Cleo Juna 30DD red

I bought this (1) because it was red and (2) because the Darcy in 30DD fit me. I recall reading that the Darcy was the ‘patterned’ version of the Juna, and therefore they’d fit similarly. While they do fit me the same way, this Juna runs smaller in the cup.

 

The cups are obviously too small. Th depth of this cut is 7.75 inches- .25-.5 smaller than I believe it should be.

The lace lays flat and there is quadding. The quadding is visible through a t-shirt.

 

 

I wore this bra 2 times. The first time I didn’t have any gore irritation, but towards the end of the night the gore was pressing down a bit. The second time I wore this by 1:20pm the gore was very bothersome.

 

The straps are a partially adjustable, and half an inch in width.

 

The band stretches to about 30 inches, so it’s true to size, but a little big for me, since my underbust is 28.5 inches.

 

I have since sold this bra 😔. However, I do have a bigger size coming in the mail. 😀

Cleo Juna 34DD + alterations

I bought this bra last week from Bare Necessities, because I noticed that my 30DD Cleo Darcy was currently too small. When I first bought it, it fit. Technically it may have been too small, because the lace was flat, and not ‘puckered’, but I wasn’t quadding out of it. I did originally have the 30E, but I returned that because at the time the cup felt too wide & the wire was poking me. My how times have changed. I reviewed the 30E around this time last year, and the 30DD in April of last year.

Anyway, I really always wanted the black Juna, because it’s a black bra, and will pretty much go with anything. Obviously, my choice would have been to get the correct size (30E), or 1 sister size up (32DD), possibly down (28F), but not 2 band sizes up. But when I was on bare necessities, they only had black in 34D, so I bought it. I figured if by chance it didn’t work out, I wouldn’t have an issue reselling it (because it’s black, and it was only $17).

This review may be long; I’m going to talk about the way it fit when I first got it, the alterations I did, and how it fit after the alteration.

When I first got it:

The unstretched band measurement was 26.5 inches- my breaking the tape measurement. But stretched the band was 30.5 inches, which is small for a 34 band, but too big for me. Naturally when I had the bra on the band rode up, and it felt too big, even on the tightest setting. I’m not one that needs a very tight band, but this was too loose.

 

The straps were almost halfway adjusted, but I still felt like I needed to angle the straps inwards to get some stability- tightening the straps further would have made them dig in. The straps are the perfect width of half an inch.

 

The gore is 2.5 inches high, and almost an inch wide. Too wide for me, but I don’t think it looks too wide. The bottom of the gore was not touching my skin, you can best see this in the frontal pic.

 

The cups fit, with a width of 5.25 inches, and a depth of 8.25, it’s perfect, but since the band was so big, my swoop and scoop wouldn’t stay and after a few minutes the wire was sitting on tissue.

 

The alteration:

Initially I was going to alter this bra by adding ribbon to the band to keep it from stretching too much, but I did that, and it seemed to not really work. The band was still loose, and it still rode up. I was however, able to loosen the straps a bit. I didn’t take pics of how it looked, because I wasn’t happy with the alteration. So, I ended up altering the band similar to how I shortened the Marcie, but instead of folding the fabric over, I just let te extra fabric hang. My reasoning for this was, when I altered the Marcie, it was okay when I first put it on, but after some time the altered part became painful. So I ended up not really wearing the bra after altering it, and I didn’t want to re-alter it.

What I did to get a good band size, was put the Juna on top of a 28E Mimi.

I pinned the Juna on top of the Mimi where the side seam was and near the elastic/closure.

I then pinched the excess and pinned in. Then I sewed it down. This took probably 10 minutes or so. I  did try the bra on before sewing it to see if it was okay, and it was. After the alteration was complete, the bra fit perfectly.

*If you’re wondering why I don’t alter bras in a more permanent way, it’s mainly because I’m too lazy. For the last 3/4 years, I haven’t used any of my sewing machines. I just don’t have a desire to. I used to hem a lot of jeans keeping the original hem in tact, and alter a lot of my clothing. (I actually have a tutorial on how to do that, somewhere on the internet). If this was a few years ago, I’d have the desire to permanently alter a bra.

 

After

 

The band unstretched measures 23 inches, and stretched it measures 26.5 inches. I probably should have made it a little looser, but I was able to wear it without an issues. As you can see the excess material is visible when worn. It doesn’t bother me.  The band no longer rides up.

I forgot to take the picture when I was outside

So now that the band fits, the cups fit a lot better, although the lace on my breasts lays flat. I think that because the band only stretches to 26.5 inches that the wires are distorting a bit. The bottom of the cup fits perfectly, it’s not too shallow for me. The depth ratio for this particular bra is 1.6, so on the scale of deep to shallow (from ABTF) it’ has “average depth”

You can see there is some cutting in/slight quadding.

 

The gore tacks. the bottom of it also tacks. It is sitting on tissue, and for most of the time it didn’t seem to bother me. It’s only wearing after 8 hours or so that it may start to bother me.

The wires go around my breasts perfectly. I I initially thought the wires were a hair too wide, but they followed my root.

I was able to let out the straps more, so they feel very comfortable, and I was able to wear them in the correct position- not angle inward.

