Jessica Alba looks absolutely define, flawless, effortless, stunning etc etc on the cover and pages of the new issue of Los Angeles Confidential magazine to promote the Honest Co. Click here to watch the cover shoot and hear photographer Brian Bowen Smith praise Jess.
When Jessica Alba was pregnant with her first daughter, Honor Marie, in 2008, her mother told her about all the products she’d need to buy. “It was, ‘You have to start using this, you have to start using that,’” recalls Alba. “Of course I wanted the safest, healthiest environment for my baby.” But when Alba started checking out the labels of baby items and everyday household products, she was taken aback at the sheer volume of chemical ingredients they contained. “I thought, This is nuts—it’s insane. How is this even legal?” Now, in addition to daughters Honor and Haven Garner (born last August), Alba is parenting a new addition: She’s the cofounder of the subscription e-commerce enterprise The Honest Company (honest.com), which offers consumers a monthly delivery of bundles of nontoxic, plantbased, beautifully designed baby and family essentials, including diapers, bath and skincare products, and home cleaning supplies.
Listening to Alba talk about the company, one quickly realizes she’s at least as passionate—likely more—about this project as she is about anything she’s done on the big or small screen.
“It stems from being a mom,” she says. “When I [was pregnant the first time] and started shopping in stores and online, it was just horrific seeing all these toxic chemicals [in baby products], which can contribute to everything from cancer to autism. I have the time and the means to shop around and find the best products, but most people don’t. I wanted to come up with one brand people could trust. You can have baby items that are cute and eco-friendly, with delivery right to your door.”
Alba partnered with ShoeDazzle and LegalZoom founder Brian Lee, pricegrabber.com executive Sean Kane, and environmentalist (and husband to actress Jessica Capshaw) Christopher Gavigan—she’s a huge fan of Gavigan’s book, Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home. “You see packages in stores, and maybe the box is oatmealcolored or there’s a green leaf on it, and you think it’s eco-friendly,” says Alba. “We just assume it’s better for us, but the packaging doesn’t mean anything.”
From the moment she first envisioned the company, the actress knew she wanted to do much more than just have her name on products. “Three years ago I conceptualized it, and I was all on my own,” she says. “Everyone thought I was crazy for wanting to do a consumer-products company. They were like, Why don’t you do a perfume? Or, Why don’t you do a fashion line? Then when I said I wanted to do one that was geared toward children, everyone thought I was even more crazy,” she says with a laugh.
“[And] when I said I wanted to make safer, nontoxic products, people were like, ‘What does that mean? And why and how will it be different from anything else out there?’ They thought I was nuts for wanting to launch with more than 20 products, but I know what it takes to put together a household, and I know how many products you actually go through as a parent. When we surveyed other parents, they had the same thoughts I did, so I wasn’t totally crazy—thank God.” CLICK HERE to read the rest of the article.