Lick Me by Michela Mezzetti | Sunday Scent Story

The Summer Vanilla I Took a Detour for in San Gimignano

There are a lot of ways Italy can ruin you in the best possible way.

A perfect plate of pasta. A glass of wine that tastes better because of where you’re drinking it. A medieval hill town glowing in the afternoon sun.

Or, in my case, a vanilla perfume called Lick Me that already knows exactly what it’s doing.

I had sampled Lick Me by Michela Mezzetti before my last trip to Italy, and once I knew I loved it, ordering it online suddenly didn’t feel like enough. I wanted the bottle, yes. But more than that, I wanted to get it where it came from.

So I took a detour to San Gimignano to visit Michela’s shop, Profumeria Divina Toscana, in person.

Hello, core memory moment.

Because of course the summer vanilla I’d fall for in Tuscany would smell like dessert, sunshine, and a little bit of trouble.

The Fragrance

Lick Me is an Eau de Parfum from Italian fragrance house Michela Mezzetti, and it leans fully into gourmand territory without becoming heavy in the way some vanillas can.

The fragrance has that joyful ice cream cone nostalgia to it, but it doesn’t feel childish. It feels like that sweetness grew up a little, slipped into something prettier, and learned how to flirt.

It’s sweet, but not simple.

Creamy, but not dense.

Dessert, but with a wink.

This is not a smoky vanilla. Not a boozy vanilla. Not a deep winter sweater vanilla.

It’s a summer vanilla.

Creamy, powdered, airy, and playful, with enough iris and amber to keep it feeling pretty instead of purely edible.

The Notes

Top Notes	Heart Notes	Base Notes
Whipped cream, icing sugar	Florentine iris, fiordilatte ice cream, crunchy wafer	Vanilla, sweet amber, love

On paper, it sounds like it should be pure dessert.

And yes, it is gourmand.

But what makes Lick Me special is how soft and lifted it feels. The whipped cream and fiordilatte ice cream give it that cold, creamy sweetness, almost like gelato beginning to melt in the heat. The icing sugar adds a powdery sparkle. The crunchy wafer keeps it from becoming too smooth or too syrupy.

Then the Florentine iris steps in and gives it that little extra bit of polish.

That iris is the note that makes Lick Me feel prettier than expected. It adds a soft, powdery elegance that keeps the fragrance from becoming just another sweet vanilla. The vanilla and sweet amber settle underneath it all, warm and creamy, but still light enough to wear when the weather says absolutely not to anything too dense.

The Story

This bottle didn’t just casually come home with me from San Gimignano.

It earned a detour.

After sampling Lick Me, I knew I needed more than a “yes, add to cart” moment. I wanted to visit Michela’s shop, smell the house in its own world, and bring the bottle home from the place that made it feel even more special.

There’s something different about buying a fragrance from the source. You’re not smelling it in a department store or clicking purchase from your couch. You’re stepping into the world around it.

For me, that world was Tuscany.

Stone streets. Medieval towers. That golden Italian light that makes you feel like maybe you have been under-romanticizing your life. A little perfume shop tucked into a town that already feels like a story. And because San Gimignano clearly had no plans to be subtle, the day kept layering itself into a full sensory memory: the fragrance, the town, the food, and a bottle of Cesani Sanice I loved so much that after leaving town, I went straight to the winery outside San Gimignano and ordered a case.

That is the kind of travel math I fully support.

I left with Lick Me, but I also left with the memory of going to get it from the source. A perfume detour. A wine detour. A full “hello, core memory” moment.

That’s the kind of souvenir I love most.

The kind that comes with a story.

The Michela Mezzetti Moment

Part of what makes Michela Mezzetti so charming is that the whole world of the brand feels personal, playful, and emotionally led.

The fragrances don’t seem afraid of pleasure. They’re expressive. They’re a little cinematic. They feel built around happiness, sweetness, carefreeness, closeness, and all the tiny beautiful things we sometimes rush past.

And the shop itself needs to be on your list if you love fragrance and find yourself in Tuscany.

Not just because San Gimignano is already worth the visit, although it absolutely is.

Not just because it’s special to smell the perfumes in person, although it absolutely is.

But because there’s something magical about finding a scent in the place that shaped its world.

Lick Me could have easily gone full sugar bomb.

Instead, it feels textured. There’s cream, there’s powder, there’s wafer, there’s vanilla, but there’s also that iris note pulling everything into something prettier and more wearable.

It feels joyful, but still composed.

Sweet, but not sticky.

Flirtatious, but not unserious.

That balance is why it works.

And honestly, that balance is why the detour was worth it.

I also brought home samples from the house, and after spending more time with them, I’m pretty sure my next full bottle from Michela Mezzetti will be Breathe Me.

That one actually had a little spotlight in the last issue of EatLoveTravelPlay, paired with Praiano, because that scent feels made for the Amalfi Coast.

But this Sunday Scent Story belongs to Lick Me.

If Breathe Me is the cliffside breeze of the Amalfi Coast, Lick Me is the gelato spoon in Tuscany. The late afternoon stroll. The powdered sugar on your fingers. The sweet little detour that somehow became one of the most memorable parts of the trip.

