B00AFU6252 EBOK (16 page)
Authors: Jessica Alba
A
ND THIS IS
what it’s really all about: how to find safe, healthy stuff that you can slather all over your little ones. Of course, I firmly believe that while we need higher safety standards for children’s products, in a perfect world, we’d use those same standards for everyone. After all, Haven spends a fair amount of time snuggled up to my skin . . . and now that Honor is a bit older, she’s all about stealing Mommy’s beauty products to use on herself. But there’s no question that what you put directly on their skin needs to be the purest of all. Remember to check ingredient labels for all of the “Dishonest Ingredients” listed in this chapter (parabens, phthalates, and sodium lauryl sulfate are the top ones to avoid no matter what!) and always buy fragrance free unless the company tells you they only use plant-based fragrance ingredients (and they list what those are).
M
Y HONEST TEAM
and I tested dozens of formulations to find the perfect no-crying recipe for our Honest Shampoo & Body Wash. That’s because most baby shampoos and shower gels are just as harsh as any others on the market—but manufacturers add a numbing agent so your baby’s eyes don’t sting. Not to mention, they also put in chemicals linked to cancer, allergies, and other health problems. I mean, come on. Do we really need to use chemicals linked to cancer to bathe our babies?
Plant-based actives are best here. Our product uses fruit extracts, essential oils, shea butter, and kukui nut oil, plus organic calendula and aloe, so it won’t dry out baby’s skin. It’s also pH balanced so it’s not as harsh as many other soaps and shampoos, and it won’t irritate delicate eyes or skin.
FOUND IN:
Baby shampoo, kids’ bubble bath, regular shampoo, soap, and shower gel
WHAT IS IT?
Sodium lauryl or sodium laureth sulfate and “PEG” are sudsing agents, which make things foamy. (Beware of any ingredients that include the terms “xynol,” “ceteareath,” and “oleth.”)
WHY IS IT SKETCHY?
When these chemicals are manufactured, they release a toxic by-product called 1,4-dioxane. This chemical easily penetrates our skin and may cause cancer and birth defects. It may also be toxic to our kidneys, neurological system, and respiratory system.
Remember always to do a patch test when you try a new product on your baby.
Just like soap and shower gel, lots of conventional kids’ bubble baths contain SLS, 1, 4-dioxane and other problematic ingredients—more than half of the kids’ bath products tested by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics have turned up formaldehyde and 1, 4-dioxane!
It’s especially important to look for bubble baths that are formulated with hydrating ingredients, because as fun as it is, sitting in a tub full of bubbles can seriously dry out sensitive skin. (Honest Bubble Bath is made with organic aloe vera, calendula, and chamomile to soothe skin.) And be sure to follow up your kids’ tub time with a good lotion or body oil (or a combination) to seal in moisture.
Since I don’t want to expose the girls to unnecessary doses of PVC, a harmful material used to make squishy plastics, we don’t use rubber duckies or bath books. Instead, I give Haven some bowls and spoons made out of a safe silicone or plastic (remember: “4, 5, 1, and 2—all the rest are bad for you!”). She has a blast splashing and scooping water while I’m scrubbing up Honor, which is key when you’ve got two soapy kids in the tub!
A lot of kids hate putting on lotion, but it’s important not to skip this step. Honor complains about it, but I remind her that we have to prevent her skin from getting all pruney, whether it’s summer and she’s spending tons of time playing mermaids in the pool, or winter when we’re all spending too many hours indoors with central heating (which can be very drying).
I also find that if I let Honor put it on herself, she gets more into it. And most key of all is to pick a lotion that absorbs quickly—kids hate to feel sticky, just like grown-ups do!
Again, this is a category where you want to avoid petroleum and look for plant-oil-based formulas instead. (Honest Healing Balm is formulated with organic sunflower, tamanu, chickweed, and olive and castor oils, which soothe and help prevent and treat diaper rash.) Using a good diaper cream should allow you to skip the baby powder, which is full of talc and other not-so-great stuff. Remember always to do a patch test when you put a new product on your baby, and wait 24 hours to make sure she doesn’t have a reaction. If you’re dealing with really aggressive diaper rash that doesn’t resolve when you switch products, consult your pediatrician.
Ahem. Here’s a kinda dirty secret about how my family gets clean: Even though I’ve had all these no-more-toxin epiphanies (and hello, launched a natural personal care products company!), I cannot get Cash to break up with his drugstore-brand soap. It costs about $3, and he’s such a guy’s guy, it’s basically the only thing he uses. He just doesn’t want to mess around with any other products. And you know what? It’s fine . . . this is all about being honestly imperfect, right?
Fortunately, my business partner, Christopher Gavigan, is the Honest Company’s chief product officer for a reason—he’s all about experimenting and finding the cleanest stuff that really works. He loves all-in-one products, like our Honest Shampoo & Body Wash, or Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap (which you can use to wash your hair, your body, your dog, and your dishes . . .). And he turned me on to the Herban Cowboy line of guy’s grooming products, which are super clean and effective (and I love that the company was founded in a log cabin in rural Montana). I’m sneaking as many as I can into Cash’s side of the bathroom!
Use these lists as a starting point to help you learn more about finding the safest products out there. These are my go-to sources—but don’t be afraid to do your own research.
- ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP DATABASE
(
ewg.org/skindeep
)
For this online reference, researchers have crunched safety data on more than 74,000 personal care products and given each a score from 0 to 10 based on its level of toxicity. I always check any new purchase by searching for it on this site. But it’s not perfect: EWG is an underfunded nonprofit organization, so they don’t have the manpower to keep the database up to date with every new product that hits the market, and they don’t cover products released overseas. But for now, it’s a tremendous resource. - GORGEOUSLY GREEN
(
gorgeouslygreen.com
)
is a fun and super useful Web site. Sophie Uliano has tons of great advice for every aspect of your lifestyle and does solid research on any product she awards with her “Gorgeously Green Seal of Approval.” - NO MORE DIRTY LOOKS
(
nomoredirtylooks.com
)
is another one of my favorite resources; it’s a beauty and health blog run by two cool girls, Siobhan O’Connor and Alexandra Spunt, who wrote a book by the same name and now keep their readers up to date on all the latest eco-health news and offer tons of helpful reviews of eco-beauty products. They’re my go-to when I want to find, say, a nontoxic deodorant that doesn’t leave me stinky—because they’re all about supersafe products but they also insist on stuff that
works.
There’s no evidence that washing your hands with antibacterial soap or spritzing on lots of antibacterial hand sanitizer is any better for you than good old soap and water—and we may be contributing to antibiotic resistance and other problems by using them. (See “
Triclosan
.”) So keep it simple—or if you do need some kind of sanitizer (after changing diapers, cleaning the cat litter, or riding the subway, for instance!), use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that doesn’t contain any triclosan, like, yes, Honest Hand Sanitizer.
