Disclosure: If you make a purchase through the links posted below, I may receive a small compensation. Read the full disclosure.
A few months ago I saw an offer to try out some products from The Honest Company. If you haven’t heard of The Honest Company, it’s Jessica Alba’s company and all products are non-toxic. No nasty chemicals. Anyways, I figured I’d just take the samples and be on my way. But I ended up signing up (for the Family Essentials Bundle) because I liked the stuff so much. And, umm, I liked that it was delivered right to my door.
Here’s how it works: Every month you pick five items you are in need of for that month. You can pick from tons of things including laundry detergent, dishwasher pods or gel, hand sanitizer, shampoo, sunscreen, stain remover, oxy boost, dryer cloths, baby wipes, bubble wash, etc. It’s $35.95/month, which I didn’t think was too bad. But you know what, I never actually did the math to see if I was “saving” any money. Shameful I know. So let’s do the math with my August bundle:
I got the following items (Honest Co. prices in parathensis):
~Honest Healing Balm (3oz) ($12.95)
~Honest Dishwasher Pods (32 loads) ($10.95)
~Honest Hand Sanitizer (8oz) ($6.95)
~Honest Laundry Detergent (70 loads) ($12.95)
~Honest Multi-Surface Cleaner (22oz) ($4.95)
Based on Honest Co. prices, I saved $12.80. I paid $35.95 and my selections were worth $48.75.
But did I save anything based on say, Target prices of Method products for the cleaning items. And whatever else I can fine online for the other items. Let’s see:
~Method Smarty Dish: $9.50. By my math, their pods work out to ~$0.30/load. So that’s around $9.50 for 32 loads.
~Method Free & Clear Laundry Detergent: $21. Once again this appears to work out to $0.29/load.
~Method All Purpose Cleaner $1.90. This is more of a math project than I was expecting ;). It’d be way too easy to compare prices if everything came in the same size containers now wouldn’t it?
~Burt’s Bees Baby Bee Diaper Ointment $10.49. The Honest Co. healing balm is basically diaper rash ointment, although it can also be used for other things (it makes your feet super soft).
~EO Hand Sanitizer ($7.99): I picked this because it’s a good brand. And because it came in 8oz so I didn’t have to do any math.
Okay, so where does that put us? At $50.88. So based on retail prices I saved $14.93! SCORE. And I love my products. I haven’t had a chance to try everything they have to offer yet, but so far I am loving the Healing Balm, the Bug Spray and the Dishwasher Pods. So I am giving The Honest Company two thumbs up. I am saving money and saving time and (hopefully) saving my kids skin from icky things. Nothing wrong with that! Have you tried anything from The Honest Company or any sort of similar delivery service? What are your thoughts?
I’m glad to hear a reivew on this company. I have had my eye on them for a while but was hesitant to try them out (for a fee) fearing I wouldn’t be pleased. If I could get the free samples, I’d sign up for SURE.
Sign up for a Discovery Kit. It’s $5.95 and includes various products!
I think I’ll give the discovery kit a try! Sounds great!
Hi Jennifer! Thanks for sharing such a great review, and we love the price comparison on the various products. We hope you love all of the Honest products you try, and please let us know if we can ever help with anything in the future!
I love all your disclosures and disclaimers…looks like maybe The Honest Company DOES know who you are!!
http://www.storiesbycindy.blogspot.com
Good accounting of your “savings”
I have been using The Honest Company products for a few months now. I absolutely love the shampoo/body wash for my little ones. It got rid of my eczema on my youngest that I had been battling for a while now. And I love scent! The body lotion is great too, I compare it to California Baby, but way better. Absorbs right away and not greasy =)
Thank you for reviewing The Honest Company products and for the price comparison. I have been wondering about their products too.
And how cool for Jessica Alba to share your blog on her facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/JessicaAlba
Eeek! How cool is that???
You are big time now! 🙂
I absolutely love everything The Honest Company has delivered to me with the exception of the dishwasher pods. I have every single product and loved almost all of them. The pods made made all my dishes have a white foggy residue on it that I can’t seem to get off. Unfortunately, I had to switch back to the one I was using before. The sunblock works awesome but it does leave your child looking like a white ghost. It’s very thick but it works great. The shampoo and the lotion are especially my favorite. Everything smells good and it honestly makes me feel like a good mom when using these non toxic products on my boys. I highly recommend this company! They also support charities, which I LOVE.
burts bees diaper cream smells horrible!!!!!!!!!! i hate it to death and the texture is yucky too. honest company i would say is comparable to lavanilla baby wch is more expensive but i love the quality. honest company works great.
I just signed up for the free trials in September. I thought the idea of chemical free cleaning products and diapers was awesome and was very excited to get my samples. The diapers were kind of a last resort before switching to cloth as my daughter has allergies to most brands. Although the diapers seemed fine I figured for the price we would be better of to just switch to cloth anyway. The only sample of the essentials we used was the laundry soap- which I did really like, but I wanted to wait until I had had a chance to fully use the other products before I paid for them full size.
