mother's day musings with lily

in celebration of mother’s day this weekend, we are delighted to bring you this week’s post featuring our dear friend and long-time kai devotee, lily oswald, the president of sorrelli jewelry (@sorrellisparkle), which is an incredible female-founded and led jewelry brand with 40+ years of experience offering handcrafted with care and providing a lifetime guarantee for its beautiful jewely offerings.  similar to kai, sorrelli is sold at anthropologie among other exclusive boutiques across the country. lily has been a longtime kai fragrance devotee, particularly with kai*rose perfume oil.  lily’s mom, lisa oswald, co-founder and ceo of sorrelli, is also a longtime friend and devotee of kai. a few years ago, we published a blog post on this beautiful, amazing mother-daughter team at sorrelli. lily is also a new mom celebrating mother’s day with her husband and adorable baby boy, julien.  in lieu of mother’s day coming up this weekend, we asked lily a few questions on her new journey in motherhood, plus a few other fun questions.  please enjoy this q&a with lily below.  

happy mother’s day to all the moms and mother figures out there! 

xo,
gaye and the kai team




what is your favorite thing about being a mom?

i think my favorite thing is when julian giggles. baby giggles are like magic in your life. they just feel like an audible form of pure joy. 


what are your top 5 mom “must-have self-care” items? do you have any go-to products, accessories, personal items that help you to relax & rejuvenate as a mom?

great question.

1. one of my favorite self-care rituals is a hot bath after a long day. it is so luxurious! i love using library of flowers forget me not bubble bath. it’s such a beautiful bottle and i don’t mind seeing it next to my bathtub :)  

2. i have long been a fan of the kai perfume oil roll-on, i keep one in my travel bag and whenever i’m away i have this teeny tiny container with the most gorgeous scent.

3. my lips are always chapped, so i also carry around the fresh sugar tinted lip balm, which feels like a chapstick but is tinted like a lipstick. i wear the coral a lot in summer and i have a great red that i wear year round. 

4. i don’t feel put together unless i curl my eyelashes and put on mascara. that said, i hate when mascara bleeds under your eyes and makes you feel like a raccoon! for years, i’ve been wearing this elizabeth mott mascara which stays put and is just the absolute best in my humble opinion! 

5. lastly, chocolate is my ultimate post-dinner indulgence. more than wine or salty snacks, i am a chocolate lover. i go for the tony’s chocolonely pretzel toffee when i can find it. i discovered the brand when i was traveling to amsterdam for work (where they are based). their leadership is doing amazing work trying to fight child slavery in the cocoa industry. a perfect gift for all the moms in your life!
describe what your perfect mother’s day celebration might look like.

my husband asked me this question last night on the couch!! here’s the day i described:
- i wake up to breakfast in bed. last year my husband made waffles with an amazing fresh fruit compote, and i was blown away. 
- i get my 30 mins of yoga / alone time
 - then i go to our local massage spot for a back massage, so luxe.
- i meet up with jules and matt to walk around town, maybe get a late morning iced latte. 
- then we play outside in our yard with our dog june, our firstborn fur baby. 
- we wrap up the day with dinner at our house with my mom and dad, and my mother-in-law and father-in-law. 


what’s your favorite kai product currently, as a mom of a 1 year old?


for over 10 years i’ve been a huge fan of the kai perfume oil roll-on, but i think i need to get acquainted with the kai bubble bath given my newfound self-care routine!!



does being a mom to julian give you inspiration for creating new jewelry pieces, or for wearing jewelry in different ways than before (pre-motherhood)?  

yes! definitely! let me count the ways:

earrings: i never thought about baby fingers being dangerous around earrings before having jules! i used to wear 2” diameter hoops, like the mixed media hoop earrings, a lot, but now i opt to wear big hoops only when i go out at night! when i’m holding and playing with jules, i just don’t want to take a chance. i opt for smaller stud earrings like the isabella stud earrings when i’m around julian so we don’t have any accidents with him grabbing larger, statement earrings. 
necklaces: breastfeeding for the first 9 months completely changed how i wore necklaces. pre-baby i did a lot of long necklaces (like this allison long necklace), which totally got in the way at feeding time. i wore a lot of shorter chokers that didn’t pose a problem (like this cadenza tennis necklace or the juna tennis necklace)


bracelets: i’ve always worn stacks of sorrelli bracelets. i still do, but now i make sure that the bracelets i’m wearing don’t have sharp points and won’t hurt the baby. pieces like our sienna stretch bracelet are so easy to throw on and off, so i end up grabbing those pieces first (love this one in bright pink or this staple in clear). i feel like i get ready in 5 mins every morning, so the faster the accessories, the better :)

 

it must be so fun for you and ivy to have baby boys around the same age. could you imagine a chapter down the road when baby julian and your nephew join the sorrelli team? 

oh my goodness! first of all, it is so fun to have mav and jules be around the same age. we had their first joint easter egg hunt this year and it got competitive, mav had a lot of help with his egg collecting, haha.
that said, family business is hard and i have no idea if jules or mav would want to join this wild ride with ivy and i. i think one thing that is really common with 1st generation entrepreneurs is they often assume that their kids want to be or should be involved in the family business. there was a lot of pressure from my parents for us to be involved, and the attitude of “we did this for you” was pervasive for many years before i even graduated from college. 

i think as a 2nd generation family business leader, i feel much more of a duty to help my children find what they are personally passionate about, what they want to do in their lives that will give them purpose and create the kind of value that they want. there are so many ways to live a life, and so many different values to assign (building wealth, maximizing flexibility, service to others, service to country etc). 

we joke that julian might grow up to be a chef, because the boy loves food. he eats kimchi and kale and tons of crazy things at 15 months old. if he is passionate about food and cooking, it would be unfair of me to put pressure on him to join sorrelli. if he shows interest in this business and loves the creativity and the energy of fashion, then i think it could be an amazing thing, but we’re so far from understanding all of that today! 


what is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received from your own mom?

many moons ago, as i was embarking on my first year of kindergarten, my mom told me that there are never dumb questions. she told me not to be afraid to ask a question, because if i’m wondering about something, then probably other kids are too. she really, really embedded this into my thinking in a way that stuck with me for years. it made me feel confident enough to ensure my own understanding. and being responsible for my own understanding meant that i was responsible for my own learning, my own intellectual development. 

for many years i had peers in school thank me after class for asking a question that they also had, but were too scared to ask. i found myself feeling like this little advocate for learning, someone who took learning seriously and wasn’t afraid to make sure i “got it”, whatever “it” was.

i am eternally grateful for that chat my mom had with her little 5 year old daughter, because it helped me be a really strong student, and a really confident person who is comfortable saying “i don’t get it, can you please explain?” this has served me well, too well perhaps! anyone who knows me knows i ask a ton of questions! 



we were so excited to partner with sorrelli jewelry in this collaboration and are grateful to support women-led businesses. we are looking forward to this beautiful friendship and stay tuned to see what other collaborations we do with sorrelli jewelry in the future by following us @sorrellisparkle and @kaifragrance on instagram! 

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