Honest Company Review

The Honest Company offers a huge variety of natural, plant-based, non-toxic, eco-friendly products for families including diapers, wipes, cleaning products, soy candles, skincare, baby bath and even baby carriers. You’re probably familiar with the Honest Company because you’re familiar with the co-founder, actress Jessica Alba. She’s been in some awful movies, some pretty good movies and now she’s doing this.

I resisted the Honest Co. at first because frankly I assumed it was a lot of hype and the products (especially diapers) seemed to be expensive. Plus the Love Guru had to be one of the worst movies ever made. Just awful. I’d prefer to remember Mike Myers circa Wayne’s World.

But, I digress.

The Honest Co. diapers are non-toxic, hypoallergenic, eco-friendly, adorable (look at these PRINTS!) and a bit expensive. A pack of Honest Co. diapers costs $13.95/pack which equates to about 35 cents per diaper. This is about twice the cost of your average store brand diaper (but of course your average store brand diaper is full of latex, chemicals and icky stuff). You can save 35% and subscribe to a diaper and wipes bundle, which will run you $79.95/month. The bundle includes six packs of diapers and four packs of wipes, which are delivered to your door monthly. You can also pick, mix and match the patterns and as I mentioned, the patterns are adorable.

I can’t personally attest to the performance of the diapers because I’ve never tried them. We cloth diaper and only use super heavy duty disposables at night. I would, however, LOVE to see the Honest Company produce and sell cloth diapers. (Please, Jessica Alba. I’ll take back everything I said about the Love Guru!)

For that reason, I had resisted the Honest Company for a long time until I was introduced to their essentials collection. The essentials collection includes basic household items. I scanned RetailMeNot for a promo code and went ahead and ordered a month’s supply which included a LOT of products. What can I say? It was a great promo and I couldn’t resist.

But then I got hooked and now I’ve tried a wide variety of Honest Co. products and can tell you allllll about them. (Lucky you!) I really love the products overall because I now have a 16-month-old who is into everything and will stick anything and everything into his mouth. No matter how much you baby proof or watch your kid, one day finding them sucking on a bottle of glass cleaner is a fairly real possibility. Cleaning products in the average household can be seriously dangerous in the hands of a baby. For example, many traditional toilet cleaners are labeled, “Danger–corrosive”. These products can severely burn skin or eyes if a baby comes in contact with it and if ingested can cause internal burns. (Seriously, if you don’t want to sleep at night, Google some toxic cleaning ingredients. It’s the stuff of nightmares.) My Honest Co. toilet cleaner is made of plant-based cleaning agents, essential oils, is completely non-toxic and somehow cleans even better than the toxic stuff I used before.

Another reason I love my Honest Co. cleaning products is simply because I don’t find cleaning to be particularly enjoyable. It is a chore in the purest sense of the word. So if using these products, which smell lovely, clean flawlessly and I feel safe using around my kid, makes that experience just a liiiiiiittle more enjoyable, I’m all in.

One of my favorite cleaning products is the 4-in-1 laundry pods. They’re so simple, throw it directly into the drum of the washer. They’re free of chemicals, dyes and fragrances of course, so they’re safe for even the newest newborns. They’re actually SO pure, I can even use them on cloth diapers. So finally, I actually have a detergent I can use for every piece of laundry I wash. And it’s super easy. Big win. I like to throw a Honest Co. wet dryer cloth in with a couple Nellie’s dryer balls and ta da! All my clothes are clean, fresh, soft, static-free and won’t irritate anyone’s skin, including my baby’s bum. I also always like to include them in my bundle because they’re one of the most expensive items ($15.95) and I get more bang for my bundle buck as the Essentials Bundle runs $35.95/month for a mix and match of five items.

If you’re used to things being “Downey fresh” or the sweet smell of bleach after a thorough house cleaning, switching to Honest Co. products will be an adjustment. When you pull your clothes out of the dryer, they will be clean. But they won’t smell like much of anything, definitely not like a mountain breeze or lavender fields. If you’re used to the power of Dawn fighting its way through your greasy dishes, you may not be too pleased that you are now using elbow grease, not chemicals like Trisoclan, to get your dishes squeaky clean. For the most part, in my experience, the Honest Co. products clean even BETTER than traditional products especially the spray cleaners.

The Honest Co. bath products inspired me to remove all the Johnson and Johnson from my home. I love the smell of the orange and vanilla baby shampoo and body wash. The bubble bath produces lots of bubbles and smells lovely. The conditioning mist is great to just spray and brush in. The hand sanitizer spray is ALWAYS in my purse and car.

But the best and most versatile Honest Co. bath and body products have to be the healing balm and body oil. A mix of the body oil and healing balm is the absolute best for healing dry, winter skin and has completely soothed my son’s eczema and kept it away. The healing balm alone is great for dry patches and rough hands. Mixing warm water, some body oil, a dash of the shampoo + body wash is an excellent spray for cloth wipes or general diaper changes.

The Honest Co. seems to be constantly expanding. They’re now offering reusable swim diapers, vitamins, gift sets, diaper cakes, books, etc. They’re collaborating with other established brands to recreate and design new products in the Collective like a trio of Aden + Anais organic swaddling blankets for example. So you can get anything from cleaning products to a crib from Honest Co. delivered to you.

Here are my tips for using the Honest Co. and saving the most money…

• Browse RetailMeNot.com for current promo codes. First time subscribers save BIG on their bundles.
• Try a free trial, but cancel within seven days if you do NOT want to remain a member
• Spend $50 or more for free shipping. Otherwise shipping is $5.95. So for maximum savings, you can simply get more products less often with the essentials bundle for example. If you’d rather pay for product than shipping, it’s a good idea to throw a teether or a pack of diapers in your bundle.
• Adjust when you receive your bundle. If you aren’t using all your products within a month, aren’t ready to try new products yet or you just need more room in your budget, adjust your delivery date to every five or six weeks. Or, you can simply cancel or put your membership on hold.
• Maintain your bundle. You can pick and choose any products in your bundle, but if you do not choose the following month, you will get the SAME products from the previous month.
• Choose the most expensive products. You can choose any five products in the essentials bundle for a total of $35.95, which can be a great deal or a so-so deal depending on which products you choose since you’re paying an average of just over $7/product. For example, you fill your bundle up with stain remover, hand sanitizer spray, bathroom cleaner, multi-surface cleaner and glass cleaner. That’s a retail value of $29.75, the bundle didn’t save you any money. So, let’s try this… fill your bundle up with the 4-in-1 laundry packs, the Suds Up scrubbing brush, dishwasher packs, healing balm and bubble bath. Now THAT is a retail value of $64.75! Combine that with a promo code and you can score some major savings and build your natural cleaning arsenal even if you don’t continue to be an Honest Co. subscriber.

I would highly recommend the Honest Company to new moms, anyone avoiding toxic chemicals, babies (or anyone!) with sensitive skin, lovers of eco-friendly products, naturally-minded parents, pretty much anyone. They are wonderful products, a great value and I plan on being a subscriber for a long time. Worth checking out! http://honest.com/accept_invitation/446158