Fragrance house

Kai

Kai was founded by Gaye Straza in Malibu in 1999, after she sold her fashion boutique to develop a fragrance company. She first created the scent for herself, drawing on memories of tropical flowers from her youth in Hawaii and other tropical settings. Before the company launched, Straza introduced it through her boutique, where customer requests and a chance encounter with a beauty editor helped turn the personal perfume into a business. Kai’s public identity is associated with a Malibu- and Hawaii-inspired tropical white-floral aesthetic and the philosophy “breath, life, flow.” The brand evolved into a single-scent lifestyle line built around layering the fragrance through body-care and home products. In 2007, Kai’s body butter and body buffer were selected for Oprah’s Favorite Things, a major turning point for the company during the recession period. The brand is majority owned by Gaye Straza, and Kai LLC is independently owned. Kai Signature is the defining fragrance, a white-floral composition centered on gardenia and other white flowers. In 2017, Kai introduced Kai*Rose, its second scent, created to layer with the original Kai while adding rose to its floral direction.