Cleo Darcy 30e

Color: Green w/ pink flamingos

The fit: I bought this bra knowing it wasn’t for my shape. Cleo Darcy is a Juna clone. Both bras reportedly best fit for wide shallow breasts, which my breasts are not. Well, I do think my breasts are wide, as I have breast tissue in my armpit, and I have close set breasts. Anyway, this bra did not fit. When I read the reviews, a few people said that the bra ran small in both band and cup, so I sized up to a 30E. I didn’t think about the wires/width when I got that size. What I didn’t realize, until after I received the bra, was that the people that said the bra ran small, were talking about the blue/red/white color way, and not the green/pink color way.

 

As you can tell from the side pics, the band rides up. I didn’t realize this until I saw the pictures. I tried to pull it down, so that it was even, but it kept riding up. It did t feel loose, but apparently it was.

I love the rounded shape this bra gave me. I kept going back and forth as to whether or not I should keep this bra. It was really cute, but it didn’t fit. What really cemented my decision to return the bra was the fact that the sides of the cup rubbed against my armpit. The side came up to high, and the wire was just too wide. I could deal with the wide wires, but not the rubbing armpit. It wasn’t bearable to wear for 15 minutes, so there’s no way I could wear it to work.

 

The top of the cup was flat against my skin, on my bigger breast.

But the lace doesn’t completely lie flat.

You can see in this pic below how much room was at the top of the cup on my smaller breast.

Ideally, I would have liked the wire to be about an inch or so more forward

While it felt okay on, when I slouched down (a lot) there seemed to be a little bit of space at the bottom of the cup.

The bottom of the gore didn’t touch my skin (is it because the band is a little too big? My neon pink dessous did the same thing.)

 

I hastily decided to return the bra, so I didn’t remember to take pics before I sent it off. I do want to mention though, that this bra only has one vertical seam. I’ve seen it mentioned that it has two seams.

I did re-order this bra in a smaller size 30dd. I know it will probably be too small, but I guess I don’t care. Lol. I really wanted to have some cleavage with this bra, and I didn’t get it with the 30e. There was no 28e available, so hopefully the band won’t still be too big.

My experience ordering from Polish brand Kostar

I am going to review my experience with the Polish bra company Kostar. There isn’t very many posts about the company. So this is going to be pretty long as I would like to make it as detailed as possible.

One day recently I was browsing through the Polish guide on ABTF & I decided I wanted a bra that Kostar was selling. Their prices were very reasonable. (I’m cheap, so I’m always looking for the cheapest option– which is a part of the reason I haven’t tried Comexim or Ewa)

But not only were their bras inexpensive, they also had a few unlined  bras, which is what caught my attention. It wasn’t a crazy amount of unlined bras, but it was 13 bras out of about 30.

Their bras don’t have names, they just have numbers. With some of the bras, the different colors have different numbers, but with some the different colors have the same number. The white bra above, was #302, but the same bra in black was #304. The black/white bra that I did guy were both #301.

They do sell bra sized bralettes, as well as matching panties & thongs, and maternity bras.

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I couldn’t find any information on their site about shipping to the US, so I had to send them an email. First, I sent them an email through their site (thurs 2/18). I didn’t get a response, or an email letting me know that the message was received, so the next day (fri 2/19), I sent an email directly to the email listed on their site. Biuro.kostar@wp.pl. The email I sent was both in English, and in Polish. I received a response two days later, 2/22, it was in both English, and Polish as well.

I took it upon myself to ask some questions, before it placed my order:

*what are the sizing increments between the cups?

*does a particular bra that they have on their site listed as ‘push-up’ also cone in a non push-up version?

*are the bands very stretchy?

This was Paula’s response:

This is the sizing chart she was referencing:

 

The the third paragraph in that email kind of confused me, so I just decided to go with 65e. I did keep my previous order from Melissa Dessous in mind (those bras were too small in 60e)

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I asked her about the shipping price she quoted (60€, which converts to $66). Her response was that the shipping costs were expensive, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that.

