Jessica Alba’s Honest Co Recalls Product, Threatens IPO or Sale

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 3:52PM EST · Published Jan 14, 9:05AM EST

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Jessica Alba’s Honest Co Recalls Product, Threatens IPO or Sale — © Wikimedia Commons (Mark J Sebastian)

[cnxvideo id=”655426″ placement=”ros”]Honest Company, Jessica Alba’s consumer products company, has proven itself to be less and less honest over time. It appeared to be a successful unicorn, on its way to an initial public offering (IPO). A voluntary recall of baby powder because of possible contamination has hurt that.

Honest was lauded a year ago for outpacing revenue projections and reaching a $1.7 billion valuation. The effects of this have been washed away.

This is not Honest’s first run in with ingredient issues. Last year The Wall Street Journal reported that one of its laundry detergents contained sodium lauryl sulfate, a commercial chemical substance used in products made by competitors. Alba had promised Honest would stay away from any substances other than “all natural” ingredients.

The new voluntary recall will not trigger that kind of outrage and legal action as the laundry detergent one. However, the company’s credibility over its products is now shot.

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The company’s note about the new recall read:

The Honest Company is recalling all lots of Organic Baby Powder. This product is distributed in the United States in 4 oz containers, UPC #817810014529.

This product is being recalled due to possible contamination with microorganisms, including some species associated with skin infections or eye infections. The product may therefore present a possible health risk. The Honest Company is voluntarily recalling this product out of an abundance of caution.

No other products of The Honest Company are impacted by this recall.

Its “Peace of Mind” pledge:

Parents have more than enough to worry about. You can sleep easy (between night feedings) knowing our products are made without potentially harmful ingredients. We love to do what we do and like to have fun, but we’re serious about sustainability and our impact on the Earth.

So much for the pledge, and the chance that Honest will be sold for or go public at anything close to $1.7 billion.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.