How to Find Best-Of Baby Products Other Moms Swear by

The Bump presents #MomBoss, a series dedicated to showing off all-star moms. We catch up with mompreneurs behind products we love, influencers who get real about motherhood and SAHMs who can multitask in their sleep.

Pesky sponsored ads that constantly slip into your newsfeeds are the bane of everyone’s existence. It’s tempting to splurge on products touted by our favorite social influencers, but the truth is, it’s sometimes hard to discern honest online product reviews from sponsored posts and paid partnerships.

This modern-day dilemma is what lead Kate Foster to launch SwearBy, a trusted word-of-mouth online directory to help women find products others, well, swear by. Swears are made by invitation-only editors, who take an oath and “pinky swear” to only share products they know and love. From beauty secrets to coveted baby gear and beyond, SwearBy gathers everyone’s recommendations in one place.

We chatted with Foster to learn more about the exciting new social media platform and all the products she and tons of other moms swear by.

Tell us about SwearBy.

SwearBy is a word-of-mouth directory for awesome products women honestly swear by. We’re taking aim at all the fake reviews and sponsored posts that have created too much noise and confusion for busy women when it comes to product discovery. We’ve built SwearBy to be a trusted resource for the best products your friends would actually swear by.

What inspired you to leave your day job and take the leap to launch a new platform?

Regardless of whether I was wearing my marketing executive hat or my busy female consumer hat, I experienced the same frustrations. Like many others, I’ve become increasingly distrustful of online product recommendations due to sponsored influencer posts and fake five-star product reviews. I wanted to create a platform for the best products around to help busy women cut through the clutter and curate honest recommendations from friends, experts and people you can trust. I felt like this was an idea I couldn’t pass up, because I could make a difference solving problems for both consumers and brands.

How can parents take advantage of SwearBy?

We just launched and are looking for discerning, trustworthy women to contribute to the site as SwearBy Editors and show us what they swear by! Editors are never paid, but they can earn product perks. Do you pinky swear to tell the truth and help busy moms buy only awesome things? If so, apply to be an editor here!

But the best part is you don’t have to be an SwearBy editor to find the site useful. It’s a self-serve platform to find the best, non-sponsored product recommendations for women.

What are the most popular categories?

Beauty is the No. 1 category on the site. Right now, there’s lots of love for:

• Glossier Boy Brow
• Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment SPF 15
• Drunk Elephant Babyfacial

What are some go-to products in the baby space?

Our community of editors are raving about:

• Keekaroo Peanut Changer
• Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleepsuit
• DockATot
• Solly Baby Wrap
• Lovevery Play Gym

What’s your secret to starting a company while raising two young kids?

Wine. Kidding! (Not really.)

I think it’s really about being on the same page as your partner, really committing to the idea and stacking hands on the fact that your way of life will be turned upside down for a period of time. I thank my lucky stars every day that my husband is supportive of this endeavor and that he helps out with the kids, especially on weekends.

Any go-to parenting hacks?

Every day I’m hacking away and trying something new! On Sundays, I’ll lay out my kids’ clothes for a full week in a drawer, and I’ll write little notes for their lunchboxes for the full week and stash them in the kitchen to make daily lunch prep easy. I also found I’m most productive if I wake up at 5:30 a.m. before the kiddo craziness of the morning starts at 7.

More than anything, my biggest piece of advice is to laugh a lot and be kind to everyone—including yourself!

Have you had any funny parenting fails?

My husband and I now laugh about how I went “tiger mom” trying to potty train my daughter too early. I got suckered into buying this downloadable e-book on how you can train your kid over a weekend. It turned into a months-long saga, and for us, it was just a bad idea. Luckily, we didn’t repeat it the second time around.

What are the top parenting products you swear by?

*Magna-Tiles: I’m completely obsessed and my kids have played with them nonstop for years

• Aquaphor: It’s magic for everything
• Marpac Dohm Sounds Machine: This is especially helpful when sleep training—we had one in the baby’s room and one in ours
• OK to Wake Clock: This was a lifesaver to prevent our toddlers from busting out of their rooms before 7 a.m.

What’s a product you wouldn’t have been able to make it through your first year as a parent without?

The Ergobaby Carrier! I know there are tons of carriers out there, and I’ve tried many of them. This one worked for me because it didn’t hurt my back and made schlepping around the city so much easier.

Do you have any guilty mom pleasures?

I’m actually trying to taper off the guilty mom pleasures because I kind of overdid it in the last six months as things got really wild with building and launching SwearBy’s platform. I’m trying to be more disciplined about eating right and working out. As a busy mom, sometimes self-care can feel like a guilty pleasure! I’m back to indulging by working out at fitness studios like OrangeTheory or SoulCycle. I’ve also discovered Obé, which you can do at home and it’s reasonably priced. One month of streaming is the same cost as one boutique fitness class, which is nice when you have caviar tastes on a start-up budget!

Published January 2019