Gaye Straza

About Gaye Straza

Gaye Straza is a fragrance creator based in Malibu, California and the founder of Kai. Beginning with the original *Kai*, she has built a fragrance world around white flowers and their connection to personal memories of the tropics.

Career

She was a boutique owner when fragrance-making began as a sideline. After spending about three years searching for the flower scent she had in mind, she began selling the perfume in her own shop. In 1999 she sold the boutique and made the fragrance business her main occupation.

Creative Style & Philosophy

Childhood summers in Hawaii helped shape the original Kai, as did the bouquet of exotic flowers she chose for her own wedding there. Her aim was to make a fragrance that could bring back vacation, the beach and warm weather through the smell of those flowers. When she turned to rose, she surrounded that familiar flower with the white blossoms of the original Kai, finding an unexpected character in the green quality of rose absolute.

Signature Works

• *Kai* — the original gardenia surrounded by exotic white flowers, expressing her memories of flowers in Hawaii.
• *Kai Rose* — rose absolute paired with gardenia and other white flowers, with its green facet brought into focus.