The June Edit
Longer days, boring wellness, good books, and a season worth showing up for.
Welcome back to The Soft Girl Files — a monthly dispatch focused on wellness, culture, monthly favourites, and everyday rituals, edited for calm. Each edition gathers ideas, habits, products, and observations that support a softer, healthier, and more intentional way of living.
Friends, it’s JUNE and it’s HAWT.
The water is finally warm enough to get into and I have been outside every chance I get. Something shifts in me this month every single year. The air feels different, the evenings feel longer, the impulse to be somewhere with good food and good people and no particular reason to go home feels impossible to ignore. BBQs that turn into whole nights. Dinners outside that nobody wants to end. Any body of water within reach. This is my season and I am fully in it.
June is also the halfway point of the year, which I find genuinely exciting. Six months in. Enough time to look back honestly at what’s actually been working and enough summer ahead to do something good with the rest of it. It’s the perfect time to do a quiet check-in and a chance to figure out what you actually want the second half of the year to feel like.
The energy of summer this year feels softer than it has in years. Less about fixing, optimizing, less becoming. More just being in it. More walks after dinner and flowers on the counter and getting in the water just because it’s there.
So here’s what’s going on in my corner of the world. Let’s get into it. 🌊
Here’s what’s trending in wellness right now and what I actually think about it.
01. BORING WELLNESS
“Boring” Wellness is 100% back ! One of the most interesting wellness trends happening right now is that people seem to be falling back in love with the basics. After years of wellness culture convincing us we needed expensive supplements, complicated routines, cold plunges, cortisol hacks, and seventeen different products before breakfast, the pendulum seems to be swinging back.
The habits currently dominating wellness conversations are surprisingly ordinary. Walking after dinner. Eating more protein and fiber. Getting morning sunlight before screens. Strength training a few times a week. Drinking enough water. Going to bed at a reasonable hour like a person who respects herself. None of this is particularly exciting, but these are the practices that have supported many generations.
For a long time, wellness content rewarded complexity. The more elaborate your routine looked, the more aspirational it became. Now people seem far more interested in habits they can actually maintain without a spreadsheet and a second income. The internet spent years convincing us wellness had to be intense. More women are realizing that consistency beats intensity almost every single time.
VERDICT: Fully on board. The older I get, the more I realize the habits that actually change your life tend to be the least exciting ones. I’ve been doing a ten-minute walk after dinner for about a month and it has done more for my digestion and sleep quality than I am comfortable admitting given how unsexy it is as a habit.
02. SPF REAPPLICATION CULTURE
One of the more unexpected wellness shifts this summer is that sunscreen has somehow become aspirational — which if i’m being honest, I’m not mad at it.
SPF sticks are everywhere. They’re living in tote bags, gym bags, beach bags, and the tiny side pocket of purses that never fit anything useful. The appeal isn’t really the formula, but rather the convenience of it all. Reapplication was one of those things everybody knew they should do and almost nobody actually did, because it was messy, it disrupted makeup, and it felt like a chore. Newer SPF formulas and packaging have solved that problem completely.
Consistent SPF is one of the few things dermatologists have agreed on for decades. We’re just finally making it easy enough to actually do.
VERDICT: Im 100% with this trend because I was always one of those girls that would apply it at home and call it a day. I recently started using the Abib Airy Sunstick and I 100% get now how packaging shapes consumer practices. Get one and put it in your everyday bag because June is not the month to negotiate with UV rays.
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Being on my phone when the weather is this good is a simple no for me. The internet will be exactly where I left it when I get back so I’m going to TOUCH GRASS. Every summer I tell myself I’m going to spend less time staring at my phone and more time actually participating in my life, and honestly, I think this might be the year I finally mean it.
Speaking of being outside, I’m officially retiring the idea that every outdoor outfit needs to suffer a little. For years I convinced myself certain sandals, dresses, and bags were worth the discomfort because they looked cute in photos. Then I’d spend the entire evening adjusting straps, sweating aggressively, and counting down until I could go home and change. The comfortable outfit wins this summer because it is simply too short to spend it mildly irritated.
And while we’re talking about things that stop us from fully enjoying ourselves, I’m no longer sitting beside the pool protecting my hair. I have spent enough summers carefully avoiding water because I didn’t want to deal with the aftermath. Meanwhile everyone else was swimming, floating around, laughing, cooling off, and generally having a significantly better time than I was. My hair will recover, but the memory of a perfect June afternoon is a little harder to recreate. I’m getting in.
Which brings me to something else. I’m done skipping meals because I’m worried about looking bloated in a swimsuit. If anything, skipping meals is usually what makes me feel worse. Tired, irritable, distracted, and somehow even more aware of my body than I was in the first place. Eat the food, drink the water and go enjoy the beach!
