When we started our phone conversation with Jessica Alba last week—she from nearby her Beverly Hills home, Shop Around from our DC office—we felt like we were talking to a girlfriend. She was nice, down-to-earth, disarmingly real, and pretty damn funny, which was refreshing because that’s how we felt about her new book, The Honest Life: Living Naturally and True to You.

Unlike most celebrity lifestyle how-to tomes, Alba’s is surprisingly helpful, well-written, resourceful, and realistic. The 31-year-old mom of two offers tips and insight into creating an eco-friendly and healthy lifestyle for herself and her family—and does it in a way that doesn’t make us roll our eyes at the sheer impossibility of it all (ahem, Gwyneth Paltrow). We meant to talk clothes and trends with Alba, since she’ll be in Bethesda on Friday signing copies of her book at the Front Row fashion extravaganza, but she was so fun to talk to about her writing process and her future in acting that we didn’t get a chance. Plus we already know the girl can dress.

Your new book seems really well-researched and thoughtful—how did you become an expert in this sort of eco-friendly lifestyle realm?

Well, I wouldn’t call myself an expert, necessarily. I gathered the information over five years, and then it took about one year to format it and turn it into a book. And it was so difficult to gather [the information], which I did along the way as things affected me throughout my own life and personal experiences.

But you were able to dissect it and filter it into a book that is really easy to read, even for those of us who aren’t familiar with these sorts of toxic versus non-toxic issues.

The information is pretty dense, and unless you’re a scientist, you’re going to be like, “What the heck are you talking about?” But I knew there were things that weren’t good and that I wanted to avoid that touched parts of my life, from beauty to food to materials for my home. So it was such a daunting process to decipher it all, but I felt it was super-necessary. I mean, I wish I had this handbook and guidebook when I was learning and a new mom.

We also like that we could find what we needed quickly—moms often have limited time and patience for a book loaded with data.

It’s meant to be very useful and user-friendly—you can pick up a chapter that you care about and that’s relevant to you. I wanted all the charts to be color-coded, and all the chapters with an icon to identify them; it’s easier for me, so I figure it’s easier for everyone else. The enhanced e-book is even more user-friendly—all the charts pop up as you click on them, and I created little videos for each chapter; the still photos come to life, and that’s kind of fun. I asked the publisher if we could do more than the normal digital version of a book. I wanted a more robust experience.

You’ve been building this lifestyle brand, the Honest Company, for a few years now. Does that mean you’re transitioning away from being an actress?

It’s funny, because it wasn’t a conscious decision, it sort of just happened this way. I’m still so passionate about acting and having that as a creative outlet, and it’s a big part of who I am; I’ll never stop acting. But it’s my time, and where I was in my life, this business was a priority and a passion of mine over going to auditions and trying to get roles. I’m still doing movies; I’m about to start another at the end of this month, a period piece set in the ’60s. [Having my kids] was the best time of my life. I love it—I feel more fearless as an actress after becoming a mother, which is quite liberating. I’m ready to take on heavier roles, where before I was nitpicky and afraid of so many things. I don’t have that filter anymore. I think as you go into a new, different phase, things do change, and that’s influenced who I am and my choices. It happened organically.

So are you plotting to be the Martha Stewart of your generation? Any more books in the works?

I think if I was going to do any more in a series, naturally it would be something I can do easily, that I’m passionate about. A cookbook would be good, and probably not as time consuming. That would be a process where I just say, “I’m going to spend three months, rent a house somewhere, and just bang it out.” Something that would encompass baby to toddler to family, make a more robust book—that’s something I could totally do, about healthier food choices and recipes that aren’t so scary and daunting.

Jessica Alba will be signing copies of The Honest Life in front of Redwood restaurant on Bethesda Lane from 5 to 6:30 on Friday. For more information, visit the Front Row website.

Check out Alba’s recent appearance on the Ellen Show (March 11) were she discussed all things The Honest Life, family and more.

Collider.com sat down with Jessica Alba recently during the Escape from Planet Earth press junket to discuss the 3D flick, A.C.O.D., and more importantly Sin City 2!. CLICK HERE to read the full interview.

Sin City 2 is one of these projects that everyone talked about for years, that honestly I just lost faith that it was going to happen and then all of the sudden it did.

Alba: Out of nowhere right?

Out of nowhere and he has everybody in Hollywood in the movie, like everyone.  Talk a little bit about when you first heard that it was coming back and that you were going to be a part of it.