Shipping tangent:

I went to the UPS, Fedex, and USPS websites to calculate the shipping from Poland to NY, because $66USD is a lot. (I’ve ordered from China before, and with 3 day shipping through FedEx, I only paid about $25-$35.) This is what I got:

I assume the prices on UPS and Fedex are in zł, and USPS is in dollars. (I could be wrong though). So UPS cost a lot more than what I was chargeds $206-$141. FedEx has around what I paid, and the post office has a little less than what I paid (again assuming the post office is in dollars)

So I asked around, and a few people stated I paid a lot. I noticed in the email I was quoted a weight of 1-2kg, which is about 2-4 pounds. No way is three bras going to weight 2 pounds. So I checked the amount with the correct weight .3kg (what is in the actual UPS tracking info page)

Still comes up to more than what I paid, so I decided not to email Paula asking about that.

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She sent me a summary of my costs, before I paid, and the shipping came to 227PLN. For everything all together, I paid about $115. Not a bad price for three Polish bras, but literally half of it was shipping. I sent payment thurs 2/25, and the bras were shipped out fri 2/26. According to UPS, they should be delivered by the end of the day mon 2/29 (as of right now, 10:25pm 2/28 the last destination it shows is arriving at Warsaw on 2/27 5:39am. So hopefully I get it mon– this will be posted when I actually get the package to complete the experience)

These are the bras I ordered:

I can’t even remember if I ordered the white or the black, but it’s the same bra.

This is the initial bra I saw that made me want to purchase with Kostar

This is a picture that comes up on the same listing for that bra, but hopefully it looks like the above pic. If it looks like the pic below, I will dye it brown

This is the bra that I saw that was pushup that I wanted in a non push-up version

I love foal, so it caught my eye. This is the version I actually bought. It is padded. And it cost more than the push-up version. This bra isn’t actually on the site.

 

The below are another bra that I was interested in getting, but the more I looked at it, it reminded me of Cleo Lucy or a freya bra, and I think it would have the potential to cut in at the top. I really wanted the white one, but it was sold out.

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Sadly through no fault of Kostar, I still have not received my bras yet (3/1)

The original deliver date was 2/29

The package was stuck in Warsaw for 2 days. So I knew I wasn’t getting it on time. 😥 The date was rescheduled for 3/1 (the next day) by 3pm.

But by 9:41pm 3/1, I still have not received the package.

At 6am it was in the next state over.

It is so annoying to be expecting a package one day (2/29), and to still not have it the next day. Especially when you pay so much.

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I wake up to this: 😒😒

 

I’d contacted UPS, and they stated it was “stuck in customs”. I don’t know how customs work, but the tracking info never said anything about customs (or ICS)… The package was delivered today at 5pm. I couldn’t get to it, because I was at work.

I get home and see it. 😍

Pits heavily taped with Kostar’s own tape. If this went to customs, it was not opened. There’s no way they opened it and replaced the Kostar tape…

Inside the wrapping was a Kostar box

Inside that box was a smaller Kostar box (how cute)

And the invoice:

A closeup view. I was charged VAT (prices listed in Euros)

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The bras were inside the little box (they were not wrapped in tissue paper-not a problem for me)

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As of right now I haven’t tried any of the bras on. But going based on the way they look, I’ll say I think the floral bra may be too big, being that it’s a plunge, it may be okay. It does remind me of the Cleo Darcy (which isn’t a plunge), so the wires may be wide. I can’t tell with the other two bras, but I think one may fit, and the other would be either too big or too small. The beige looks bigger than the black bra. The quality of the bras seem very good.

 

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Is there there anything that I left out that you want to know? Comment in the message section.

Curvy Kate Princess 30d Cranberry

• Color: Cranberry

The bra:

The contrasting ribbon is black, not the navy blue that it looks like from these pictures.

There is an excess of ribbon on both cups, that doesn’t lie flat when worn (and annoys the heck out of me)

The cute flowers at the top of the cup

The signature raised fuzzy polka dots thought the front of the bra

The straps with the ribbon & the flowers

The review:

It looks like it’s cutting in on my smaller breast

That little extra ribbon… 😒

With a cami on

With the shirt I decided to wear today (2/20/16)

 

Pics of the marks left by the wires:

The gore is definitely sitting on tissue

I think this side looks okay

Looks like the wire could be a little farther back

I bought this bra, mainly because I thought it would fit me better an the 28dd I have (band too tight), and the 30dd (cups too big). Although the cups seem to be a little small, I consider tiny a bra that fits. When I look at the get in person, it doesn’t look as tight in the cups as if does in the pictures. But I also think after wearing for a few minutes my breasts settled into the cups

From the side view, the bra reminds of the fit of Cleo Marcie. Very rounded, which isn’t something I think I’ve gotten for CK. I like it, which is why I ordered more.