And finally, the one I probably need to hear most myself. I’m leaving behind the idea that I need plans in order to enjoy a beautiful evening. For some reason, adulthood convinces us that enjoyment requires logistics. But some of my favorite summer memories have involved absolutely none of those things. A chair outside, a walk around the neighborhood, an iced drink on a patio and watching the sky change colors from the backyard.
June gives us some of the longest evenings of the entire year and I don’t particularly want to spend them waiting for something more exciting to happen. Sometimes the evening itself is the plan.
June always changes what I reach for. The products earning permanent spots in my routine right now aren’t necessarily the most exciting ones. They’re the things quietly making summer easier, prettier, and considerably more comfortable.
Abib Airy Sunstick Protection Bar SPF50+: I’ve become slightly obsessive about SPF sticks lately because they’re one of the few wellness products that actually remove friction from a healthy habit. This one glides on beautifully, doesn’t leave my skin feeling greasy, and fits into every bag I own. It has become one of those products I never think about until I need it, and then I’m incredibly grateful it’s there.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Shimmer Body Oil: Every summer I remember that looking healthy and looking glowy are not exactly the same thing. This is for the days when you want a little extra something. It gives skin that sunlit, just got back from vacation effect without looking glittery or overdone. If June had a beauty product, this would probably be it.
A Foldable Picnic Blanket: Summer always sounds more spontaneous than it actually is until you’re standing in a park realizing the grass is damp or full of ants and nowhere looks particularly comfortable to sit. A proper foldable picnic blanket solves that problem entirely. Beach days, park hangs, farmers markets, outdoor concerts, reading outside—it has quietly become one of my most used summer items over the years next to a folding chair.
A Handheld Misting Fan: I used to think these were slightly ridiculous to walk around with. Then I spent enough time outside in actual summer weather and completely changed my mind. The combination of cold mist and airflow feels amazing in this heat. It’s become one of those things I throw in my bag before outdoor events, beach days, and long walks.
Owala FreeSip Tumbler: Staying hydrated stops being optional once summer arrives. Between the heat, the beach days, the long walks, and the fact that I’m trying to spend as little time indoors as possible, I need a water bottle that can keep up. This keeps my water cold for hours and has quickly become one of my most-used summer essentials. Cold water just tastes better and I’m willing to die on that hill.
June always changes the way I move through my days. Maybe it’s the longer evenings. Maybe it’s the fact that everyone suddenly wants to be outside again. Whatever it is, I find myself gravitating toward different habits this time of year.
Keeping cut watermelon in the fridge at all times. At this point it’s become less of a snack and more of a summer essential. It’s cold, hydrating, requires absolutely no effort, and somehow always sounds good. Every year I forget how much I love watermelon and every June I end up buying one that’s far too large for a normal household. Oh and watermelon with a squeeze of lemon >>
Taking more photos of ordinary things. I just love romanticizing and capturing simple things. The beach chair view, a really good patio dinner, a farmers market haul I was irrationally excited about. Summer always feels endless while you’re in it and surprisingly short once it’s over.
Getting in the water more often. Every year I forget how much better I feel after a beach or river day. Water really just refreshes how your body feels by just forcing you just exist for a while in those moments. I should probably do that more often.
Staying outside a little longer than I planned to. Some of my favorite summer memories have happened because I decided not to leave immediately. June gives us some of the best evenings of the entire year and I’m trying to actually be there for them.
Reading more. Every summer I become the person who genuinely believes she’s going to read twelve books by September. Historically, this has not been true. But I am setting a goal of three books for June and, for once, I actually think I might pull it off. Something about reading outside makes it feel easier. A chapter by the pool somehow turns into fifty pages without me noticing.
Know someone who would absolutely appreciate a reminder that wellness doesn’t have to be complicated?
Send them this edit.
I’d love to know:
What’s one thing you’re currently loving this summer?
A show, a recipe, a hobby, a random obsession, a wellness habit—drop it in the comments because I’m always looking for recommendations.
June doesn’t need a perfect plan. It doesn’t need another glow-up checklist or another version of you. Maybe it just needs a little more participation.
Go outside. Take the walk. Wear the outfit. Buy the flowers. Get in the water. Stay at the table a little longer than you planned. The women who seem happiest this time of year aren’t usually the ones trying to optimize every moment. They’re the ones actually living in them.
Thanks for being here. 🤍
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See you next month. xx
Boring wellness 👏🏼👏🏼 focusing on the simple things daily and consistently will always prove more effective than the erratic moves to optimise health that have no foundation to be built on.