SideBar: Let me start off by saying that I am not paid in any way, shape, or form to give these product reviews on the blog. I'd love to be...but unfortunately, I am not. A plus to no reimbursement...you can believe everything I am telling you is genuinely how I feel, and not just something I'm saying to get $ or free products.
The hardest thing (I find) about purchasing baby items is that you never know if they're going to work for you or if you're going to like them ahead of time. You have to purchase a full-sized bottle of soap/lotion or full pack of diapers/wipes and you may only use the product 1 or 2 times before realizing, for whatever reason, that it's not going to work. As posted in one of my previous blogs, we had this issue with M.D. and soaps/lotions as he was very susceptible to rashes.
That is where one of the biggest bonuses of The Honest Company comes in. You get to try everything for free!! How it works is you pay $5.95 in shipping costs and they will send you a sample pack of diapers, wipes & household/bathroom essentials to try. You've probably guessed by now that I did order the sample pack and have been testing out the products over the weekend. Here's what I found....
Below is a breakdown of specifically what I received as well my thoughts on each product.d
The Honest Company Diaper Sample
Overall Analysis: You can kind of tell that these are extra biodegradable. They are pretty crunchy. M.D. didn't seem to mind them though and I wouldn't say they were scratchy or seemed uncomfortable...just extra papery if that makes sense? The size was comperable to brand-name diapers & I really liked the velcro tabs as the brand name diapers do NOT re-velcro very well if you do a crappy job the first time around. These ones seem like higher quality so they re-velcro easily if baby rolls over mid-diapering and you screw it up :)
We obviously aren't purchasing these as we just switched to cloth diapers, however, I would consider them as a back up to the cloth.
The Honest Company Essentials Sample
Honest Hand Soap: I'm a huge fan of this soap. I am so sick & tired of having my hands dry up after washing them. Diaper Changes + Winter Air = MAJOR dry hands. This soap is awesome because my hands do NOT feel dried out at all after washing with it. It does not lather as much as regular handsoap, but I'm guessing that is because it doesn't have as many random chemicals added to it. The smell is delicious too :)
Honest Laundry Detergent: It works. Not much else to throw in here. It's cheaper than Dreft which is awesome, and it's more all-natural than Dreft. No harsh perfumes.
Honest Face & Body Lotion: Love this product. It smells delicious...but in that all natural/no perfumes/kinda smells like your grandma's face lotion kinda way :) I used it on M.D. after his last bath and it worked swimmingly. I also used it on my hands and was a big fan.
Honest Shampoo & Body Wash: Similar to the Face & Body Lotion. I really enjoyed this. It didn't lather quite as much as regular body wash, but again, the additives that MAKE that soap lather are probably not what we want to be exposing our wee-ones to anyways.
Honest Baby Wipes: To be honest *wink wink* :) I didn't even use these yet. My guess is, if they're anything like the rest of the Honest products, they've gotta be pretty stellar. Then again, they're just butt wipes so how great do they really need to be??
Honest Healing Balm: This item is the golden ticket!! I will be re-ordering The Honest Company products because they are all great, but primarily because of the success I found with this particular product. M.D. developed eczema about 2 weeks ago. I had it as a baby so I wasn't surprised to see it pop up on him. It doesn't seem to bother him much but it was starting to spread into bigger patches on his left arm/elbow area. I tried a few different lotions and nothing seemed to be helping. I used this Honest Healing Balm on it over the weekend and it has shrunk to the point where it has almost disappeared on his elbow. I had read other reviews online that this particular balm was awesome on eczema and I can now join in that march! It is AMAZING! It's also really nice to use on dry spots on your own hands. Hands down...best product ever. In fact, this product is so awesome that it didn't even make the photo above of all of the essentials because I already had it on M.D.'s changing table.
Another bonus to these bath items is that they can ALL be used by you as the mommy (or daddy). The shampoo/body wash, face & body lotion, healing balm, etc. can all be used by the whole family which makes for even less trips to the store & everybody benefiting from the natural products! Win-Win-Win!! :) I'm not sure if I will use the shampoo/body wash myself but I definitely will be using the face & body lotion as well as the healing balm.