Alba: I think like you every six months to a year it was like “We’re going to do it, when’s the next one coming?  Oh yeah, we’re going to do it.  We’re going to do it.  We’re going to do it.” And then at a certain point it was just like OK, I just didn’t believe it.  It was like “We’re going to start in the summer, we’re going to start in the fall” but then when we actually got the start date and I was there on the set it was like a dream.  I was like, “Am I really here?  Are we really here?  OK, just making sure.” And Jamie [Chung] filmed the day before me and I was like “Are we really doing this?” So yeah, it was surreal and I ran into Rosario [Dawson] and for all of us it’s really cool.  I got to work with Bruce [Willis] and with Mickey [Rourke] and it’s probably one of the best times of my life working on the second.  The first was like open the doors and this has been, certainly as an artist, the best experience.

What’s interesting is that everyone I’ve spoken to that’s been working on it has been telling me that its literally all green screen, that everyone is filming their stuff and then he’s going to put it all together in post.

Alba: That’s how the first on was.

It seems even more extreme on this one, but maybe I’m not hearing it right.

Alba: It’s exactly the same as the first one.  I got to work with Mickey this time, which I didn’t work with him the first time, even though we were in scenes together, I did my scenes with Robert, so that was nice, to be able to work with Mickey because I’ve always been a huge fan of his.

Talk a little bit about what the process is like working for Robert when you’re on green screen like that.  How much is he showing you the pre-vis or the art work to show you what it’s going to look like or is it a lot of imagination going on?

Alba: Well this is- mine is an original story so there wasn’t a lot to base it off of, but Frank [Miller] has been drawing.  So it’s just crazy.  It was neat to see their process, Robert and Frank’s, and their collaboration and what they inspire from each other and get out of each other and what they’re creating.  It’s really like the 2.0 version of Sin City and it’s pretty amazing.

I’m going to run out of time with so I do want to ask you what you are thinking about for the rest of the year in terms of roles.  Obviously we could talk about Machete Kills, or Machete Kills Again in Space, but I am curious what you’re thinking about for the future is there a certain role that you’re looking after or going for?  What’s percolating?

Alba: A couple of things.  I’m about to go on a book tour, I just wrote a book and its coming out in march so that’s the next thing that I’m thinking about and I have a company that I started about a year ago, so my company, you know, every day I’m the president.  So that’s exciting and that’s something so completely different from what goes on in entertainment.  I’m looking to do some completely different things more as a producer and creator as some things that I have percolating.  We’ll see.  I’m really looking forward to Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For to come out.  It’s going to be rad.

Jessica Alba tells us about The Honest Company’s latest offerings and exclusive sale

It’s been 10 months since Jessica Alba and Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, an eco-friendly and toxin-free baby products and household items company. If anyone thinks that the actress is just the face of the company who only shows up to draw attention to the products and then goes back to her Hollywood life, they’d be sorely mistaken. The company is truly the brainchild of the mom of two — to Honor, 4, and Haven, 1 — and she takes personal pride in its success.

The company will launch its newest styles — purple leopard and green-and-gray lumberjack patterned diapers — and latest product — a trio of lip balms for mom — on GiltKids.com tomorrow afternoon as part of the company’s first sale on the site. We joined Gilt Groupe, Jessica, and Christopher at Honest’s offices to discuss the brand, the new products, and what moms really want in their products. And come back tomorrow for the rest of our conversation about Jessica’s seamless transition from actress to businesswoman, and the products her kids like best.

Moderator: So we were talking a little bit about the partnership with Gilt; what made you want to partner with them? How did that come about?
Jessica Alba: I just think it’s a great site. I love a good deal myself as a mom, and I love that they have a curation of the best in class. So because we’re the best in class, and it’s also a very stylish site, I just thought it would be the perfect place to have an exclusive partnership and launch our most fashionable two designs.

Moderator: And how did you decide to step out with these particular new products? What was the reasoning behind that?
JA: We have tons and tons of designs and they fall into the category of traditional, sort of whimsical, and kind of edgy. I feel like parents have kind of fallen into a couple of those categories, if not all three. I know I do, and so depending on what kind of mom you are, you’re obviously going to be attracted to the different designs. So we had about 10 per category, and we went out to parents and they pulled their favorites and then everyone here at the office. That’s how we end up with our designs — people choosing it.