I wore this bra today, just about the whole day. I thought the gore would bother me, but it didn’t. I think if I wore this 2 days in a row, it would bother me. The one  issue I saw with this bra was after a few hours, where the lower side of my breast meets my chest wall, the wire was bothering me. I didn’t mark it on the photos, but a little higher up from where the bottom of the band meets the wire. On both sides. I’m not sure what caused this, but I’ve noticed some of my 30 bands feeling tighter (mainly on both my Natori feathers. Both are small in the cups.) I measured my under bust, and it’s still 26.75 btt, and 28 snug.

Altered Black Cleo Marcie (babydoll)

As I’ve said in a previous post, I bought this bra specifically to alter.

I didn’t want to make this a lengthy post, so I didn’t take a lot of photos. But it’s pretty straight forward.

This is how the inner part of the babydoll looked.

This is how the inner part of the babydoll looked, with the skirt pulled back

This is how the outer part of the babydoll looked.

I think the skirt part was sewn in between the two layers making the front and back of the bra. So without taking the whole thing apart, I decided to just cut the skirt off.

Now it looks like a regular bra. 😁

You can’t even tell it was a babydoll

I accidentally cut one picot off accidentally on one side

And I accidentally sniped a picot on the opposite side.

I have no idea what I’m going to do with the excess fabric.

The bra:

I did wear this out the day I cut the skirt off. I only noticed that for about 5 minutes or so in the middle of the day the gore was stabbing me. But somehow it went away and didn’t come back.

The gore on the 32d Marcie’s is slightly higher than it is on the 30dd, and that little bit of length is enough to irritate me.

So as it stands the yellow 30dd Marcie is the best fitting.

I got a new job 🎉🎉

I finally got a full time job in my career field. I got my professional license in August of last year and have been looking ever since. Unfortunately in my field a lot of the jobs are part time. I’ve come across a bunch of job postings that wanted someone for one day a week. 😒 I saw a lot of Saturday’s wanted. 😒😒  If I had to work one day a week, it would not be a Saturday.

I kept checking job sites literally everyday. Craigslist, monster.com, indeed.com etc. I even made an account on LinkedIn. I may delete it because it seemed pointless.

Anyway, I say this to say to anyone in a similar predicament, DO NOT GIVE UP.

I still had/have a job– a place I’ve been at for 4 years and 10 months. And I’ve hated it for 4 years and 9 months. Lol. Sunday is my last day. I’m sure my boss is upset that I didn’t put my 2 weeks in. But I couldn’t. Well, I could have, but I’m not. I know that’s unprofessional, but I will not be working in retail again. I’m tired of being poor. You can’t make a living wage working in retail unless you’re in management. And even then it has to be store manager and above. 

My bosses knew this time was coming. We all thought it was going to be sooner. I mentally checked out. I’d be at work going through the motions. I don’t even want to go to work Sunday, but I have some stuff to drop off & I want to say goodbye to whoever is working.

My point of writing this post is, I won’t have as much free time (days off), as I’ve had in the past, so I’m going to try to post  at least twice a week. (I still have a bunch of bras/bralettes to review)

But another thing, since I’m actually in my career, I’ll be making money. REAL MONEY. So I’ll be able to buy bras 😍😍. And maybe soon I’ll venture into polish bras– I’m still on the fence about that for two reasons:

1. I’m currently into unlined bras. And from what I see a lot of the polish brands mostly make padded bras. So far I haven’t had a nice fit on a padded seamed bra. (None of the ones I’ve tried have worked)

2. I actually want to stop buying bras, because at some point, in the near future I want to get breast implants. All of the bras I have will not fit once I get implants. But I have no idea when that will happen because getting a new car is high on my list of priorities.

Sorry this is so long, but yay I got a ‘job’ 🎉🎉

Raspberry Marcie alteration

As I’ve said before, I bought this bra specifically to alter. So here is what I did to alter the band.

