“This is fresh – it’s like a bathing suit. I don’t know how to wear it in real life but it’s totally cool!” (Jessica Alba on her cover look). Click on the previews below to view the scans.

Life is coming up roses for Jessica Alba, with a new baby joining her young family, an evolving sense of self, and a passion project that reveals a different side to her.

Striding across her open-plan office in Los Angeles’ Santa Monica, Jessica Alba barely turns a head. She’s a regular here; the five people working away at their desks go about their business, unfazed by her presence. Settling into a chair opposite, Alba smiles—a dazzler instantly familiar from many a movie poster and red-carpet appearance. She’s fresh from a planning meeting and lays her new iPhone 4S on the table next to her. These days, having the gadget within reach is more about maternal accessibility than a desire to check emails, text messages or Twitter feeds.

Alba, like any modern mum, has a lot on her plate. There’s baby daughter Haven Garner, born this past August; Haven’s headstrong older sister, three-year-old Honor Marie; her nearly-four-year-old marriage to producer Cash Warren, 32; and Alba’s acting career. In almost 20 years she has leapt from small screen to silver screen—following bit parts, she broke out as the lead in the James Cameron-created series Dark Angel in 2000, before making her mark in cinemas in Honey, Sin City, and Fantastic Four. Most recently, the California-born actress, 30, starred in Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World, and she’ll be heard later in 2012 as the voice of Lena in the animated Escape from Planet Earth.

But what Alba’s really excited about today is the new business venture that’s dominating her schedule. “It’s an eco household-and-baby consumer product line,” she explains proudly of The Honest Company, a web-based enterprise situated here in Santa Monica. Set to launch this month, it will be marketed with the tag line: “honest baby products for the next generation”.

“Our core item will be diapers,” says Alba, adding that the idea behind the brand came when she was pregnant with Honor. “We also have household cleaning products and bodycare products.” Alba is quick to stress that the range of environmentally-friendly items, to be available through the site thehonestcompany.com, will be “accessible and affordable. If something is healthy and non-toxic, it is usually at a premium price point. We aren’t going to be the cheapest, but certainly not the most expensive.” Early buzz is strong, with almost 7,000 followers checking out Alba’s frequent posts on the company’s Facebook page.

Such a venture reveals a different side to the actress, more commonly associated with big-budget blockbusters, a contract with cosmetics company Revlon, and being named on lists of the world’s most beautiful women. But this is no vanity project. “When I started to talk about doing something with consumer products, a lot of people were like, ‘Huh? Why not fashion or bags like most actresses?’” she says. “But this is what I am passionate about; it affects the health of not only my children, but all children.”

Not that Alba is short on sartorial savvy. Today, she is the picture of effortless cool in a Vanessa Bruno blazer and fitted 7 For All Mankind jeans. Ask her about red-carpet staples, and she easily rattles off names like Ralph Lauren, Prada and Diane von Furstenberg. “If I want to be more edgy,” she adds, “I will go with Proenza [Schouler], Lanvin, Versace or Dolce & Gabbana.” Her pregnancy style was guided by a far simpler desire, familiar to many women: “I didn’t want to feel frumpy,” she says. “I still wanted to feel beautiful, elegant, chic and playful—if I could. Especially because you feel so sick, hot, achey, swollen and all of those wonderful things that come with being pregnant.”

Alba’s shape post-Haven has been more familiar to her than it was after having Honor. “[When I was pregnant] with Honor, I didn’t make the healthiest choices when it came to eating,” she says. “All of a sudden, I had gained over [30 kilos]. I stopped weighing myself after that. With Haven I didn’t gain as much, so [afterward] I was closer to where I felt comfortable in my own skin.” She also works out with a personal trainer three times a week, often alongside Cash. “It’s fun and another way we get to spend time together,” she says with a grin.

Alba readily admits that managing her life requires assistance—the couple have a nanny (a sister of her sister-in-law; Alba thinks of her as a little sister and an aunt to the girls)—and that there are moments when it all seems too much. “It’s overwhelming. I don’t consider myself a lot of the time. I think a lot of mums do that, try to be everything to everyone all the time. I make mistakes. I do try to do way too much.” But that doesn’t stop her from taking on more, starting with a few questions from InStyle…

What did you find most surprising about becoming a mother? “That I felt completely different. I really came into myself as a person. Before, I was always working for my identity. And then you take the focus off of yourself. I was probably—definitely—a bit of a narcissist. When you are young and an actor and driven, it’s a bizarre state of mind to be in at times. I was so focused on things that didn’t matter at the end of the day. Now I have what I do for a living in perspective. Working was everything to me, my entire identity, and once I got to step away from it, everything changed.”

What is different with the second baby? “I’m more relaxed. Every sneeze or runny nose or little bump on the head that would have freaked me out before…I am more easygoing with that sort of thing. And the sense of knowing that I can get Haven to stop crying. It was all new with Honor and I wasn’t confident, and she could feel that so she continued to cry. That didn’t happen a lot, but when it happened I felt like I would crack.”

How does Cash feel about being the only guy in an all-female household? “He’s totally great and a real hands-on dad. He’s just such a nice, good person…His biggest thing is that he doesn’t like the idea of them growing up and dating! He’s kidding, but I can tell he’s kind of thinking of the future already.”

Jessica Alba never leaves home without…

Her go-to gadget: “I just got the new iPhone 4s and I haven’t really figured out how to use it; I have the iPad at home. I had a BlackBerry before, so it’s all kind of new.”

