We’ve pretty much targeted L.A.’s best dressed crew (Hilary Kerr, Katherine Power, Rachel Zoe, Kelly Sawyer, Katie Nehra, Simone Harouche, Hedi Gores, etc.) but there’s one we’ve been trying to pin down for a while. Cue: Jessica Alba.  While many know Alba for her acting (she’ll be reprising her role in Sin City in October 2013!), we find it’s Alba’s philanthropic and entrepreneurial endeavors that are really inspiring.

The actress-turned-entrepreneur launched The Honest Company as a way to educate people to know what they’re buying… sans all that toxic stuff that many of us don’t even know exists in our everyday products. Her clear-conscious turned her vegan at age 12 (!!!) and eventually shifted that attitude towards creating a healthy environment for her family.  On a mission to simplify the whole healthy living lifestyle, Alba penned her book, The Honest Life, as a way to easily digest those crazy ingredients with an obscurely long name that you can’t pronounce and guide you on what’s out there (and better) in the marketplace.

We sat down with Alba over cupcakes and champagne to chat about her new book, her favorite movie to watch when she’s sick, her guilty pleasure reality shows (it’s going to shock you!), her crime scene investigator dream job and her Joey McIntyre teenage girl-crush that she hasn’t quite lost.

The Coveteur: What was the first designer piece you bought with your own money? Think way back…
Jessica Alba: I am thinking way back… I sort of did it all in one summer. I was living only in hotels and I didn’t have a car or anything. I was living in Canada. I had nothing to spend my money on, and I never did anything, and I didn’t have friends, and I was working all the time. And I lived in this hotel that was connected to Holt Renfrew. I got this big knit by Alber Elbaz for Lanvin. It was like cashmere wooley thing with gold thread and giant cable. I still have it and it is massive. And I just can’t part with it because it was the most expensive thing I had ever seen in my life. It was so cozy. It rained for like ten months a year, and we were shooting in the dark most of the time. To have that cozy sweater, it was like the best thing ever. I will let them [my daughters] borrow it… I don’t know if I will give it to them. I also bought these like weird flower-like yellow Céline kitten heels from their resort collection. I don’t know what I was thinking. And a Prada bag when they did that bowler series. I am so dating myself.

TC: What is your favorite movie to watch when you are sick?
JA: I really like Overboard a lot. I think that’s always a good movie to watch. The Little Mermaid, Goonies…

TC: Best beauty advice?
JA: I have a few. Drink water, try to sleep—I mean especially after you are 26, there is nothing like sleep. Try to wash your face if you can every night. I use different products: SuzieBeauty makes a good one; 100% Pure makes a good cleanser, Dr. Bronner’s soap is a basic. I use the Honest bubble bath. I just put a little bit of tea tree oil when I’m breaking out and that’s a natural anti-bacterial agent. Oh, I have pores, but I have a good facialist. Her name is Shawnie; she hooks this mug up because she was not cute when she was pregnant. I was a disaster and she fixed me. Now it’s maintenance mostly. I should go more because I am a little dehydrated right now.

TC: Your guilty pleasure reality show?
JA: I Survived, and The First 48 are like crazy. The First 48 [is about the time] after a murder and then you have to figure it out. I’m for sure a crime scene investigator… like, that’s my job. I’d survive if someone wanted to kill me—I know that I could survive; I know like every way to get out of the house. I’m going to go for the esophagus; I know all the things I’m going to do! Even in my sleep I know I’m going to be able to hear it and I know I can just like get a pencil and do some damage.

TC: The first concert you went to? What did you wear?
JA: New Kids on the Block! And I wore a hyper color New Kids on the Block shirt and I had a cast (because I had a broken thumb), which was florescent orange; it matched my New Kids on the Block hyper color skirt. And we were in the nosebleeds, and I cried. I actually saw Joey McIntyre in real life and I wanted to say something to him, but his wife was there and I don’t think she would have appreciated it. Joey Macintyre, he’s the man. He was a boy; he was THE boy! I was like 11 or 10...

PS: Makeup by (the one and only!) Lauren Andersen. 

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