This is where I ran into some problems. You have to call to cancel your monthly subscription after the trial and they are only open M-F. I tried to cancel but it was too late and they already shipped out my products. It would have been about $14 for restocking fees to cancel so I figured I would cut my losses.
Today I opened my packages and found that we are allergic to 2 of the products in the essentials bundle as we have a nut allergy in our home. Thank goodness we never got around to using the unlabeled samples or we would have ended up in the ER.
When I called about replacing them they only offered to give me a $7 refund (instead of the $14 it should have been).. which turned out to not be a credit at all! It is actually a store credit…. I am not using the products any more so that does not really help me.
I did like the laundry detergent and the diapers are really super cute.. they just were not for us… at least not in the quantity of the bundles. I have not had a chance to use any of the other products yet.
I am sure a lot of their products are great. I just think people need to be aware of all the customer service side of things with this company as well.
Their website is so misleading! I thought I wasn’t part of the bundle packs because the website said I wasn’t. It also said no orders have been placed. They took out 200.00 from my debit card. I live on 240.00 a month. I don’t feel like they should be able to get away with it. They’re products suck anyway.
Yes I too signed up for the free sample and did not realize you had to cancel the subscription. The website is very misleading read the terms of agreement before you sign up for a free sample. They call it a free sample but you are now tied to them for life! I called to return and the customer service was horrible. I do like the healing balm but I would never order from them. THE HONEST CO DOES NOT FIT WELL FOR THEIR NAME.
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. When I signed up for the free sample, it clearly stated that I was being enrolled in the monthly subscription and that I had 7 days to cancel???
@Jennifer: I have been using the honest diapers and essentials for a little over a year now and I LOVE THEM!! But it did clearly state when I signed up for the trial that I would be automatically enrolled into the monthly subscription unless I cancelled. I love all of the products and the fact that they donate diapers to children in need with every purchase! 🙂
I too signed up for the free trial, and called to cancel the monthly subscription and was later mailed a package for both the diaper bundle and the essentials bundle which I was charged for and received an email saying I was charged for a “re-shelfing” (when apparently they were never re-shelfed!) I like their products, and would like to subscribe, but at the moment we are closing on a house and the money they took was needed elsewhere and we have since had to move our closing date further back..
Yes I do believe that it does say that you will be enrolled in the monthly service when you sign up for the samples and tells you to cancel within the time frame if you do not want the bundles on a monthly basis. Anyways I have only used one product the body and face lotion and its amazing! My 3 1/2 month old daughters eczema and severely dry skin was nice and smooth again within minutes – very happy and thinking of trying out other products
Hi – i was wondering if you have any plans to try and review any of these boxes:
Blissmo
Eco-Emi
Concious
Goodgood box
green grab bag
Yuzen
I was thinking about trying one of these boxes, but i see you didn’t have any reviews for these. Any plans for trying and reviewing any of these in the near future?
I personally haven’t tried any of these, but I have a few friends who subscribe to Blissmo, Concious and Yuzen and really like them!
thanks for the feedback Jennifer, i really appreciate it.
Love, love, love The Honest Co. and their products! Their customer service is excellent, I was missing a product in my bundle, I called and they rush shipped me my item – no questions asked and a sincere apology. It was very clear that you need to opt out of the “bundle” if you change your mind on the trial, I read it in several places. But, why would I opt out of amazing products that ship right to my door? The only thing I am not in love with are the dishwasher pods, I am noticing a film on my glassware, so I may give the dishwasher gel a shot. Thanks for the great review, moms like me appreciate it! 🙂
Love this review!!! I just signed up for the sample package and appreciate your cost break down!!!
is my credit card info safe to give to this website? i have never used hem and don’t want my card info stolen
I signed up for the trial packs and received them. They are just ok, so I want to cancel my bundle shipments. I have been on hold for a half hour so far…I have a bad feeling about this. Just like Proactive, they take your credit card info and you are their prisoner. 🙁
H i Yes, i also tried the sample kit and now i called about 10 times always on hold, dont’ like this i’m planing to call my bank and warn not to process any payment through this company.
Thanks for your review of the products and pricing! I also use a lot of Method brand products and love them, but looking forward to trying the Honest products. I have been on the fence about ordering and I just recently purchased Jessica’s book which I am in the process of reading and I LOVE it! I highly recommend her book! I will be placing an order for a few items!
I just received my first bundle this week and so far have only tried out the dish soap and the body lotion. I love both products and can’t wait to try the rest. I do hope the billing of the bundles is correct but it seems to be explained well. I would assume as long as my items are updated by the ship date. I did send a question to the company on facebook and received a reply within a few hours. Overall, my experience has been great and the products seem great.
