Jessica Alba is not one of those celebrities who will say she lost weight, post-baby, from “running around after her kids.” She is straight-up honest about how hard it was to get her body back. Her secret? She wore not one but TWO girdles. “It was brutal; it’s not for everyone,” she said, in a new interview with Net-a-Porter‘s The Edit magazine. “I wore a double corset day and night for three months. It was sweaty but worth it.”

his is probably my favorite interview ever with Jessica because she was refreshingly honest about her life as an actress, mother of two young girls, wife, and entrepreneur. For example, she recently started the Honest Company, which sells natural and eco-friendly products, and talks about how it was harder to get off the ground than she expected. “I had lots of doors shut in my face, which forced me to get behind the idea in a genuine way,” she says. “I would cry, tell Cash it wasn’t possible; I was crazy. And he would say, ‘Well, approach it differently. What can’t people wrap their heads around?’”

Also, she admits that she’s not good at balancing “it all.” I can totally relate to this idea—I admire women who can do three things at once, but I’ll never be one of them. “I don’t balance. I’m so embarrassed I was late [Alba was still on her way home when I arrived], but I was cleaning up and trying to be a good auntie to the birthday girl and a good friend to my girlfriend. I don’t balance well. I just try to do the best I can.”

Photoshoot by David Bellemere

Magazine scans

Jessica Alba is the May cover girl of Glamour Magazine, to coincide with the Honest Life release in the UK. Inside the magazine, Jess explains how you could get rich by setting up your own business and much more.

On motherhood:“Having kids, having a strong with relationship with my husband, my friends, that is my priority… that’s what really defines me, not a tabloid or a movie opening or a poster or an endorsement.”

On her successful company:“I am both [an actress and an entrepreneur]… As you are building your career you make certain and I didn’t know how to not work, and I didn’t know how to discern what I wanted to do or not to do. I was just like, bring it.”

Gallery Link - Photoshoot by Simon Emmett

I have added scans from this month’s (April 2013) Latina magazine to the gallery. Click on the previews below to view the stunning editorial by Yu Tsai and to read the accompanied interview.

Actress, entrepreneur and fashion icon Jessica Alba, graces the cover of Latina magazine’s April 2013 issue, which hits newsstands and Nook Newsstand on March 12.

The stunning Mexican-American actress opened up to Latina about how motherhood has changed her, her successful eco-friendly company The Honest Company and her highly anticipated new parenting book, The Honest Life.

Plus, the A-list star tells us why there’s never been a better time to be Latina in Hollywood!

On her search for non-toxic baby products when her daughter was born: “It’s really hard to find baby products that use nontoxic chemicals that moms can trust. Major corporate brands that label their products ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘nontoxic’ are usually referring to the way they make their packaging, not their product.”

On her Spanish-speaking family of Mexican, American, French and Danish ancestry: “[They are] very conservative—a traditional, Catholic, Latin American clan.”

On the influence of director Robert Rodriguez of Spy Kids 4 and Machete: “He created a pathway for Latinos in pop culture because his movies aren’t made for a specific demographic—they are just cool.”

The Honest Company’s cofounder, Christopher Gavigan, on Jessica’s life as a mom: “I think most people think of celebrities as normal people living extraordinary lives, but Jessica is an extraordinary person living a normal life.”

On choosing the right roles in Hollywood: “Honest Company has weirdly allowed me to be more creative in my roles. And really work with people I love and appreciate and want to learn from. This is where my work is now. For me, acting was a lot about making the right choices and trusting my instincts. I didn’t always listen to my gut and make the right choice.”

The ‘Sin City’ beauty graces the front cover of Women’s Health magazine’s March issue oozing confidence, letting her natural beauty shine in minimal make-up and a casual white t-shirt paired with jeans.

Amazingly, the 31-year-old confesses to the monthly mag that it has been a long process for her to finally accept her sexiness.

“A few years ago, I couldn’t use the word ‘sexy’ to describe myself without feeling funny,” the Hollywood beauty admits.

“Now that I’ve had two kids, my idea of physical perfection has changed – and I finally feel confident, secure and, yes, sexy.”

Jessica, who is a mother to her two daughters, Honor and Haven, also touches on her how-to guide, ‘The Honest Life’, which guides parents on how to live a chemical-free life.

In a statement last year she spoke on the upcoming book, saying: “I’ve spent way too many hours researching products and driving around trying to find safer, eco-friendly options for my kids.”