Moderator: So the things that Gilt’s launching, are they an extension of items you already have?
JA: So we already have these, and these are our boy options, and these are our girl options, and so what I was saying is this is the edgy girl option; this is the whimsical and this is the more traditional. For whatever reason, the sweets and the skulls are the ones that everyone talks about, so when our moms post on our Facebook, or whenever anyone takes a photo of their babies in our diapers, they love showing them in our edgiest designs, so we felt that would be the best to launch with Gilt Groupe. We have the highest absorbency than any other diaper on the market, conventional or eco, and then we have obviously the edgiest and coolest designs. And no other company allows you to pick and choose. If you’re part of our monthly delivery program you get to pick and choose what designs you want, so you’re like, “Oh, I really love lumberjack, but I also love the skulls and I love the anchors,” and so you can get all of that in your monthly package if you want.

Moderator: So is that kind of what you do at home? You switch it up, too? You don’t always do the cutesy.
JA: Oh, I do everything. Yeah, sometimes she wears a little black dress and then the little skulls are cute. And then, sometimes she wears a nautical look and she’ll wear the anchors. I put a lot of . . . I put the boy diapers on her and the girl diapers.

Moderator: And so is the lip balm a new category for you guys?
JA: That’s a new category completely and that’s more in the personal care. You essentially eat whatever is on your lips, you ingest it, and it goes into your bloodstream and your system. If you’re kissing your baby, you don’t have to worry about any sort of parabens, no lead; it’s completely natural — your baby won’t get a rash. We did this [in] three different flavors, so we did more of a kind of soft minty one, a completely neutral one, and a little bit more of a creamsicle one.

Moderator: So do you get a lot of your ideas from what moms are asking?
JA: Oh yeah, for sure. That’s how we knew what to even launch with initially. We wanted to cover the basic needs, so it’s what are you putting on your kid, what are you bathing your kid with, and what are you cleaning your house with. We’re expanding with the cleaning-your-house option because we know there are other needs, like tile cleaners and floor cleaners and toilet cleaners, things like that, the basic stuff, we covered with our launch, and now we’re going into expanding it because parents want it.

Moderator: We love eco-friendly products and it’s really hard to find them that tie very stylish designs with sustainability and eco-friendly organic materials, and at a reasonable price.
JA: I was . . . obviously looking for the best in class and ingredients, and then when you find that it’s like a picture of a lady in a headdress and she’s making it in her backyard, which is fine, or it has twigs on it. I think all of that is fine, but that’s not me. I grew up with MTV, and tattoos, and rock and roll, and hip-hop. I feel like we’re the moms now and there aren’t any companies that are really made for us, and we’re the ones that are having families. The companies that we grew up with are just so out of touch, so we try to be somewhat cool.

— LilSugar

As we previously discussed, other recipients of the Women Doing Good Awards appeared on NBC News on Wednesday, September 12th. Click Here or watch the video above.

Each year, Self magazine recognizes women making a difference globally, nationally or in their own communities with its ‘Women Doing Good’ awards. Actress Jessica Alba and three other remarkable women share their stories with TODAY’s Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb.

You might have seen Jessica Alba kill a bad guy with a stiletto heel in the gory action flick Machete. You might also have spotted her on the cover of Maxim (twice). But fewer people probably caught her on C-SPAN lecturing Congress about the urgency of passing laws to regulate the chemicals in the products we buy. A staunch environmental advocate, the 31-year-old star recently launched the Honest Company, which makes nontoxic, ecofriendly baby gear. She took some time to answer our questions about her commitment to safe chemistry.

Q: Why did you go to D.C. to lobby for the Safe Chemicals Act last year?

A: Basically, it’s legislation that hasn’t been reformed in more than 30 years. It’s about regulating chemicals in everyday products. There are more than 80,000 chemicals in the U.S. marketplace right now — only five have been banned. In Europe, 1,100 are banned because they’re not safe for humans. When they’re creating and selling new chemicals, companies aren’t thinking about how they affect people’s health — it’s about their bottom line.

Q: You had asthma as a kid, right? Does that make you worry more about air pollution?

A: I grew up with asthma and allergies, among other health issues. That forced me from a very early age to look at my environment in a different way. I don’t take things at face value. I don’t automatically trust the conglomerates. I question processes, I question ingredients, I look for a better way. I always try to find a more natural and holistic approach before just slapping on a Band-Aid. Better to prevent something bad from happening in the first place.

Q: We assume that you’re the only woman who’s topped Maxim’s ”Hot 100″ list and also testified before Congress about environmental legislation. How do you walk that balance?

