LilSugar

Jessica Alba Launches The Honest Company Eco-Friendly Baby Care Products

Rebecca M Gruber — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:22:06 PST

Jessica Alba is hoping to move off the red carpet and into your home. The actress and mother of two - Honor, 3, and Haven, 5 months - may be known best for showing off her impeccable figure in Fantastic Four and Little Fockers, but she's equally passionate about keeping toxins out of schools, homes, and work spaces.

This week, after stunning on the Golden Globes red carpet, Jessica launched The Honest Company, a subscription-based, eco-friendly, and toxic-free baby-products and household-items company. Working with Christopher Gavigan, the former CEO of Healthy Child, Healthy World and husband of Grey's Anatomy's Jessica Capshaw, the company's products include designer biodegradable diapers, all-natural wipes, shampoo, baby lotion, laundry detergent, sunscreen, and more. Based on her own experiences trying to find eco-friendly, child-safe, affordable products, Jessica is introducing the line through monthly subscriptions - they're currently offering a five-pack cleaning products package ($36) and a month's supply diaper bundle ($80), which will all be delivered directly to babies' nurseries.

What do you think? Could Jessica Alba's eco-friendly baby company take off?

Fridgeezoo Refrigerator Pets: Kid-Friendly or Are You Kidding?

Natasha Dantzig — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:15:52 PST

Will a cute lil robot critter living in the fridge encourage families to be a little more energy efficient? That's the theory behind Fridgeezoo Refrigerator Pets ($16), which give indecisive refrigerator lingerers gentle reminders to shut the door. Created in Japan, the cute milk carton-shaped gadget greets you warmly when the refrigerator door is first opened, but turns from friend to foe quickly - complaining if the door is left open for too long.

It makes good sense not to stand gazing into the icy cold abyss - refrigerators are markedly less efficient at keeping food cold with warm air rushing in - but isn't nagging the family to make a choice and close the fridge mom's job?

OnSugar Blog: Hallow-green

OnSugar Blog — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 04:16:23 PDT

Lots of moms like to think out loud, and MiaFT is one of them. This is an excerpt from one of the latest posts on her Baby Love blog.

Ok so I'm not the greenest mom around, but I am working on it! If you're like me, then you can use some good tips. Check out the website Green Halloween to get some great tips for a greener Halloween. It has some great ideas for treats, costumes, and Halloween parties! They also have links to all kinds of great (and green) companies on the page so it is a great resource! One of my favorite is the ChicoBag website which has adorable (and reusable) Halloween treat bags that I am just crazy about! Wish I would have found this site sooner! They have a lot of great ideas that I will definitely implement next year! Check it out and you can learn to be a little greener too! Hope you have a Happy and Green Halloween!

Want to see more? Start following Baby Love or start your own OnSugar blog. It's easy, it's free, and we just may feature your content on our site!

Candy With a Conscience: 6 Options For Halloween That Give More Than a Belly Ache

LilSugar — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:03:29 PDT

Shopping for Halloween candy presents a sticky situation for parents committed to living as greenly as possible. Eco-friendly or "green" is so vague - does eco-friendly candy mean candy that's good for earth, good for tots, or good for the people who actually pull the taffy? It can mean all of those things, which is why candy shopping can be confusing. Instead of making yourself crazy finding the perfect candy, pick one area that your family is going to focus on, and have some fun with it.

Keep reading for a selection of candy that's certified fair trade - meaning everyone in the chain to create the product for sale gets a fair payment, and it also means that working conditions are safe and that child labor or slaves are not engaged. Now that sounds sweet.

How Will You Get Your Child's Costume this Year?

LilSugar — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:32:00 PDT

Decisions, decisions, decisions! With just a few weeks to go until lil ghouls and goblins take to the streets, costume decisions need to be finalized. Some moms have been planning for this day for months, with exquisitely designed costumes thought out to the last detail, while others will go the old "let's get creative with an old sheet and a pair of (safety) scissors" route the day before Halloween. The Green Halloween movement is gaining momentum, and this Saturday, Oct. 8, lots of tots in almost every state will participate in National Costume Swap Day, giving parents another option for acquiring a costume.

Have Fun and Do Good With Alternative Takes on Classic Halloween Activities

LilSugar — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:31:55 PDT

Having fun and doing good aren't mutually exclusive, and this Halloween is a great time to put that theory into practice. There's still time to participate in the following programs, which help parents, kids, and communities make Halloween about more than just a sugar explosion.

Don't have a Halloween costume yet? Not to fear. National Costume Swap Day is this Saturday, Oct. 8. Everyone wins: kids get a good-as-new costume and parents save money. It's recycling at its finest! Swaps are taking place all over the country; find one near you.
This Halloween, thousands of children will be reverse trick-or-treating. Instead of receiving candy at each house they visit, activists in training will give out fair-trade chocolate attached to an informational card to raise awareness of the child labor, forced labor, trafficking, poverty, and environmental degradation that is widespread on cocoa farms.
Trick-or-Treat For UNICEF has been going strong since 1950, raising money for kids in need all over the world.
Halloween Candy Buy Back is a triple-pronged improvement on the typical Halloween candy binge (also known as the dentist's worst nightmare). Participating dentists buy kids' Halloween candy - with cash, toothbrushes, coupons - and then send the sugar-laden confections to Operation Gratitude or other military support groups who get the candy to US troops.