“I knew that most people didn’t have that kind of time, nor the means to pay the premium prices. We had to make it easier.” (Entertainment Wise)

Jessica Alba is InStyle’s February cover girl! In this issue, the 31-year-old actress talks about the many new skills she’s added to her resume over the years: mother, wife, organic baby food expert, and author among them. A year ago, she launched Honest Company with environmental specialist Christopher Gavigan, in the hopes of educating people on the benefits of healthy, organic products for children. “Creating this company was something I had to do,” Alba tells InStyle of the venture, which has already attracted $27 million from investors. “We’re completely transparent. All the goods we make are high-performance—and safe—but they’re also beautifully designed, so people will be drawn to them, too.” In March, Alba puts pen to paper in her first book, The Honest Life, a how-to handbook she co-wrote with Gavigan on filling your home with eco-friendly and safe products. Her role as activist started as her family grew: She has two children—Honor, 4, and Haven, 1—with producer husband Cash Warren, the love of her life. “I just knew when I met him that I was going to know him forever,” says Alba. “It was weird; he instantly felt like family. It was so easy. I’d never felt like that with anyone. I was usually pretty self-conscious, minding my p’s and q’s, very aware of every time my fork hit the plate when I was having dinner on a date. With him, there was none of that. We got each other. We’re kindred spirits.” For more of our exclusive interview, flip to page 194 of the February issue—or download it on your iPad, Nook, or Droid tablet—on newsstands Friday, January 11.

Two months after shooting the covershoot (see pics here) with photographer Ben Watts, Jessica’s Self cover along with interview excerpts and outtakes have been released.

This Marks Alba’s third cover for the magazine (previously July, 2005 & February, 2010). Check out the interview and outtakes below, and scans to follow ones it becomes available in the UK.

On Landing the cover: “It’s an honor to be asked to be a part of SELF magazine. I really love what SELF stands for and what it does for women and women’s confidence. I loved the clothes at the shoot—I thought they were really fun and colorful.”

Her Cause: Alba’s company, Honest, makes and sells eco-friendy baby, bath, body and household products. A portion of proceeds goes to children and families in need via Baby2Baby.

How you can help: Call your senator to support the Safe Chemicals Act, which would require testing of chemicals in household products. Or visit Honest.com for info on Baby2Baby, her company’s nonprofit partner.

The Spark: “I found my daughter Honor sitting in her crib, eating these tiny beads from the inside of her diaper. They were all over her face. It was a moment of terror.”

The Harsh Reality: “Thankfully, Honor was OK, but it was so crazy, and I felt guilty afterward. I worried that I’d poisoned my daughter—and these were eco-diapers! I found ones that seemed safer, but they leaked, so I had to use two at once, and they were already so expensive. The more research I did, the more irritated I got. Most parents don’t have time to do all this research—they need a company with products they can trust. I wanted to create that.”

The Hope: “If you have toxic chemicals in your dish soap, laundry detergent, lotion, mattress and food, they get into your system and add up. It’s cumulative. My philosophy is that if we can try to eliminate all those little bits along the way, everyone will have a better shot. I want people to know that they have the power to make different choices for themselves and for their family. That could save lives.”

The Advantage: “I can’t think of a better way to spend my work life than on a movie set. But with people following me when I go out and everyone wanting me to endorse things, I thought, I can either go into a cave and hide or use my access to influence something I’m passionate about. So I turned the attention into a positive by offering safe, nontoxic, affordable but high-quality products for families, all from one place.”

The Passion: “It took me 3 1/2 years to launch The Honest Company. When things didn’t go smoothly, I’d get really upset. I worried that I was wasting so much time and money! But my husband, Cash, would tell me, ‘You didn’t waste anything. Look how much you’ve learned.’ His perspective kept me going.”

The paparazzi tracked down Jessica at a mansion in the Hollywood Hills on (Friday June 15th, 2012) where she was shooting the September cover for Self Magazine. Cannot wait to see the final result. Click on the previews below to view more photos.

June 12 – Out for lunch at Deli in LA
June 13 – Leaving the Son of a Gun restaurant in LA
June 14 – Out in Brentwood
June 15 – Shopping at Cost Plus World Market in Westwood
June 15 – At a photoshoot for Self Magazine in the Hollywood Hills

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.

The mom of two opens up in Parenting’s first-ever “Natural” issue (April, on stands now) about the “Aha” moment that led her to launch the Honest Company (Honest.com), getting back her pre-baby body, the kind of mother she’s becoming, and how she’s finally learned to deal with paparazzi.  Interview highlights include:

• On explaining the press to her kids: “When the paparazzi follow us, and [Honor] asks me what they’re doing, I tell her, ‘They’re just taking pictures, isn’t that silly?’ I don’t want her to have anxiety, so I tell her they do that to everyone, not just our family.”
  

• On her parenting style: ”I’m the disciplinarian. I think it’s because I was kind of a naughty kid myself: I’d push my parents’ buttons and test them to see how much I could get away with.”
  

• On what matters most: “Before I had kids, I was always so focused on my career…Nothing else really matters to me [now] aside from my children and their well-being.

• On what inspired her to launch the Honest Company (Honest.com), and create baby products that are as good to look at as they are for the earth: “Once I had bought brown diapers, telling myself, ‘You know what, they’re not cute, but they’re all-natural.’ I was resigned to the fact that anything healthy wasn’t going to be attractive.“