Did I also mention this company has TONS more products than the ones they send you samples of? Honest Sunscreen, Honest BugSpray, Honest Home Cleaning products....Allelujah!!
Here's how it works: You can choose to order either the Diaper Bundle, Essentials Bundle, or both on a monthly basis. The Diaper Bundle costs $79.95/month and includes all of your diapers & wipes (in whichever size you choose) for that month (quantity of diapers depends on the size). The Essentials Bundle costs $35.95 allows you to choose 5 home/bath products each month. You can also add on an additional 3 products and get 25% off their sticker price. You can switch up which products you pick each month so you can get a good variety (and just order things as they run out).
So, for example, here's my first order that will go in on March 10th:
Honest Dishwasher Pods
Honest Healing Balm
Honest 4-in-1 Laundry Pods
Honest Shampoo & Body Wash
Honest Face & Body Lotion
These 5 will cost me a total of $35.95. This is amazing because the laundry pods contain 50 pods (50 loads) and sticker price for the Honest brand is $15.95. That's just for the laundry pods!! Also, to prove how natural these products actually are, here are the warnings placed on the backs of the laundry pods for Honest Company versus Tide Company
Honest Company: Avoid contact with eyes. In case of eye
contact, flush with water for 15 minutes. Do not ingest. If swallowed, drink
water & consult your physician.
Tide Company: Do not get in eyes. Close the package and handle with dry hands. First Aid Treatment: Contains nonionic and anionic surfactants, PPE and enzymes. If swallowed, give a glass of water or milk and call a Poison Control Center or doctor immediately. Do not induce vomiting. If in eyes, rinse immediately with plenty of water and seek medical advice. If on skin or clothing, remove contaminated clothing and rinse with water.
I'm also adding on 3 additional products to my bundle since I get 25% off each of them as well:
Honest Multi-Surface Cleaner
Honest Floor Cleaner
Honest Handsoap
So here's the catch. You may have noticed that I did not post the link to the company website at ALL in this posting. Weird, huh? I usually post links to just about EVERYTHING I reference in my blog. Well I AM going to post the link, but it's with a catch. The Honest Company has a referral program where-in you can earn money towards future purchases of their products by referring friends.....Hello Friends :) If you don't mind...please use THIS LINK to check out their website and order your own sample pack to see if you're as big of a fan as I am.
You really have nothing to lose in ordering the sample pack except maybe a couple of trips to Target each week :) Let me know what you think or if you have any product reccommendations for me after giving this a whirl!
Again...check them out: The Honest Company. You will not be disappointed!
BONUS!!!!
I just called customer service and they are AMAZING!!
Here's an insider tip:
Once you get your free sample products in the mail they set you up to automatically get both the diaper bundle & essentials bundle. All you have to do to change your order is go on your account on the Honest website and switch up what you want to order (or call if you're going to cancel an entire bundle or both bundles). In my case, I do not need the diaper bundle on a montly basis because we are using cloth. I called the number on the website and the customer service girl was SUPER helpful. She told me that I can "delay" my bundle delivery/charge for months at a time and by doing that I can always leave the option open to order IF I decide. PLUS as long as you have both the diaper bundle & essentials bundle on your account (even if you're not paying for or receiving one) you get FREE SHIPPING on the bundle you are actually receiving. EVERY MONTH! Awesome!! They do not pressure you into keeping anything! It's refreshing not to have a sales pitch shoved down my throat when I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!
So here's how it breaks down on my end:
On my account it shows that I have the diaper bundle & essentials bundle.
My diaper bundle is not schedule to delivery until June 2013 (because I pushed it back as far as it could go). They DO NOT charge you monthly . They charge you based on DELIVERY. So I will not be charged for those diapers EVER as long as I keep pushing them back every few months. Remember...I am only keeping this on my account because it gets me free shipping every month for my essentials bundle. So I'm saving $6/month by going on their website every 3 months to change a ship date?? Yup...I can handle that.
My essentials bundle is scheduled to ship on 03/10/2013. That is the day they will mail my shipment (with free shipping!!!) and charge my card for the $35.95.