If summer is not the perfect time to pamper your skin to the extremes then when is? As summer starts approaching, our clothes become brighter, our scents become sweeter, and our skin just always glows. It's sadly becoming less about long hot baths, and more about quick and easy ways to help us feel beautiful and confident in the slight heat we get here in the UK. Pulling together my essentials for this post, a theme suddenly occurred; cruelty-free. 100% of these products are cruelty-free which makes me super happy. (Updated: Soap & Glory formulas haven't been tested on animals, but they can't guarantee the ingredients haven't been. You can read their full statement here). So, let me introduce you to all the thing I am loving this summer.

SKINCARE

It's like my skin gives up once we get to around June/July. Sections of my face become dry, while other sections become really oily, and some sections just alternate between the two, great. My nose area usually sticks to being oily. I've used more expensive pore stripes, but the Boots Tea Tree and Witch Hazel range do just as good of a job. I buy the one with active charcoal as that's exactly what I need to draw out all the excess oils, remove blackheads, and unclog my pores. What I didn't notice about this pack when I brought it was it's a two step process. The first step is your usual pore strip, but the second step is a seal and calming nose strip. Infused with tea tree oil and witch hazel, you place this onto your nose to help tighten the pores and soothe the skin.

MAKE-UP

I prefer a softer make-up look in the summer, so I stick to a few basics. For skin, I like to use Feeling Younger from Lush. It's a skin tint which you use exactly like a highlighter and it leaves your skin looking radiant. I use my little finger to dab the tint onto areas I want to highlight, like my brow and cheekbone, and blend it into my skin. You can add a tiny amount to your moisturiser for a full dewy glow. Victorious is an earth eye powder from Lush. It's a beautiful pigmented golden colour, and what makes it super special (and an earth powder), is adding a tiny drop of water onto your brush when blending creates a deeper metallic shade. For lips, it's all about moisture and subtle colour. To start off with I use Soap & Glory's Smooch Operator, and then apply Barry M's matte 179 lipstick in colour 'Obsessed'. It looks quite dark, but applied, it enhances my natural lip colour to a tinted pink.

HAIR

I am a huge fan of Umberto Giannini, and they were lovely enough to send me a few new products from their beach collection. My favourite product is the Catch A Wave* coconut oil beach texture spray. I spray it onto clean, damp hair, and lightly scrunch the mid-lengths of my hair and allow it to dry naturally. If need be, I spray more onto my dried hair, and use my fingers to separate stands of my hair to create a real beachy vibe. It creates such a beautiful, natural texture with minimal work. The scent is gorgeous, and even includes UV filters to help protect coloured hair from fading.

NAILS

For the past few years, I've been taking a real interest in keeping my nails as maintained as possible. I've never liked having long nails, so a short beautifully shaped nail is all I need, but slight problem, my cuticles have a mind of their own. Luckily, while shopping at Models Own, I came across their Cuticle Trimmer and Pusher. I wasn't sure how effective it was going to be, but it was pretty cheap, so I thought I'd give it a go. I have to say, this is one of my favourite beauty purchases in a very long time. One side is a little rubber pusher to push your cuticles back, and the other side is a trimmer to carefully remove the snags from around your nail. Even without polish, my nails look and feel super pampered.

To be honest, I rarely wear a dark nail colour, and 95% of the nail polishes I own are "summer appropriate colours," so picking summer shades is always very easy. This season I've been wearing 'Tropical Sun' and 'Indian Ocean', and I've been obsessed with these colours forever. They're part of Models Own's Beetlejuice collection, but sadly they don't sell these anymore (sorry!). If you're looking for an alternative, the colours in the Holochrome, and Celestial collections are very similar. My checklist for nail paints is usually shiny, glittery, or iridescent, and these colours fit these three descriptions perfectly. I love the range of beautiful colours you get with these paints, and they look even better when the sun reflects off your nails.

BODY

There are two products you need for perfect smooth summer skin; a scrub and a moisturiser. I have recently been using Soap & Glory's Sugar Crush body scrub, which smells like heaven in a tub. Moisturising in the summer always becomes a chore for me, but using a Soap & Glory's spray-on moisturising mist is heaven sent. You can get a quick light coverage, without feeling sticky. Another secret product I like to use is a dusting powder. It helps to absorb any unwanted moisture, whether that's from a moisturiser, or for my favourite use, chub rub. The dusting powder I use is Fairy Dust which is part of Lush's Christmas collection, but any snow fairy scented product is a part of my life all year round.

FEET

I love to pamper my feet throughout the year, but it does become a stricter routine during the summer. If the weather is hot, soaking your feet is the last thing you want to do, so after I come out the shower (I do this weekly), while my feet are slightly damp and soft, I rub Lush's Pumice Power all around the bottom of my feet concentrating on the heels. It's made from pumice powder which helps to exfoliate and polish dead, dry skin. As it's also a soap, it lathers all over your feet, which makes it even better. Once rinsed off and dry, I layer on Soap & Glory's Heel's Genius all over my feet, and pop on a pair of socks to help soak up the moisture. The scent is super minty and fresh, which I absolutely love. Once you wake in the morning, you'll have the softest feet ever!

SCENT

This scent is everything. All Good Things is not your typical summer scent, but it's so perfect that I have to wear it all the time. The backstory behind this perfume is saying goodbye to the old, and welcoming in the new. The main note is sandalwood, making it quite woody and smoky, but you also get a sweetness from the tonka absolute and rose oil. What I love about Lush's perfume is that the scent will change slightly depending on who's skin it's on, and it can even change throughout the day as your skin's pH changes. If this is not amazing, then I don't know what is.

Let me know in the comments below your summer beauty essentials. I'm trying to extend my cruelty-free product list, so let me know your favourite cruelty-free brands.