A few months ago I had some rather evil things to say about Suave Exhale Calming Body Wash in Lavender Vanilla. Consider this:

"...claims to turn your shower into a "calming sanctuary." Please! The only thing that turns my bathroom into a calming sanctuary is a glass of wine and Miles Davis on the iPod. Anyhow, this body wash laughably claims to have the "same fragrance appeal as Bath & Body Works." Really? Because I found it to smell considerably cheaper and more generic. My lavender and vanilla dryer sheets smell better than this. Some Suave products really do mimic their competitors very well (try the copycat of Matrix SleekLook); this just isn't one of them."

Ouch! Well guess what, here I am three months later, reluctantly eating (some of) my words. I still don't love the smell, and I don't get the B&BW comparisons, but this product has a redeeming quality that should not go unmentioned.

It is surprisingly very, very moisturizing, far more so than I had originally assumed. I discovered this during the horrific Aveeno tanner episode. It seemed that this tanner would just not let go of my skin! I had taken to showering twice daily in the hopes of speeding up the skin-sloughing process (I didn't want to do a full-out exfoliation, as I'd done it just before the tanner application, plus, I was fresh out of scrubs). But this evil tan seemed to hang on longer than average. Finally I realized that the Suave body wash was aiding the process. Skin stays moisturized, hangs on longer. That's that.

I switched to a regular shower gel for a few days and the nuclear tan came off eventually, but then I quickly went back to the Suave. I love using it after a fresh application of St. Tropez, I swear it makes it last a couple days longer without the telltale leopard patches.

So, Suave...truce?