By Candace Adrian and Lindsay Nichols

If smell is the sense most connected to memory, then choosing a signature fragrance is no small task. This smell, this scent, will become attached to your persona. It has to reflect your lifestyle, your personality, your style. In short, it has to reflect you.

Sometimes walking around a department store searching for the perfect scent can be a bit overwhelming. With hundreds of aromas filling the air as you glance through countless bottles of varying shapes, sizes and colors, the options are endless and, after awhile, they all begin to smell the same.

At Earth Elements, in Grandview, owner Nyongson Pae helps her clients create their own personal fragrance.

What is unique to Pae’s 14-year-old shop is its specialization in 100 percent organic, natural perfumes. Unlike most other fragrances, which are carbon-based, synthesized compounds made in a lab, Earth Elements uses steamed, distilled plant compounds to create organic oil bases or a 100 percent grain organic alcohol.

Your body can adapt to natural ingredients more quickly, Pae says. “You can come in, consult with us and tell us what types of scents you like, such as floral or woody scents or maybe spicy odors,” she adds. “Then we go through the different possible scents you have as options and put together a combination of top, middle and base notes.”

If you’re still not sure what category you prefer, Sephora’s Web site (www.sephora.com) includes a fragrance finder for women to determine if they are a “fresh,” “floral,” “oriental” or “woody” type of girl. Likewise, men can find out what “type” of guy they are.

Once you have decided on your category, it’s just about narrowing down the finer points – women’s “oriental” scents can be further categorized by “woody oriental,” “floral oriental,” “soft oriental,” and so on.

So go in, sniff around, and see what strikes you; you’ll often know right away. If you end up smelling too many scents in succession, look for the bag of coffee beans on the counter – they neutralize smells so they don’t blend together. Still can’t decide? Some stores will provide samples you can take home to see if the scent truly fits the everyday you.

Candace Adrian and Lindsay Nichols are contributing writers for CityScene.