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My Favorite Honest Company Products

2013 April 20
by WWGD

MyFaveHonestProducts-WhatWouldGwynethDo

As every mother out there knows, The Honest Company is a brand of all-natural, good for you products created by actress and mom Jessica Alba and environmental crusader and dad Christopher Gavigan last year.

The PR campaign has been nothing short of brilliant – magazines, mommy bloggers, even the business press have all embraced Alba and her mission to make our daily lives a little more, well…honest.

The packaging and marketing is spot on. Simple, chic, the kinds of products you are proud to display around the house.

The customer service is friendly and efficient (in my personal experience), righting wrongs when they occur, fast shipping (though I still wish it were free) and a strong social media campaign that has won over the hearts of many consumers (except Honest Toddler fans, due to this unfortunate little drama that took place this week — all good now, though!).

But how is the product??

The one problem with the plethora of product choices Honest offers is that many people don’t know where to begin. And the truth is, not everything is a winner.

So here are our personal faves (and not so faves), for your reference:

Clockwise from top left:

I never thought twice about what I was using to wash my dishes but this darling little dish brush made from recycled and plant-based bristles is strong on stains and stylish on my kitchen counter.

I love this hand soap and have slowly started replacing ours throughout the house with this clean version. Starting with the kids’ bathroom.

Their first pass at sunscreen wasn’t great. It was super white and left this greasy residue everywhere, we were not fans. When they recently released a new and improved version, I gave it another try and was so glad I did. Second time’s a charm on this one. My only complaint is that the bottle is quite small for the price.

The dish soap is good – lightly scented and effective. I feel like I need a little more of this than my usual Seventh Generation go-to and for the price, it can be hard to justify, but I just ordered another bottle of it, so clearly there is something bringing me back for more.

The body oil changed our lives. Seriously. Little D suffered from this insane dry skin on both hands for months and I tried every hand cream on the market with no luck. One treatment with this oil and she was literally healed overnight. We are obsessed with this body oil and use it all over both kids after baths, on scrapes and scratches, everywhere.

The hand sanitizer is another big favorite around here. You need to get used to its gel-like texture but once you do, you won’t imagine going back to Purell and its nasty little chemicals. I buy the travel bottles and stash them everywhere – in both cars, handbags, school lunch bags…

Finally, the multi-surface cleaner. This stuff is a must-have for any busy household. It’s effective, smells light and fresh and makes you feel good about cleaning the house…well, you know what I mean.

On our not-so-favorite list?

The diapers haven’t worked out for us. The designs are cute and the fit is fine but they forever leaked and now Kai needs something he can pull up (which they don’t offer) so sadly, these are not a winner.

I didn’t love the lip balms either, and I REALLY wanted to. Other people rave about them, but they left my lips chapped and dry after application. I have, however, been using them on Little D and they seem fine for her, which is good.

The healing balm is a pass for us, too. Again, I wanted to love it but it is greasy and didn’t seem to do anything amazing the few times I used it.

And the laundry detergent. It was fine, but for the price and the size, it didn’t stand up to the all-natural ECOS one I find at Costco. Though it was definitely more chic in my laundry room 😉

Things we are in the process of trying:

Conditioning mist, bubble bath, fruit and veggie wash, training pants.

Hope this helps you navigate the world of Honest a little more easily – overall, we are definitely happy to be an Honest family. They make it easy to feel good about the products you are using in your home and on your bodies and that’s beyond important to me these days.

I highly recommend the bundles, where you can choose five products of your choice each month for $35.95. It has worked out nicely for us…though we are still waiting on that free shipping!

*note: this is not a sponsored post and we buy all our Honest products ourselves with the exception of a few products that were gifted to me when I reviewed “The Honest Life” by Jessica Alba.*

10 Responses
  1. April 20, 2013

    Thanks for this! There are definitely some products I will be ordering, like the sunscreen now that it’s finally starting to warm up in NY and we can go outside. Another mom in my building had the same complaint about the diapers, but also recommended the candles.

  2. April 21, 2013

    I am definitely digging the packaging. I can’t say I’ve heard of the brand before. Do they carry these in stores or are they strictly online? I am definitely curious & would love to give them a try.

    • WWGD permalink*
      April 21, 2013

      Hi Connie! Online only for now, at honest.com. Let me know if you give them a try!

    • April 4, 2017

      Target now carries Honest products–I purchase them there regularly. 🙂

  3. Jordan permalink
    April 21, 2013

    FYI – they do have pull-ups (they call them training pants on the website). Never used them, so I can’t comment on the quality, but might be worth a try. Also, I regularly use their fruit and veggie spray and love it. Also really like their OxyBoost. I’ve used their diapers with my 17 month-old son his whole life and never once had a leak….but their wipes are AWFUL. And unfortunately, you can’t buy the diapers without the awful wipes. They even re-formulated them once, but I think the “new improved” version is actually even worse than the original. To me, the site is hit and miss, but the hits really are hits in more ways than one (function, form and earth-friendly).

    • WWGD permalink*
      April 22, 2013

      Thanks, Jordan! Just got a pack of the training pants so we’ll see how they do! Love that you shared your picks!

    • April 4, 2017

      Oh wow–it’s funny how people think differently..the baby wipes are my favorite!!

  4. April 23, 2013

    I’m planning to give the training pants a try next month – after I stock up on dipes for the bebe. Would love to hear your opinion on them. I really hope the diapers work for Quinn. I’ve found that some diapers just don’t work on some kiddos, but I really want these ones to work. I’m surprised you don’t like the lip balm!! I love it!
    Giving the laundry detergent a try this month to wash the baby’s clothes. I’ve only ever tried the sample so thanks for the heads up on the size.

  5. Natalee permalink
    March 21, 2015

    I have to disagree about the diapers and the healing balm. We use cloth diapers during the day, and were using cloth at night — with little success. Finally, we decided to try honest co diapers for overnight, and they’ve been phenomenal. Not one leak, and our boy is a super soaker.

    As far as the healing balm, it’s been a lifesaver for our son’s eczema. He had it on his cheeks as an infant, so bad that it bled most days. The healing balm was the only thing that helped. It actually healed the eczema patches permanently. Now that he’s a toddler, he gets eczema on the backs of his knees, and HC healing balm is our go-to treatment. I actually have really dry skin on my face, and I’ve stsrted using healing balm right out of the shower. It’s been amazing, and not too greasy & never clogs pores. I do see how it would be too much for those without really dry skin, although even our driest patches need only a tiny drop of healing balm, so it’s possible you used too much.

    I’m totally with you about the prices vs product size! Especially for sunscreen. We still use HC sunscreen, though, since it’s about the same price as Badger and other brands (bc we get a bundle delivered every 3 months, so we get the discount).

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