A: [Laughs] I don’t know. I don’t even really think about it in those terms. The marketing I’ve done to promote TV and film has been wonderful because it’s given me a platform to be able to speak about things that are important to me.

Q: What’s the main message you try to deliver about the environment?

A: That there’s a cause and effect to every action you take. So all of your purchasing and consuming choices are going to affect the planet and the people around you in some way, be it positive or negative. Just being a thoughtful, conscientious consumer is the first step.

Q: Do you get overwhelmed thinking about how many chemicals kids are exposed to?

A: I felt overwhelmed as a parent at first. But now I know that there are steps we can take. You can really change the health of your environment by doing anything from buying fresh, organic food to choosing the paint and carpeting in your home. Just understanding the quality of those products and what the potential hazards are. I’ve taken steps to eliminate as much that’s hazardous as I could from my home. So I feel great about the environment now that I’ve been able to create for my family. I know it’s possible.

Q: What else do you do to go green in your personal life?

A: I spend time outdoors with my kids. I have a nontoxic turf lawn instead of grass so we don’t have to water it. We have all energy-efficient appliances in our house, and most of the materials that we used to build it — probably 70% of them — are upcycled. I bought them off Craigslist or at flea markets or vintage stores. With the rest, I made an effort to buy sustainable materials, bamboo flooring, recycled glass tiles, things like that.

Q: Are people surprised to see a Hollywood actress buying things from them off Craigslist? 

A: I don’t go and pick them up [laughs]. I don’t even think that’s safe for a girl by herself to go to a random address and go pick something up. No, I have a family member — a guy, obviously, my husband or someone — go and pick up a piece here and there.

Q: You’ve said that your favorite place in the outdoors is Franklin Canyon Park in Los Angeles. Why that spot?

A: I like any piece of nature in urban environments because it feels like you can get a break from the hustle and bustle of the city. You can just escape and quickly be surrounded by nature. One of my favorite places in New York is Central Park, for that same reason. In L.A., Topanga Canyon is another really great place, and so is Malibu Canyon.

Q: What made you want to start the Honest Company? 

A: Frankly, I needed a company like it. As a parent, I think there’s a lot of confusion in the marketplace around what’s eco, what isn’t, toxic chemicals and how they affect the health of your family. There’s just so much information out there that there needed to be one company that’s done all the research and finds the formulations that perform best.

Q: How does the Honest Company work?

A: It delivers nontoxic products straight to your door, everything from laundry detergent to bubble bath to diapers and wipes. We also have what we call an “essentials kit”: Out of 16 items, you get to choose five, and that’s what you get delivered every month. Ninety-nine percent of our products are made here in the U.S. Our diapers are really the best on the market — they’re made from plant-based materials, are completely nontoxic, and have the cutest designs. We really wanted to innovate the diapering space. It was important for me as a parent to make sure that everyone could get these products delivered straight to their door.

Q: Do you have Hollywood mom friends who’ve signed up to use the service?

A: Yeah, quite a few!

—interview by Orli Cote / SierraClub

Yesterday, popsugar brought you a make-up tutorial with Jessica Alba’s makeup artist Lauren Anderson, and today they bring you a work-out session with Alba’s personal trainer Yumi Lee, whom she has trained with for the past two years. 

In other news, Jessica has made the PopSugar’s 100 list of 2012 landing at #40

Jessica Alba has joined the CrossFit craze! To get her sweat on, the svelte actress can be found in the gym tossing medicine balls and doing sets of burpees with Reebok trainer Yumi Lee counting her reps and checking her form. In fact, Jessica credits her CrossFit workouts for whipping her body quickly into shape after having her second child.

Yumi walked us through five moves that regularly appear in Jessica’s workouts. Watch the video, learn the full-body moves, then get a CrossFit workout on your own.

POP Sugar sat down with Jessica’s Makeup Artist Lauren Anderson to discuss all things Jessica Alba, including: what it is like working with Jessica and a make-up tutorial on how to get Jessica’s flawless signiture glow.

Jessica Alba is known for her enviably luminous skin, and it’s in part thanks to the talents of her makeup artist, Lauren Andersen. So get glowing. See Jessica’s complexion routine, including some tips on how to contour like a professional, in the video now. On Kirbie: BCBG.

Jessica Alba is the June 2012 cover girl for Marie Claire, marking her 3rd cover for the magazine (previously in August 2005 and March 2008). High quality scans will be added as soon as I get my hands on the magazine. In the meantime check out the interview highlights, outtakes and behind the scenes footage below.