I have been using The Honest Company home essentials for a couple of months now.
I love the fact that all of the products are non toxic, plant based and safe for my family. I was using the multi purpose spray, the bottle slipped out of my hand and some splashed back in my face. I’m so used to other harsh cleaners so I panicked and immediately washed my face, eyes and mouth out (should do any way). My eyes never burned and were only a little red from washing them out. Within an hour they looked normal again. Just another reason why I LOVE this company.
I tried the Honest Company’s free trial because we cloth diaper during the day but have to use disposables at night, so I was looking for something more environmentally friendly and natural than Huggies which we have been using for years. Unfortunately, despite my high hopes, the diapers gave my son a diaper rash so we had to cancel my membership. I was also scared, as previous posters, that this would be a scam and I would not be able to cancel, but after being on hold for 15 minutes (understandable since it’s a small and new company), the gal was really nice and apologetic that the diapers did not work for us, and cancelled my membership effective immediately. I will be trying out some of their other products based on the reviews here, because I really do like supporting small business when I can without breaking my pocketbook!
I’ve been using Honest products for almost a year now and I am also a huge fan. I started with their diapers primarily for nightime, because they managed to keep my child from reeking of urine in the morning. They’re a bit pricey so I don’t use them all the time.
After a bit, I started subscribing to their Essentials bundle.
– My favorite is the laundry detergent. It’s comparable to Cheer Free which I have a hard time finding lately.
– I also do like the balm. I’m not a huge fan of the shampoo, I found the bottle not very friendly and didn’t last very long, maybe because it didn’t sud very well.
– The dish soap I’m not a huge fan, I think it’s the scent. I love the dish towels and will try the multi-surface cleaner soon.
– The sunscreen is thick and kind of hard to smooth on, but I feel like it’s so thick, it stays on well and so far, my child has not gotten sun burn. There’s not a strong order and it’s not greasy.
I also love that you don’t have to get a bundle every month, you can push out delivery date as needed. They’re customer service is also excellent. I highly highly recommend Honest!
Wow! It’s scary to read of the canceling difficulty. I have really loved my products so far. I even like the floor cleaner. The bathroom cleaner smells minty which I also like. I also have to be honest (no pun intended) and say the the closest Target to me is about 22 miles away. It awesome to have all the products delivered to my house.
Generally I don’t read post on blogs, however
I would like to say that this write-up very forced
me to check out and do it! Your writing taste has been surprised me.
Thanks, quite nice article.
We looked for safer wipes online for our son to avoid all the bad Parabens and Phenoxyethanol. We discovered this company and were actually seduced by their products and mission statement.
We ordered the Honest “FREE” sample package for $5.95 shipping to get a better idea of what to order in their entire catalogue.
Not only the diapers did not work better than the brand we were using before but they even created a terrible rash on our 16-month old son (or are these their wipes?).
The wipes are dry and stick to each other which must be pretty annoying on the long run.
So we decided not to go that route and look for another brand that would satisfy us and our son better.
Now the worst part begins !!!! What they call a “free trial” ends up being a monthly service where they stuff you for over $160 worth of products before you can even react and cancel it.
There is no actual way to cancel and manage your orders/subscriptions on their website, they force you to call their Customer Service(even an e-mail is not accepted).
We had to stay for 25 minutes on the line before talking to an operator who ended up offering a 15% discount on the bundles !!!
Seriously ??!!!?? You shoveled those products we never ordered down our throats and you don’t accept them back ?
Those $5.95 did cost us over $160 because we did not go and read the fine prints at the very bottom of the page and we are now sitting with all those products that are not suitable for our son.
OUTRAGED !
We even discovered after the fact that their wipes (maybe some other products as well, to be verified) were manufactured in CHINA!!!… How green is that?!?
And they call themselves the HONEST company… that’s ironic !
Tried a bundle and am not happy. I disliked ALL 5 products. Besides smelling good and having cute packaging, none of them cleaned or worked as they should. Very poor. I am going back to using Shaklee, Seventh Generation, Ecover, etc. And by ordering, you are signing up to automatically be charged monthly. You cannot cancel online, telephone only. And only M-F from 7-5. You will have to sit on the phone and wait for a long time for a rep to answer. Worse than calling Comcast. It is such a hassle and waste of money. I do not recommend.
I keep reading about the terrible cancelation policy.. I did NOT have this problem at all. I called to cancel my bundle, they did offer to postpone and discount it but I declined and they immediately canceled my bundles. When the first order is placed it clearly says the amount of time you have to cancel, I do believe it is a short window (I think 7 days??) but still, totally doable.
Honest and Comp their Rinde Aid has METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE in it that is a nerve agent that is used in NERVE GAS and is very toxic! Look it up! This Company “Claims” to be pure but most of their product are NOT.