First off I want to show the differences in length between this and the yellow Marcie in 30dd:

As you can see the raspberry is longer on both sides.

I pinned the bras so the seam behind the wire is lined up as well as the part of the band where the strap is attached.

Here you can see the excess fabric

So I just folded it over. (I was going the lazy route with this)

I pinned the excess fabric in place. * I attempted to try it on, but the pins started sticking me*

I measured the top and compared with both sizes.

The pink was 4 inches

The yellow was 4.25 inches

I hand sewed using the backstitch  method. I actually did the stitching backwards. I wanted the neater part to be on the outside, but it was on the inside. I didn’t want to do that stitch in the first place, but it seemed like it would be stronger than doing a running stitch.

Outer side of bra

Inner area of bra

I thought the .25″ difference would be okay… But it wasn’t. The band was too tight.

A closeup of the alteration while wearing the bra.

Obviously the fit of the bra is better than it was originally, but the band was a little too tight. I was thinking about keeping it like that and just wearing an extender, but it just makes more sense for me to do it over and leave a little more fabric.
I took measurements, and unstretched the band is 22.75 unstretched (close to the unstretched measurement of the yellow), but stretched, it’s only 26.75, which is smaller than what I need/prefer.

I took out the stitching, and redid the while thing. It literally took my about 2 hours to re-stitch the bra. I kept getting knots in the thread, so I had to cut it and start over. When I sew by hand, I like to make sure I have enough thread, so that I don’t have to re-thread in the middle of my project, but I think I had too much thread.

I remeasured and got about 4.5″ this time (.25″ longer than the yellow Marcie)

When I re-stitched, I did it on the right side.

Outer side of bra

Inner side of bra

The new fit:

A closeup of the alteration while being worn

As you can see, on my smaller side there is some wrinkling in the cup,  that can probably be fixed my tightening the strap a bit. The band is looser, perhaps a hair looser than what it should be, but I’m not redoing it.

Currently, the band unstretched is 23.5 inches, and 28 inches stretched

 

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So, I would recommend anyone thinking about doing this to:

-if you can, measure out how much on each side you want to take out. I didn’t, and I could have saved myself 2 hours if I did.

-try the bra on when you have the pins in, before you start sewing. That way if it is too tight or too loose, you can fix it easily. Also place the pins on the outside of the bra (so they don’t stick you when you try them on)

but really, if you can, try to avoid doing this alteration altogether. Because while the bra fits me now, it doesn’t fit as well as a 30dd would/does. And one thing that most likely will end up bothering me with this particular bra, the gore is higher on 32d than it is on 30dd.

Unfortunately, I will have to do this again, because I have a 32d Freya doodle that I need to shorten.

**update:

I wore this bra today. (2/10/16) I wrote the post a few days ago… It wasn’t the most comfortable. It’s actually the most uncomfortable out of all the Marcie bras I have. The gore irritated me a good portion of the morning. I attempted to bend/push the wires forward (although I’m not entirely sure how to do that), and it did alleviate the pressure I was feeling, but when I looked down at my chest, it looked like one wire was where it was supposed to be, the other was resting on my tissue, like this _/

Also, on the left side where the alteration is, was stabbing me. 😕 It wasn’t bothering me on the right side, which is odd. I’m thinking I may have to add a piece of fabric. It was mainly irritating me at the top and the bottom of the band, where the thicker fabric was.

Cleo Marcie black babydoll 32d

Color: black

Style: This is a babydoll.

It does have a hook/eye closure like a bra.

The top portion very much looks like a bra.

Much like the bra, there is a polka dot bow at the top of the gore, between the cups

And, there are no bows where the cups and the straps meet.

There are embroidered polka dots on the cups

The top of the cup has the signature bow above the lattice design on the lace

The skirt part of the baby doll also has embroidered polka dots, as well as a picot trim

The polka dots are slightly raised.

 

The fit:

I bought this intending to turn it into a bra. So at the time of this post, I haven’t worn the babydoll. I don’t have anyone to wear it for, plus it’s too cold.

It,is actually cute as is.

I really love the rounded profile I get from Marcie bras.

