Sharing her honest truth. In the last week, Jessica Alba's Honest Company has been hit with two class-action lawsuits, each seeking $5 million in damages, for the brand's allegedly less-than-effective sunscreen and other products. Nevertheless, Alba is standing by her eco-brand.
"It pains me that anyone doesn’t have an incredible experience with Honest Company," the actress-turned-eco-mogul, 34, told Extra at the launch of the company's latest venture, Honest Beauty, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, in NYC. "We have grown so quickly, we are not even four years old, what we have learned is that we need to do a better job at educating."
And that's exactly what they're planning to do. As the Dark Angel alum, who shares two daughters with husband Cash Warren, added, "Next year, [Honest is] going to launch a safe sun education platform around sunscreen and the difference between chemical and mineral sunscreens—the importance of reapplication, how to apply, and all of that."
The drama first began in August, when multiple Honest customers took to Twitter to share their complaints about the brand's reformulated zinc-based sunscreen. Tweeters not only wrote that the sunscreen was ineffective, but also shared photos of their sunburned skin.
Alba and her business partner, Christopher Gavigan, stood by their product in an open letter shared via the brand's website. But despite their impassioned defense, the company was served two class-action lawsuits in the past week. The first, led by Jonathan D. Rubin, claims that the brand "deceptively and misleadingly labeled and marketed its products." The second, which is California-based, alleges that the company changed its sunscreen's formula without notifying its customers.
And yet, Alba continues to look towards the future of her brand, starting with the launch of Honest Beauty. "Honest Beauty represents diverse beauty," she shared. "The payoff of our products are second to none—they're gorgeous. Because I have so much experience with movies and TV and red carpet, I needed the beauty products to really last. But I also wanted to be able to do a 10-minute face when I'm, like, hanging out with the kids on the weekend. [These are] dynamic products that make you look awesome."
