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The Honest Company Bubble Bath Review

I'll have to admit I didn't have the most favorable opinion of The Honest Company. I'd seen their stuff in the store before and never bought it. The company has had issues before. I saw their bubble bath in the store and never bought it. 

About The Honest Company: On my page about The Honest Company, you can read more about their company and see all my product reviews. I have reviewed other companies and their products as well and you can find those on my complete list.

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I got this for free: I love free stuff! My husband picked this up as he was wondering through the store.

Disclaimer: Per FTC regulations, I am disclosing that I use affiliate links. I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase after clicking through the links. It is a way to support my blog at no additional cost to you. You can read more here.

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Ingredients
It has no SLS, sulfates, parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, dyes, formaldehyde carriers, MEA, DEA, TEA, or most common allergens. I'm not a chemist. I'm just a regular person and I had to google a few of those things. But hey, that's ok, because now I'm more knowledgeable.

Me being the way I am, the first thing I did was turn the bottle over and check the ingredients. The scent was sweet orange vanilla, which is perfect. My daughter loves citrus and vanilla. If he'd had gotten the lavender one, I probably wouldn't even have opened it because I hate lavender.

I was looking at the ingredients and looking and looking and I couldn't find the orange or the vanilla. I read them backwards and forwards. There weren't a lot of ingredients, so I didn't think I could miss it. I couldn't find it on my bottle. I saw tangerine listed and gave them the benefit of the doubt because I thought that they're both citrus and smell about the same at least to me. However, I could not for the life of me find the vanilla. I chalked it up to false advertising or possibly one of the ingredients somehow smelled like vanilla. I know Peru Balsam, for example, can smell like vanilla (although I don't think it does, some people do), so maybe one of the ingredients they used had a vanilla smell.

Anyways, I figured why not enlist the help of technology and pull up the ingredients online and search for it? I went to The Honest Company website and pulled up their ingredient list and compared it to mine.

What's in the bubble bath according to their website:
image source
What's listed on my bottle:
Below you can find a screenshot of the bottle. You can also check Amazon and see the label.
image source
Difference in labeling:
All the ingredients that are in bold are one that do NOT appear on my bottle.

Water (Aqua), Lauryl Glucoside, Decyl Glucoside, Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, Glycerin, Sodium Chloride, Citrus Tangerina (Tangerine) Peel Extract, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel Extract, Vanilla Planifolia Fruit Extract, Hydrolyzed Jojoba Protein, Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract*, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract*, Chenopodium Quinoa Seed Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Powder, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil*, Triethyl Citrate, Sodium Benzoate, Calcium Gluconate, Gluconolactone, Citric Acid, Limonene (source)

Whoa there! According to the website there are 22 ingredients and 6 aren't listed on my bottle! 27% of the ingredients are missing from the label, including the orange and the vanilla. Now to me, that just doesn't make sense. I understand that labeling laws have changed very recently; however, if you're going to call something sweet orange vanilla, don't you think that you should include both those ingredients on the ingredient list? It's not like people will be surprised to see them there, on the contrary; they're expecting to see them. They're part of the name. I mean, come on. That's just common sense.

Preservatives
Another interesting issue is the preservatives. According to Making Skincare, a product with water needs to have a preservative to protect it from gram negative bacteria, gram positive bacteria, and mold. They suggest using a broad spectrum preservative or a few preservatives. This bubble bath (according to the website since some of these ingredients are missing from the label, has a few things that can act as a preservative.

First is glycerin, but it would have to be used at a high percent (70%). Then you have gluconolactone and sodium benzoate, which goes by the trade names of Microgard, Geogard Ultra, and Neodefend. However, as you can see on Making Skincare, while it does protect against gram positive bacteria, it does NOT protect against gram negative bacteria, and only partially protects against mold. That's not good. So I'm not sure if the glycerin is at a high enough percentage to protect against gram negative bacteria and mold, or if there are more preservatives not listed, or if it's an unsafe product.

image source
Chemists Corner also has some articles about natural cosmetic preservatives ingredients and strategies, natural preservatives in cosmetics - a trend, alternative cosmetic preservatives - what are your options?, and natural cosmetic preservative questions answered. They say that citric acid might be able to be used as a natural preservative and that some essential oils can, however, the bubble bath lists extracts rather than essential oils.

Ironically, extracts can function as parabens depending on the solvent used for the extract. However, since The Honest Company says that there are no parabens, I would hope that they made sure the extracts weren't extracted using parabens. but you just never know.

I'm very wary that the bubble bath is preserved correctly seeing as how The Honest Company voluntarily recalled some of its wipes because they might have mold.

Let's Analyze This
Math time. Remember rounding in elementary school? 27 rounded to the nearest 10s in 30, right? Ok. Now let's move on to cooking.

Let's say that I invite you over to my house and make you a ham and cheese sandwich. Now, I can't cook, but I can make a sandwich, so let's stick to that analogy. You are so impressed with my sandwich making skills that I ask you for the recipe, which I oh so kindly give you. Here's what I write down for you.

Ham and Cheese Sandwich
2 slices of bread
lettuce
turkey
mayo

Put all ingredients between the slices of bread. Enjoy!

Putting It All Together
Ok, let's take a look at this, shall we? It's called a ham and cheese sandwich. Where's the ham? Where's the cheese? There's turkey, that's a meat, but it's not ham. I'm missing 30% of the ingredients. This is what The Honest Company has done. They listed tangerine, but not orange, just like I listed turkey instead of ham. Then they completely left out the vanilla, like I left out the cheese.  Of course, my sandwich only has a total of 6 ingredients and their bubble bath has 22, but I think you've got the idea.

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Smell and Texture
So now that I've ripped them apart due to their labeling, let's move on to other things. It smells nice. It reminds me of a Creamsicle, which is ok. It's aimed towards kids and my daughter likes it, so that's good. I wish it were a little thicker though, but that's just me.

Great Bubbles
I feel like I'm tearing this bubble bath apart and although it does have a lot of issues, but I will say that a little bit goes a long way and the bubbles last a long time. I put in much less than they recommend. They say 2 capfuls, that seems way too much, especially when I have a baby and don't put too much water in the tub. I squirted in a little bit and that was plenty. The bubbles lasted throughout the whole bath. It seems like many times, bubbles don't, but these were great.

Size, Price, and Packaging
In my opinion, it was a bit more expensive than what I'd be willing to pay considering the ingredients that were used. You can buy it here. I got a bit of a sticker shock when my husband told me how much he paid in the store. My jaw literally dropped. You paid how much?! For that little bottle?  I did the same when I bought my rosehip oil. Ladies and gents, learn from our mistakes: check online before you buy stuff, prices fluctuate and many stores will price-match. It comes in a 12oz bottle. My husband paid more than he should, so make sure you price check. The lid just pops off and you can pour the bubble bath in. I kind of wish it were a pump, because I could see this getting knocked over and me crying over money going down the drain. However, most bubble bath seems to use these tops.


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Would I Get This Again?
Absolutely not. I don't think I've ever felt so disgusted about a product before. I do realise that labeling has changed. I've seen Shea Moisture deal with this and people are in an up-roar. But to leave out the very ingredients that are part of the scent is just crazy. It's not like finding these ingredients listed are going to surprise people.

To be honest (because someone has to be), I wasn't too sure I was going to use this. I decided to keep it though. First, my daughter likes it. Second, I will get great pleasure seeing it go down the drain. However, everyone is different. If you're interested, you can buy it here.


Random Thoughts
Patch test before using. 

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