Date Published: 03/25/1998

Detroit News, Detroit, MI ~ Gannett Newspapers

Detroit News, Detroit, MI ~ Gannett Newspapers
Julie Hinds

Ann Arborite sniffs out old perfumes for clients

        Tracking down perfumes is technically what Gary Droz does. But his real business is sniffing out memories.
        A recent inquiry into Droz’s 2-month-old Fragrances Unlimited company came from a 72-year-old woman who wanted to find Tigress. Why? Because six decades ago, when she was in the hospital getting her  tonsils out, a nurse was wearing it.
        Droz has parlayed his experience working in the cologne department of his family’s Riverview drugstore into his Ann Arbor-based mail-order company. “It was fun finding these old fragrances for people, especially if I could load up on them,” he says.
        Now Droz spends his days looking for discontinued and hard-to-find fragrances. He has an in-house inventory and a national network of suppliers and wholesalers. Some of the brands available include Arpege, Samsara, Patchouli Musk and Nuance.
        “A lot of times, they’re not really discontinued,” says Droz of the elusive scents. “When a mall stops carrying it, they’ll just say they’re not making it anymore.”
        To find out about a fragrance, or to get a newsletter listing more than 250 brands, write to Fragrances Unlimited at 4836 Washtenaw Ave., A-7, Ann Arbor, MI, 48108, or call 734-434-069.