philippine tatler. august 2018
05;,9=0,> | LIFE
HONEST
BROKER
For actress, mother, and skincare magnate
Jessica Alba, luxury is about peace of mind—
knowing that the things you buy won’t hurt you or
the earth, writes Madeleine Ross
essica Alba never envisioned
herself as a business mogul. She
has always been conscious of
the environment (“I think it’s a
generational thing, this type of
awareness,” she says), but she was never
particularly entrepreneurial. The Dark Angel
actress, who became a fixture on Hollywood’s
sexiest people lists after lead roles in hit
movies such as Honey (2003) and Sin City
(2005), was content with her acting career
until she gave birth to her first child. Honour,
born in 2008, changed everything.
Having suffered from acute allergies and
asthma as a child, Alba was determined to
raise her daughter in an environment free
from the irritants and chemicals common in
baby, household, and personal care products.
She searched for goods derived from natural
ingredients but found her options shockingly
limited. She wondered: if her contemporaries
were so concerned about the health of the
planet and of themselves, why were there
no ethically produced, safe alternatives to
the synthetic, cheaply formulated goods on
the market?
Alba founded the Honest Company four
years later. In the six years since 2012, her
startup has become a household name, with
a staff of over 300 and a recent valuation
of more than US$1 billion. Her brainchild
produces baby products, personal care
products, vitamins, and household cleaning
products that are vegan and organic
where possible, and free of substances like
BPA, silicones, and polyethylene glycol.Honest only caters to the US market at
present, but Alba says she “would love to
expand into Asia.”
“Every step of the way it has been a
daunting endeavour,” says the mother of three
on the phone from New York, where she is on
a business trip. The 37-year-old Californian
speaks calmly and deliberately. Her manner
is more serious, more professional than her
on-screen personas might have one believe
(Alba is often cast as a sexy femme fatale
or a sweet girl next door). She’s the first to
admit her journey into consumer goods has
been challenging. “When it comes to starting
something you’ve never done before, you kind
of have to fake it until you make it because
you don’t know if it’s going to work and you
don’t know if anyone is going to be interested
in your business. You have to learn as you go.”
As founder, she guides strategy, marketing
and product innovation, and always
personally tests the products before they hit
the shelves. “We have skincare chemists on
staff in my office so that when they make
products, I can go down the hall and poke
around and change things. I can say, this is
too creamy or not creamy enough, I want
the serum to look like this or feel like this or
smell like that, so I help develop stuff with
the chemists right there. That’s what’s really
special about what we do.”
Honest is one of many natural skincare
brands, such as Drunk Elephant, Amala,
and Susanne Kaufmann, that have shot to
prominence in the past few years. But top-
tier mainstream brands—ones you might(^53)