Where I’d Wear It

I’d wear Lick Me anywhere I want to feel sweet, pretty, and just a little indulgent.

This is a summer dinner vanilla. A vacation vanilla. A late afternoon coffee date that turns into dessert vanilla.

It wants linen. Soft gold jewelry. Bare shoulders. Hair that started the day with a plan and ended the day letting the humidity make creative choices.

Mood

Where It Fits

Italian dinner date

Creamy, sweet, and softly flirtatious

Resort evening

Pretty enough for dressed-up summer skin

Gelato walk

Obviously. It was basically made for this

Warm-weather brunch

Sweet without feeling sticky

Vacation wandering

The kind of scent that makes an ordinary street feel cinematic

Summer night out

Vanilla comfort without the blanket

This is the kind of gourmand I can still reach for when the weather is warm, because it doesn’t feel like it’s trying to wrap me in caramel and cashmere. It gives me the comfort of vanilla, but with air around it.

Where I’d Wear It Locally

In Arizona, Lick Me feels like a post-sunset vanilla.

This isn’t the fragrance I’d overspray before walking through a parking lot at 3 p.m. in July. It’s the one I’d reach for once the sky starts turning pink, the patio lights come on, and dessert suddenly feels like the whole point of the evening.

The Global Ambassador

Polished, sunny, and indulgent enough for a dressed-up dessert or cocktail moment

Pizzeria Virtu

The affogato alone makes it a match, especially when you can add amaro, which brings that bitter-sweet balance I love against all the cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar

The Phoenician

Resort-evening vanilla: soft, pretty, vacation-coded, and best once the desert heat starts to glow instead of glare

If San Gimignano gave Lick Me its story, Arizona gives it its summer test. And locally, this is where it shines: after dark, dressed up just enough, smelling like fiordilatte gelato, powdered sugar, soft iris, and a little bit of trouble.

What I’d Sip With It

The sip for Lick Me had to come from San Gimignano too.

Not just because it makes sense on paper, but because it became part of the same story.

While I was there, I had a bottle of Cesani Sanice, a Vernaccia di San Gimignano Riserva, and it stopped me in my tracks enough that immediately after leaving town, I went straight to the Cesani Winery outside San Gimignano and ordered a case.

Which feels dramatic.

Which also feels correct.

Especially because this wine is the perfect pairing for Lick Me.

Creamy vanilla, powdered sugar, fiordilatte gelato, crunchy wafer, and soft iris next to a chilled glass of San Gimignano white wine? It works because the wine brings brightness, structure, and place. It keeps the sweetness lifted. It pulls the fragrance out of dessert-only territory and back into Tuscany: a table outside, a glass catching the light, tomato and mozzarella on the plate, bread with olive oil, and one of those afternoons that makes you understand why people become deeply unserious about Italy.

There’s also a beautiful little bridge between the two.

Sanice has that rounded Vernaccia character, with a floral elegance and the kind of almond finish that quietly echoes the creamy, powdered softness of Lick Me without making the pairing feel too sweet.

An affogato would still be the obvious dessert pairing.

A limoncello spritz would still be the playful summer pairing.

But the real pairing, the one with the memory attached, is that bottle of Cesani Sanice.

Because sometimes a scent and a sip don’t just match. They come from the same day.

Price + Availability

Lick Me is currently listed at €139 through Michela Mezzetti’s official site.

I bought mine directly from the shop in San Gimignano, which is obviously the dream version of fragrance shopping. But even without the travel story, this is still one of those bottles that feels special if you love creamy, powdery, sweet vanillas with personality.

The official site also notes that purchases from the United States ship from the U.S., with customs fees included in the listed price. Availability can shift, so I’d always check directly if this one is calling your name.

For U.S. shoppers, Lick Me can also be found through Scent Split, where the 100ml manufacturer’s bottle is listed at $220 USD when available. Scent Split also offers samples and decants, which is a nice option if you want to try it before committing to the full bottle.

It’s not the most practical pick if you only want fresh, barely-there, office-safe scents. But if you love a gourmand that has charm, texture, and a little flirtation, Lick Me makes sense.

Especially if you’ve ever wanted a vanilla that feels less like winter baking and more like summer in Italy.

The Final Spritz

Lick Me by Michela Mezzetti is whipped cream, fiordilatte gelato, icing sugar, crunchy wafer, soft iris, vanilla, amber, and a little bit of Italian mischief.

It’s sweet without feeling heavy.

Creamy without becoming cloying.

Playful without feeling juvenile.

And for me, it’s more than just a summer vanilla. It’s San Gimignano in a bottle. It’s a perfume-shop detour turned into a memory. It’s a wine stop that turned into a case. It’s one of those scents that reminds me why I love bringing fragrance into travel stories in the first place.

Because sometimes the best souvenir isn’t the thing you buy.

It’s the way it brings the whole day back.

Lick Me is the perfect summer vanilla for anyone who wants their gourmand soft, sunny, creamy, and just a little bit flirtatious.