UPDATE: SLS in Honest Co. Detergent?

This story was upated at 4:25pm to include a statement from The Honest Co.

Reports are swirling that the Honest Company's laundry detergent many not live up to the company’s own standards. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, two independent lab tests commissioned by the newspapers determined Honest’s liquid laundry detergent contains sodium lauryl sulfate, SLS.
 
The firm, which was co-founded by Jessica Alba, and has received considerable attention with investors, has made a name for its self by telling consumers to avoid certain traditional cleaning product chemicals, including SLS.
 
According to the Wall Street Journal, findings show that the ingredient is in Honest’s detergent.

The Wall Street Journal story included the follow paragraph: “Our findings support that there is a significant amount of sodium lauryl sulfate” in Honest’s detergent, said Barbara Pavan, a chemist at one of the labs, Impact Analytical. Another lab, Chemir, a division of EAG Inc., said its test for SLS found about the same concentration as Tide, which is made by P&G. “It was not a trace amount,” said Matthew Hynes, a chemist at Chemir who conducted the test.
 
Honest disputes the findings, and provided the following statement to Happi:

“At The Honest Company, our mission is to develop safe and effective products for our families to use and for families everywhere to feel great about. Despite providing The Wall Street Journal with substantial evidence to the contrary, they falsely claimed our laundry detergent contains Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS). To set the record straight, we use Sodium Coco Sulfate (SCS) in our brand’s laundry detergent because it is a gentler alternative that is less irritating and safer to use. Rigorous testing and analysis both by our internal research and development teams as well as further testing by external partners have confirmed this fact. The Wall Street Journal has been reckless in the preparation of this article, refused multiple requests to share data on which they apparently relied and has substituted junk science for credible journalism. We stand behind our laundry detergent and take very seriously the responsibility we have to our consumers to create safe and effective products.”
 
Recently, Ava Anderson Non Toxic—another fast growing start-up, making a name for itself by touting “cleaner” products—closed up shop after reports circulated about its ingredients.