When it comes to really famous people, the ones we identify in our brains as belonging to a special breed of superhumans—glossy, glam, and perpetually camera-ready—it’s easy to forget that, to those in their inner orbit, they’re actually just normal, regular people. Somebody somewhere sees George Clooney’s number pop up on the caller ID and says, “Him again?” Or, as is the case today, when a visitor arrives at a small, modern Los Angeles building in an industrial part of town for a meeting with Jessica Alba, the guy she shares an office with shrugs indifferently and mumbles, “I think she’s upstairs?” before returning to his feverish typing.

These nondescript offices are the headquarters of The Honest Company, a kind of Amazon for nontoxic, environmentally friendly baby products and household supplies that Alba launched earlier this year. Alba loves coming to work here, a paparazzi-free zone where she’s absolved of having to preen and pose. It’s obvious as she bounds down the stairs to meet me that she savors the regular-ness of having an office, replete with coffeemaker and a fridge filled with yesterday’s lunches. To the cubicle jockeys who inhabit the space, she’s “just Jessica,” another clock-puncher who parks her SUV (outfitted with two car seats for daughters Honor, 4, and Haven, 9 months) alongside everyone else’s, and who shares mommy war stories without feeling exposed or judged—like the time she and her husband, film producer Cash Warren, found Honor lying in her crib eating particles of her diaper, which had fallen apart. The event crystallized Alba’s interest in safe, sustainable products, including disposable diapers, which The Honest Company delivers monthly to subscribers for upwards of $80 per month.

“I started working on this three and a half years ago,” Alba tells me. “I took a year off from acting when I had Honor, and I was home with her, diapering her, cleaning up after her, and I had a real frustration that I couldn’t find healthy, nontoxic, and affordable products that actually worked. So I decided I needed to do something about it while my family and friends have young children.”Yet despite Alba’s best efforts to come across as just another mom, she is—let’s face it—anything but. As she leads me to a conference room, I can’t help but stare at her enviable form and wonder: Is that what jet-black J Brand skinny jeans are supposed to look like on a human body? Would those Margiela for Opening Ceremony black boots make my legs look that long? If I ran out and bought an identical rose-gold channel-set diamond ring that spans two fingers, would that technically make me a stalker or just an admirer?

 

Though Alba clearly relishes being a businesswoman, her latest role is as a fashion darling, a woman whose every ensemble, whether for a movie premiere or sandbox play-date, is photographed and quickly dispatched to celebrity magazines and blogs that feverishly monitor her unique sartorial choices. Despite what the tabloids suggest about the symbiotic relationship between celebrities and the fashion world, actresses like Alba—true trendsetters—are rare. It could be argued that the fashion flock are harder to impress than the Hollywood machine. But thanks to her infallible Cali-cool style and fluid transition from streetwear to couture, honed from years of red-carpet swanning, Alba is a favorite among the most rarefied of designers—Alber, Donatella, Narciso, to name just a few—who decide whom they dress (and not the other way around). She’s managed to totally remake her image, trading her postpubescent-boy fan base for fashion’s überchic style arbiters and the legions who follow them. “She is an extraordinary beauty,” says Narciso Rodriguez. “Her style is her own, and it has made her someone to watch.”

“She has a perfect body, sexy with curves,” effuses Donatella Versace. “She is true to herself. She always looks fresh, never vulgar.”

Alba, 31, has come a long way. Early in her career, she was often showcased in Maxim-ready looks, from jeans and halter tops to body-hugging dresses, that played up her lean yet impossibly curvy 5’7″ frame to eye-popping effect. “I had a show [Fox's Dark Angel] that premiered when I was 19,” Alba explains. “And right away, everyone formed a strong opinion about me because of the way I was marketed. I was supposed to be sexy, this tough action girl. That’s what people expected.”

Even when she dressed demurely, her killer body always took center stage. “I felt like I was being objectified, and it made me uncomfortable,” she concedes. “I wanted to be chic and elegant!”

In recent years, owing to marriage, motherhood, and the maturity that comes from more than a decade in Hollywood, Alba has grown more assured of herself and how to work her figure in her own way. “Now that I’m older, I’ve learned how to own it, but I’m still not very overt,” she says. “There are some women who dress for men. I dress for myself. It took me some time to get here. Being a mom and feeling grown-up have helped. Now if I’m going to wear something short, it has to have a high neck or a little sci-fi toughness to it, an edge.”

Read Jessica’s full interview when the June issue of Marie Claire hits newsstands on May 22.