouraging in starting your own business, so I had a lot of support and great advice when I needed it. To me it’s all about what is the next natural step and focusing on that, instead of overwhelming myself with big ideas (and I have so many of them my head could explode!) Also learning to acknowledge my weaknesses and my strengths, be honest about it, and be ready to delegate helps a lot with sustaining your relationship with your work and preventing burn out.

What does your creative process of approaching a new arrangement look like?

It will always start at the market–going to the flower market in the morning, seeing what’s in season and sometimes stumbling into something I’ve never seen before is always the beginning of my process. I love building around the unexpectedness of what I’m going to find at the market that day. It’s ever-changing! Just like everything in life.

Can you walk us through your day-to-day skincare routine?

My skincare motto is always to keep it simple. We tend to overdo it with skincare because there is so much out there but I really keep it to cleansing, a hyaluronic acid serum, a serum that is targeting a concern, a moisturizer and if it’s day time, sunscreen (always!) I focus on how my skin has been feeling that week, is it extra congested? Then salicylic acid or niacinamide. Is it extra dry out? Then retinol and ceramides. I also drink SO much water, I have an emotional support water bottle with me at all times.

What's one facile product you can't live without?

Sooooo hard to pick because I seriously love them all! It goes with how I approach skincare perfectly–simple, to the point, effective with none of the fluff. I will say I’m pleasantly surprised by the Dew You serum’s texture, it’s so silky and feels so luxurious to put on. And since I use an HA serum in both my AM/PM routine, I found myself wanting to reach for it… but then also saving it sometimes because I’m scared I’m going to run out of it too fast!

What advice would you give young creatives looking to pursue their craft?

Start from the heart! Take the pressure off it! Do it because it feels and looks good to you. Most of the time I find that people are worried about what other people will think of their work understandably because your art has so much of who you are in it.