Q. I want to buy Eau Sauvage cologne for my husband for his birthday, but it is getting harder and harder to find. Can you help?
A. In the course of writing my book and this column, I have discovered several companies that exist to solve specific needs. Just as there is a company that alters neckties, one that professionally adjusts shirts, and one that repairs umbrellas, so, too, there is a company that caters exclusively to all one's fragrance needs.
Parfumelle is in Fort Worth. As with these other narrowly defined companies, customers contact them from large and small cities across the country, sometimes because they cannot find what they want in their hometown, and sometimes because they know that an expert can help them solve a particular need, despite the distance.
On occasion, people have asked why I would deal with a company halfway across the country when there must surely be one nearby that performs the same service. My answer is that since I don't know of one nearby that is as good or that even exists, why spend time trying to find a place close at hand? Today, with the convenience of the telephone, the Internet, and the mail, why not use the most professional resource available, no matter where it is?
Stores carry a limited amount of merchandise. They stock certain brands, and not others. Many of the larger stores have dropped some older lines of fragrance from their inventory to make room on their shelves for newer brands. If the brand you are seeking is not commonly available, tracking down who has it can be a hassle.
Parfumelle not only has just about every one of the men's (and women's) fragrances currently available, but also has several that are no longer widely available. One of their specialties is hard-to-find fragrance products. Another is making coordinating products (bath powders, body lotions, body oils) customized to match the same fragrance you wear. Thus, if your favorite fragrance comes only in cologne or after-shave and no other matched bath and body products, and if you do not wish to mix two different (and often clashing) fragrances, they can solve the problem by creating such a product to match your fragrance. Men order after-shower talc and women want body creams, oils and bath powder. (800) 874-1118; www.parfumelle.com.
Fragrance products make great gifts at any time of the year. Note: A gift of fragrance has a particular advantage: It brings pleasure not only to the receiver, but to the giver as well.
Another Parfumelle service: The extremely knowledgeable owner -- whose "nose" is as well-developed as any wine expert's -- has an uncanny ability to analyze a fragrance. If the one you have used for years and still want is truly no longer available, he can recommend one that will be as close an approximation as possible. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to resign ourselves to change.
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High Profile on 08/24/2014