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One of my weeknight dinner party tricks is to never waste time making appetizers or dessert. Store-bought cheese, nuts, and olives make a great starter, and you can ask guests to bring a favorite dessert. This frees you up to focus on the main course, which really should be the star of the show.

YOUR SKIN IS YOUR LARGEST ORGAN—FEED IT NATURALLY

IS THERE ANYTHING MORE DELICIOUS THAN CUDDLING
with a squeaky-clean baby fresh out of the tub? I don’t think so. Cash and I adore bath time with our girls because it’s a such a sweet part of our busy days: Honor makes up hilarious stories while she plays with her tub toys, Haven’s cute pink cheeks get even pinker after a bath, and then we get to wrap them both up in snuggly, fluffy towels.

Yum!

U
NFORTUNATELY, SOMETIMES
,
cleaning your kids feels like cleaning the house—yet another chore—like when the water isn’t perfect or the soap stings the crap out of their sensitive little eyes, and suddenly, everyone switches into meltdown mode. Or when you realize why most “tearless” shampoos and soaps
don’t
sting their eyes—because of chemicals that numb the eyes instead. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The main reason bath time is fun, not frustrating, at my house? Because
I’m
so much more relaxed now that I know that all of the personal care products we’re using are safe and healthy.

I
SPENT MOST
of my life holding my breath every time I soaped up or slathered on a new lotion, because I never knew what was going to give me an itchy rash or, worse, trigger an asthma attack.

It all goes back to when I was a kid and my mom and I started figuring out that I was allergic to what felt like the entire world: latex (Band-Aids = welts for me), synthetic fragrances (every great-smelling shampoo, conditioner, body wash . . . ), and any product that’s super heavy in petrochemicals, like petroleum jelly, which is a common ingredient in everything from antibacterial ointments to lotions. Not to mention: dander, dust, hay, grass, and whatever they put in most conventional cleaning supplies. Sneezing, watery eyes, and an itchy nose were just part of my day-to-day existence growing up.

Having all of these allergies made it hard for me to fit in with other girls at school. I was a tomboy to begin with, and then, whenever I did try to be girly at somebody’s sleepover when we were playing beauty parlor, I was the weird kid who would start sneezing 50 times in a row. I had to bring my nebulizer and inhaler with me everywhere I went—it was such a bummer. But since I had to learn which ingredients in products were likely to give me a rash, I also started to learn pretty early on about what those ingredients in your personal care products actually
do
—so I could figure out what’s necessary in a moisturizer or a cleanser, for example, and what’s just the filler stuff that’s likely to trigger a bad reaction. And, by the way, we aren’t
just
talking about allergies—these chemicals are associated with all kinds of problems that can make even the healthiest person sick, as you’ll see in a minute. Since this was all around the same time that I became vegan and started experimenting more in the kitchen, I began to learn how food could benefit my skin and how to come up with my own fresh beauty concoctions. There were definitely some missteps here. Eggs might do wonders for your hair (assuming you aren’t allergic), but trust me—you do not want to leave a bottle of homemade egg shampoo in a steamy bathroom for 2 days! But I also hit on some pretty amazing homemade beauty treatments that I still swear by. (See
some of my favorite recipes
.)

Sneezing, watery eyes, and an itchy nose were just part of my day-to-day existence growing up.

Once I started working as an actress, I began to realize that there were other products out there and that it might be possible for me to stop living on allergy medicines. But I also faced new challenges. When I’m working on movie and television sets and forever on the road for press tours, I’m constantly subjecting my skin to an onslaught of abuse from all the bright lights and heavy makeup. Especially in the beginning, I didn’t get much of a say in what products got used or which chemicals they contained. Working long hours (read: never getting enough sleep!) doesn’t help matters. At this point, I go back and forth between New York and Los Angeles so often, I don’t even feel jet lag—but if I’m not careful to take good care of myself, I won’t realize I’ve been going too hard until a couple of weeks later when I’ll suddenly hit a wall and get super sick.

By the time I reached my early twenties, I was caught in this vicious cycle: Use personal care products and cosmetics that aggravate my health and wreck my skin. Work too hard, stress out my body and my skin even more—and reach for more lotions, scrubs, and concealers in an effort to combat the problem . . . which, instead, make everything worse. I knew there had to be a better way.

I started asking every makeup artist I met on set for advice on the best brands that wouldn’t clog my pores. Again, I started experimenting and found I got fewer breakouts if I made a point to wash my face during the middle of a 16-hour shoot, as well as before bed. I also discovered that adding a drop of tea tree oil to a gentler cleanser left me less prone to breakouts—naturally! Then I tried mineral makeup, which is completely oil free (so it can’t clog your pores), and that was another major breakthrough. Bottom line: I realized that finding skin care that works is a huge trial-and-error process, but you shouldn’t settle for anything that irritates your skin, causes breakouts, contains toxins, or just plain isn’t working for
you
.

Once I got a handle on my own personal care products, it was a no-brainer that as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I would start trying to find the safest and healthiest products for my baby. But again, this was so much harder than I expected. That’s why the whole experience with the Fancy Baby Detergent was so upsetting—and eye-opening. Before I had kids, I assumed that our government would have all kinds of strict standards in place for any consumer goods marketed to children, particularly infants. As it turns out, this isn’t the case, especially when we’re talking bath time. Children’s soaps and lotions are as unregulated and untested as their grown-up equivalents, despite the fact that big corporations spend millions marketing them as “safe,” “pure,” and “natural.” (See “
Liar Labels
,” for why these words don’t mean what you think.)

When Christopher Gavigan and I started planning The Honest Company, I knew that soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and sunscreen would be on our product list from the get-go, purely due to the difficulty I’d had navigating the world of safer personal care products for me and my babies. We’ve since expanded the line to bug spray, conditioning mist, and many others. I’ll admit, once I got on the other side and started actually trying to make safer versions of these products, I had a
little
more sympathy for all the other personal care brands out there. We went through dozens of prototypes before we hit on a shampoo/shower gel formulation that didn’t sting children’s eyes—I know, because I tested every last one of them on myself and Honor, and she fussed at me every time yet another nontoxic-but-still-too-harsh drop of soap got in her eyes. Most personal care companies have an easier job because their priority is profit—the health ramifications of their ingredients don’t concern them. My priorities are the opposite, which makes my job a lot tougher—but way more rewarding.

One hundred percent
of women of childbearing age have detectable levels of phthalates (fragrance ingredients that may be reproductive toxins) in their bodies, probably because of cosmetic use.

The amazing chemists we hired finally cracked the nontoxic-
and
-effective code, and I’m so proud of the Honest personal care line. But don’t worry, because this isn’t an infomercial. While we’ve been doing our homework, a bunch of other awesome companies have been doing the same—some small and scrappy and a few pretty giant (or at least, owned by giants who seem content to let these brands keep doing things their way). So there are tons of new options on the market now for healthy, safe products that will keep you and your kids clean and happy, whether you’re prone to allergies, have sensitive skin, or you just want fewer toxins in your morning shower.

T
HERE’S A GOOD CHANCE
that right about now you’re thinking, “Good for you, Jess, but I don’t have allergies. So excuse me while I go off on my merry way.” Fair enough—but remember: This is about a lot more than skin rashes. Regular, low-dose exposure to many of the chemicals used in mainstream personal care products may contribute to your risk for cancer, asthma, and other serious health complications. You can’t always trust what you read on a product label, because companies have gotten very good at trying to convince you that their products are as clean and green as possible—take a look at this “
Liar Labels
” chart.