Photo courtesy of National Costume Swap Day

OnSugar Blog: The Coolest Green Living Placemats Cum Art Kits For Kids

OnSugar Blog — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 06:35:12 PDT

Lots of moms like to think out loud, and houseofanais is one of them. Here is one the latest posts to her House of Anais blog.

I know we are not the greenest family in the country, but we are trying to do our fair share on recycling, walking, shorter showers (miss Anaïs so enthusiastically uses her water timer for everyone), etc. We also try to live a relatively healthy lifestyle by eating more local and organic produce, avoiding BPA and other chemicals, and so on - and I recently also blogged about my quest for safer equipment in my start of the school year story. Basically, we updated the kids' school kits to these cute and eco-friendly lunch bags, food containers, and water bottles.

So recently we were asked if we wanted to test some environmentally-friendly products, and the whole family was very excited to try some out. The kids selected these cool placemats from Modern Twist, made out of food-grade silicone (they are very flexible so none of those bent corners that normally happen to our plastic placemats). What is so cool about them is that you can color them - and immediately I was thinking of long car journeys, sticking them in my handbag when going for restaurant meals (double benefits for being able to scrap all that falling food back to the place and entertaining kids as nonchain restaurants don't normally have activity packs for kids, and the waits time are long). We'll see soon how all that works as we are heading on our Yosemite road trip!

Oh how they loved coloring these placemats - for once, they stayed at the table eating the dinner and then coloring their pictures. Poor little Hugo got sidelined a bit as his rather artistic daddy wanted to also have a go too when enjoying his sushi. My tip would be to get one of these whiteboard erasers as it makes the cleaning of the placemats really quick. I also liked their coloring pens as they are child safe - and easy to wash off from clothes if an accident happens (unlike some other pens . . .)

My verdict all in all - we all love them, they are very cute and safe and can be used for many purposes - highly recommended!

And this is how far the kids got after meal one - and can one tell a difference between a 2-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy? Or maybe he just has a very modern style . . .

Want to see more? Start following House of Anais, or start your own OnSugar blog. It's easy, it's free, and we just may feature your content on our site!

11 Swagger-Worthy Back-to-School Backpacks

LilSugar — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 04:30:20 PDT

Time hasn't completely run out for parents erring on the side of slacker to get their kids a back-to-school backpack they'll love. Even lil ones carry heavy loads these days, so keep reading for a selection of supercool styles that tots will be eager to show off.

Step Away From the Mall: Cut Costs (and Waste) by Renting Maternity and Baby Gear

LilSugar — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:31:41 PDT

One man's trash is another man's treasure - and that goes for tots, too. Most parents learn before the baby is even born just how much stuff one tiny little bundle requires. Between clothes, diapers, toys, and books, that spacious kid-friendly home can quickly become the before picture on an episode of Hoarders, putting a real dent in parents' eco-friendly aspirations. Going totally waste-free with kids may be too overwhelming a commitment for most, but one simple way to cut down on waste and clutter is to opt for the more eco-friendly option of renting. These websites give parents and parents-to-be access to quality goods without a lifetime commitment.

Baby Clothes: Since its launch last month, Plum has been so inundated with sign-ups, that the online destination for designer baby clothes - for rent - started a wait list for interested parents. With plans starting at just $16 a month for popular baby brands laundered only in eco-friendly Seventh Generation products, parents-to-be will do themselves a favor by signing up right now. Parents looking for more specific short-term clothes rentals will appreciate bebarang, an online rental service for those "special occasion" clothes babies and kids never get to use more than once or twice before the inevitable growth spurt. Unlike Plum, bebarang is a pay-per-use service and parents only keep the clothes for up to four days, which is all you need to get through a Bar Mitzvah, wedding, etc.
Toys and Books: For the toys that tots lose interest in well before they're worn out, Toys to Trade is a free online service that allows parents to swap last month's castoffs for this month's dream toy. Keep kids interested in reading with the large selection at Booksfree; set up just like Netflix, plans start at $14 a month, and there's no due date.
Maternity Clothes: Spending a lot of money on maternity is pretty brutal. Mamas-to-be are pretty much guaranteed a maximum shelf life of 40 weeks, and even families planning for a large brood might not want to keep boxes of last year's maternity fashions around, taking up precious storage space (especially important for city dwellers). Renting maternity gear lets stylish mamas stay on top of the current trends without losing sight of their budget. Mine for Nine is the most recent addition to the world of online maternity clothes rentals, with high-end clothes from top maternity designers including Seraphine, Everly Grey, and Maternité.

Craft Without Fear With Nontoxic Art Supplies

LilSugar — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 05:25:30 PDT

Get crafty! There's nothing better than a rainy afternoon spent dreaming up new and creative art projects. In an ideal world, parents wouldn't have to worry about the toxicity of the supplies. For parents of young tots, who tend to put everything into their lil mouths, the artificial chemical dyes, petrochemicals, and other unknown ingredients found in paints, glues, crayons, and markers - despite bearing a nontoxic label - can be frightening. Unbeknownst to their parents and teachers, millions of children are exposed to these harmful contaminants on a daily basis. Fortunately, there are safe alternatives. Companies like Wee Can Too Art and Clementine Art are committed to developing products that are eco-friendly and truly kid-safe. Unleash tots' creative side with these eco-friendly, nontoxic art supplies that are as gentle on the earth as they are on kids.