Haven’s must-haves: “With a baby you always have diapers, and diaper wipes, and a change of clothes – the essentials. And a pacifier of course.”

Honor’s must-haves: “She likes to carry around different princesses, like Jasmine or Rapunzel or a Barbie, or some kind of dolly. Honor loves to carry around random things that she finds for the day, like sunglasses or binoculars. It changes all the time…Honor is really girly. She likes to dress up, try on my high heels and play with purses.”

Keeping Honor entertained: “We always take a change of clothes — she’s three and likes to play in puddles and everything else. There’s always a coloured pencil or crayon and something for her to doodle on because there are moments wherever we are that she’s sitting and will want to do something. I think we started doing that when she was around 18 months old – that period when you can tell them to stop putting things in their mouth and to draw on the paper.”

Stroller derby: “Always a double stroller, never two separate ones — one sits in front and one behind.”

I splurge on: “My kids and my house. I’m always doing things to my house. I go that bit extra: I designed my furniture and had it made in an eco-friendly way.”

Pick up the new issue of InStyle, on newsstands now.

And Jessica Alba and Cash – who met eight years ago on the set of Fantastic Four – chat to us about Haven’s unusual birth, living in a female-dominated household, and keeping their romance alive.

“When Haven was born, I fell in love all over again,” says Cash.

“It’s the most incredible experience.”

“Love at first sight,” says Jessica.

“It did take a couple of days for it to sink in that I have another baby!”

And while Cash loves his burgeoning family of girls, the situation does have one slight downside.

“There are lots of strong women around,” says Jessica.

“If there’s any discussion, Cash doesn’t win. Girls have the majority vote here!” (OK! UK).

Scans from OK! Germany (Via jmazone.de)

Scans from OK! UK

HOLA! Spain (scanned by Katy-Perry.com)

You South Africa

High quality scans from the September 2011 issue of Lucky magazine. Jessica delivered another great interview discussing  her new business ventures which include her own TV and Film production Company and The Honest Company (previously mentioned in People Magazine) which is an eco friendly baby products retailer.

“As an actress or celebrity or whatever, there are the more typical routes that people go, like licensing out their names. I did that but came back to my passion – I want to create a line of healthy, cute and affordable items for kids, because it’s hard to find good, natural products.”

Click on the previews above to view more scans.

The lovely Elmira was kind enough to donate tons of clippings, Cosmopolitan India (july, 2008) and Harper’s Bazaar Czech Republic (May, 2011) which you can view below.

Latina magazine celebrates its 15th anniversary with a special collector’s issue, “15 Latinas We Love,” which highlights fifteen of the most influential Latina celebrities from throughout the magazine’s 15-year history on its extraordinary October 2011 cover. (Click on the cover above to view it in full size and colour).

Be sure to check out the 15 Latinas We Love! to hear what all of our beauties had to say about being on the cover and what it means to them to be Latina.

WHY WE LOVE HER:

Playing a racially ambiguous superhuman in James Cameron’s Dark Angel turned Alba into a 21st century action hero capable of blurring race, gender and class lines while burning up the small screen.

No habla español? No problem! Though she wasn’t raised speaking Spanish at home in California (Alba’s grandparents José and Isabel deliberately chose not to raise Spanish-speaking children in 1960s America for fear of being marginalized), Jessica is learning the language and instilling cultural pride in her three-year-old daughter Honor and newborn baby, Haven.

Family is numero uno for this supermom, who makes the switch from diaper duty to the red carpet appear effortless. No wonder she inspired Robert Rodriguez’ latest film, Spy Kids 4: All The Time In The World!

This eco-chica also runs a green household—the synthetic grass in her Los Angeles home is made of recycled materials, for one—and is committed to making the earth a cleaner place through her upcoming collection of sustainable baby and lifestyle products, called The Honest Company, scheduled to launch soon.

ON LATINAS IN HOLLYWOOD: “There [are] a lot of really strong, really cool, completely dynamic women that are Latina that young women can look up to. I love that because I certainly didn’t have those role models when I was growing up and it’s nice that I’m part of this generation. So I feel very honored and blessed to be in such good company for sure.”

Jessica Alba appears on the cover the spring edition of Australian magazine Men’s Style, which goes on sale today (September 05).

People magazine spend the day with Jessica Alba in her rental home located in the Hills of Los Angeles on July 28. You can read what Jessica gets up-to  by clicking on the thumbnails below. Enjoy!

OK! caught up with the pregnant star of Spy Kids: All The Time In The Word in 4-D.

Jessica ALba sympathizes with busy moms everywhere. The actress,  Revlon spokeswoman, wife, and mother to daughter Honor, 3, refuses to sit still even though her due date is right around the corner. “I always knew i’d be a working mom,” Jessica tells OK!.

In the new Spy Kids movie your character has retired to raise her family. Would you ever do that?
I knew I would never stop completely. [Director] Robert [Rodriguez] gave me quite a few pep talks about finding balance. I was really torn. But he is a father of five, and he encouraged me to go back to work but do it in a way that I felt good about.

Did this role five you insight on what having a bigger family will be like?
Movie life never really prepares you for real life. It only gives you a paycheck so that you can afford real life!

Is Honor happy about the baby?
She is excited, but definitely a bit more cuddly, and she wants my attention more. She is a little more needy.

Are you a supermom?
No, I’m a trying-to-figure-it-out-one-day-at-a-time mom. I am doing the best I can. I feel as if there is always something that I am compromising, but I try my best.