The back doesn’t cover everything…

This is almost a perfect fit. Except, there seems to be a small area on both sides of the cup that bulges out. (My 32d raspberry Marcie did the same thing, so it’s something between my breasts and 32 bands.

A bratabase member suggested that I sister size up for this babydoll and I’m glad that I did. I originally put the 30dd in my cart (eBay), but it sold out while I kept debating on whether or not to get it.

Please sw stay tuned for the alteration post. 👍

 

Do you own a Marcie babydoll? Have you altered one?

Cleo Marcie 32d raspberry

Color: raspberry

The bra:

There is a magenta & white polka dot bow at the center of the gore.

There is not bow where the cups and the straps meet.

Embroidered dots throughout fabric

Embroidery on the lace of the cup

Bow embroidery at the top of the lace

One thing I’ve noticed on done of my newer Cleo bras is writing on the wire casing ‘Crafted for fit. Styled for fun.’ Cute

The straps

Something cute I noticed with the tags. They added a tag. Coppafeel.org

The fit:

I bought this bra specifically to alter, since I couldn’t find this color in 30dd. So as it is, with a 32 band it is a little big.

Nicely rounded profile

Wrinkling in the cup in the smaller breast.

There is some space in the cups, and the gore tacks (somewhat)

The band isn’t completely straight, but close.

 

Please stay tuned for the post on the alterations!

Cleo Marcie 30dd yellow

Color: yellow

The bra:

It is a beautiful summer yellow.

There are the signature embroidered dots throughout the bra.

There is a fucshia bow at the gore with a button in the middle

Unlike most unlined bras, this does not have any bows where the cup and the straps meet

Embroidery on the lace

I didn’t realize until I was taking pictures that there’s little bows embroidered on the top of the cup

The straps

 

The review:

I love absolutely everything about this bra.

The side profile I so round. But that is something Cleo bras are known for. There is literally no flaws in this bra. No stabby gores, no space in the fabric. NOTHING.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t shocked when I first put this bra on. How could a bra that us for FOT, fit me? Someone that is FOB? Wearing this bra (as well as Panache Jasmin) made me realize that I am most likely even, with tall roots, so I function as FOT. Or more correctly, {some} FOT bras work with my shape.

Here are some pics I took from when I first got the bra (excuse the color)

 

So I got this bra as an exchange from a bratabase member. She contacted me and asked if I was willing to trade my new CK Princess bra (which I am one realizing I never reviewed ) in 30dd for this bra> Cleo Marcie 30dd. I wasn’t too sure at first because at the time I preferred to wear 28e, as that was the size that mainly fit me (I know 28e and 30dd are sister sizes, but the tightness of the band in 28s seem to make the bras fit better). But then I realized the curvy Kate didn’t fit me anyway, so I said yes to the exchange. And I’m so glad I did!

“Nude” undergarments

**The featured image is from Nubian skin**

Quick post

I hate when clothing companies use the term ‘nude’ to describe a color. 99.99% of the time nude is used to describe a color, it is in the beige family. Now that I think about it, I can add makeup companies as well.

In case you’re wondering, this is what “nude” looks like on me.

If I were to walk out my house wearing this, someone far away would be able to see that I was wearing a bra and panties (or perhaps a bikini).

However, this looks nude on me.

Someone standing at the same distance as the person (in the hypothetical situation) above will probably think I’m naked.

I wore this bra when I took pictures of a pink lace shirt that I was going to sell & a friend commented that I needed to put on a bra.

If you look between my breasts are you can see the little buttons on the bra.

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These aren’t actually sets. I rarely buy sets; I love VS panties.

beige bra- b.tempt’d

Beige panties- VS mini cheeky (no longer made 😥)

Brown bra- Aerie (no longer avail in this color)

Brown panties-VS

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A lot of companies will make a bra in a brownish shade.

I’m sure everyone has heard of Nubian skin, which makes various undergarment styles (bras, panties, hosiery etc) in various shades of browns.

A polish company by the name Samanta has bras in brown and caramel shades.

I have not bought from Nubian skin yet. As much as I love their colors and would love to support them, I do not like wearing molded/padded bras. Should they come out with some 3 part bras, I’ll buy.

 

*I am very aware that beige nudes don’t work on all white people.