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.

Jessica Alba was featured in photographer Darren Tieste’s The Beauty Book for Brain Cancer released last year, and some of the pictures have just made their way online.

“The Beauty Book is a hard cover coffee table book with images of your favorite celebrities, musicians and top models. All the monies raised, will go directly to Brain Cancer via two charities called SNOG & HEADRUSH. These charitable organizations are non- profit and both rely on donations for research”. For more information visit thebeautybook.org. Click on the previews above to view more.

Jessica Alba wears Marc Jacobs as she graces the cover of Lucky magazine’s September 2011 issue, on newsstands Tuesday (August 9).

Here’s what the 30-year-old Spy Kids 4 and new-mama-to-be had to share:

On playing superheroes: “I pretended to be a superhero when I was a kid. I thought, if boys can do it, I can do it, I can do it better!”

On being strong-willed: “There’s a video of me when I’m three, saying ‘This is a woman’s world, and I don’t need a man for nothin’!’”

On her first big audition: “We all went out for it – my mom, my auntie, her four kids, my auntie’s boyfriend, my brother and I all sardined inside our Buick Regal. That’s how we rolled back then.” Once there, she was asked to list any acting experience. “I lied and said I done plays. My mom definitely taught me how to hustle.”

Head over to Luckymag.com too see Jessica Alba’s Maternity Must-Haves.

Jessica Alba has starred in action flicks, romantic comedies, and high school dramas. But don’t ever expect to see her in a nude scene (sorry, guys). Check out these exclusive behind-the-scenes shots from her shoot with Michael Thompson. For more of our interview with the actress, pick up the August issue of Allure, on newsstands July 19.

Jessica Alba may be undeniably sexy, but it wasn’t until she actually had a baby of her own, she says, that she understood or appreciated her own sexuality. “I was quite shy with it,” she says. “It wasn’t something I embraced until I had my daughter. I saw how incredible and amazing it is to be a woman and to be able to create a life.

“There’s a reason why certain areas of the body are desirable—because it all leads to reproduction. There’s a science behind it all. It’s not just to sell whatever you’re selling on a billboard or a magazine or a movie.”

Alba has strong feelings about nudity. In all her movies, she says, “At least I’m still covered. I’m wearing as much as a bathing suit. It’s not like I’m naked. I’m not terribly comfortable with being in a bikini, but covering up my genitals is different than not covering up my genitals, at the end of the day. I do see a difference in that, to put it really frankly.” Here, she poses in a satin gown by Derek Lam.

After her first pregnancy, Alba (shown here with hairstylist Danilo) worked hard to get back into shape, and she was successful—up to a point. “I can’t ever get down to the weight I was before I had Honor,” she says. “My body’s just different. The jeans just sort of zip up differently, and things hang differently. It’s a miracle what happens, but you definitely are different afterward.” She laughs. “Unless you’re Gisele.”

Alba was recently horrified by a tabloid story in which a young woman had sought to recapture the attention of an ex-boyfriend by being surgically altered to look more like the actress. “That’s just so bizarre, because the physical is so fleeting anyway,” she says. “And when you’re in a relationship, the physical lasts for, maximum, two years. And then you don’t care how attractive you are to that person—if they drive you nuts, they drive you nuts.”

Danilo clipped in long extensions for some shots but removed them for the cover. “I wanted to work with the effortlessness of her bob,” he says. He created spiral curls with a large iron, parted her hair on the side, and loosened the curls with a mixed-bristle brush. For the cover shot, Alba wore a silk-jersey-and-leather dress by Derek Lam.

Makeup artist Pati Dubroff used red and brown shades for “an ethereal, wood-nymph look.” First, Dubroff dusted a reddish-brown-colored shadow on Alba’s lids and swiped a glossy lipstick pencil on top. She then lined the actress’s eyes with a brown pencil and applied a few coats of black mascara. Next, she swept a generous amount of rosy blush onto the apples of the cheeks. As a final step, the makeup artist used her fingers to tap on nude lipstick, which softened Alba’s lip color.

For her Allure cover, Alba was photographed at Franklin Canyon Lake—a picturesque part of a 605-acre park overlooking the Los Angeles skyline. Her daughter, Honor, visited the set and stayed to watch her pose for a few shots.

At the cover shoot, Alba gave pregnant manicurist April Foreman tips on changing diapers. “You’ll want to practice before you have the baby,” she says. The actress joked with photographer Michael Thompson about her own bump—Alba was also pregnant when he shot her for the June 2008 Allure cover.

Alba, on approaching her thirtieth birthday: “According to some people, I peaked in my early 20s,” she says with a chuckle. “I was like, ‘Oh, really? I feel like I’m getting better.’” (Allure)

Photoshoot by Michael Tompson

Behind the scenes photos
 

I’ve updated the gallery with new pictures from Jessica’s Harper’s Bazaar photoshoot by Gulliano Bekor. I’ve also replaced the older ones with better quality versions. Click on the previews above to view more photos.

Hope you all had a good Valentine’s Day yesterday. I’ve uploaded more promo shoots from last years Valentine’s Day movie to the gallery. Enjoy.

I’ve updated the gallery with 4 outtakes from Jessica Alba’s Michigan Avenue photoshoot by Mark Liddell, and replaced the old ones with better quality ones. Click on the previews above to view them. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW SCREENCAPTURES

Photographer Giuliano Bekor was kind enough to tweet us the video above of Jessica Alba’s Australian Harper’s Bazaar photoshoot. And we’ve stumbled across two more January 2011 covers from Indonesia and Taiwan on his blog.

Here is part 2 of our special Christmas gift. Jessica Alba’s recent photoshoot by Gilles Toucas which has been published in a number of international magazines to promote Little Fockers.  I hope you all had a good day yesterday, and enjoy! Click on the previews above to view more photos.

Jessicaalba.net would like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas, and hope you got all the gifts that you wanted. Below is our gift to you. Better quality plus 4 unseen outtakes from Jessica Alba’s Marie Claire (Russia) photo session. Make sure to check back tomorrow for another gift. Merry Christmas.