 

 

Before

After

I love this bra, and I’m happy that it fits now. I do wish I could have bought it in 30E or 28F. I do have another Juna in 28F, and a sister cut Cleo Martha 30E on the way, so I’m happy to be getting some with smaller bands.

Have you tried Cleo Juna, or any sister cuts? How did you like them?

Victoria’s Secret high neck bralette size S

I bought this months ago, when VS was having a sale on bralettes. I know I said I wasn’t a bralette person, and I’m not, but the bralettes were $15 and I had a $10 off coupon, so after looking around their website for a while I decided to get this. It’s animal print. How couldn’t I get it? I did go back and forth between this and a jade green bralette (same style), but I figured since I already had 1 green VS bralette that I should get the leopard print instead. (I know the jade would have looked nice against my skin.) I had this in my bralette drawer for months, unworn, mainly because I forgot about it. I rarely look in that drawer.

I finally decided to wear it or day because I had a small pimple in my imf and a wire would sit right on it, irritating my skin. Whenever I get a pimple or something irritates my upper torso, I’ll wear a bralette instead of a bra for a few days. I wore this on my day off.

 

The straps are nice and thin. This thinned would probably be perfect *if* it wasn’t so stretchy. But since it was so thin and stretchy, it felt like it was digging in my skin, although it didn’t leave any marks.

This wasn’t a halter style, although it may appear that way from the front (when I tried googling this bralette I was only coming up with the halter version). The straps do cross in the back- most likely the cause of the digging in feeling.

 

The ‘cup’ portion of the bralette is lined, so this could definitely work as a top- I’m thinking more of a clubbing top, but I do think it can be worn as a crop top during the summer.

When I was wearing this bralette, I did feel like my breasts were being smushed, but also when I walked I felt my breasts jiggle a bit.

 

There is an elastic piece and that is the only firmness the band has. The band is the same material as the rest of the bralette, so I know if I were to wear this more than once before washing it would feel very loose.

 

I really do like this bralette and I found myself looking for more, but VS doesn’t have this specific one, and the ones that they do have that are similar, are more than what I want to pay.

Cleo Mimi Leopard 28E

I bought this bra, because I’d seen a few reviews of the floral Mimi. I really wanted to try the floral Mimi, but I saw this on sale for £10 at large cup lingerie, so I went for it. I will say, as much as I love animal print, I don’t really care for this print, or the blue one. But the floral one was calling my name. As I said in my last post I’ve noticed some ‘growth’, so I did debate whether or not I should go with 28E, or 28F, but I went with 28E out of habit. And fear that the 28F would be too wide or big.

Cleo Mimi has been lauded as a UK bra that fits like a polish 3 part halfcup. This is a big thing, because A LOT of non Polish padded bras are really shallow

Let’s see how everything turned out:

 

The band is nice and firm, and stretches to 27.75 inches. That is a little under my snug measurement, but it doesn’t feel too tight at all. Something I do want to note about this bra, the wings are really short. I don’t feel anything, but it is something I’ve noticed when looking at the bra while I have it on. The wing height is 3 inches (whereas on my M Roma the wing height is 3.75 inches). I’ve noticed that lower/shorter wings seem to cause back rolls.

 

The cups initially seemed too small. Well, they are. The side of the cup is low enough that I have some side boob poking out. I do quad a lot when I get the side boob into the bra, however I think *some* of that quad boob is because the bottom is too shallow for me.

You can somewhat see the space above the wire in this pic

Pic 1 I’m lifting my breast up, so you see see the wire outline.

At first I thought the bottom being shallow was a figment of my imagination, but I wore this around my apartment for 15 minutes or so, and when I took the bra off, I saw that the bottom of the cup wasn’t directly in my IMF. So I definitely don’t see how this is similar to Polish halfcups. My Cleo Darcy & Juna bras seemed to have more depth at the wire than this bra, which is weird because a lot of people consider Juna & sister cuts to be a shallow bra. The width of the bra is 5 inches, and the depth of the bra is 8 inches, so it is still in the range of what fits me. The cup height is almost 5 inches, so it’s not too short.

One of the things I don’t like about this bra is that the top of the bra shows through shirts. I don’t mind seasm showing through shirts, but the top of edge of a bra showing through drives me insane. When the top of a bra shows it brings me back to my VS days when the top edge would curl outward. Idk why, its just really bothersome to me.

 

The straps are are nice and thin, but only partially adjustable. The adjusters go up instead of going down. As you can see, the straps are almost at the longest.

 

The gore feels okay, after wearing for 15 minutes or so, but it is sitting on tissue. The gore height is 2.25 inches, and the seperation is .75

 

You can see in the side pic how much lower the wire is compared to the Bra I wore that left a mark.

 

I did order the floral Cleo Mimi from Bare Neceissities today in 30E, so hopefully that fits better. (They didn’t have the floral in 28F)

 

What are your thoughts on the Cleo Mimi?

My breasts

I’ve noticed recently that I’ve had a bit of growth with my breasts. My (sizing) measurements are pretty much still the same, but some of the measurements that bratabase uses has changed. For whatever reason, my breasts are more FOT (full on top). The thing is, my upper tissue is still somewhat shallow, so my breasts don’t actually look bigger when unsupported.   

This isn’t an issue with most of my Polish bras, but in almost all of my Cleo bras and all of my Freya and Curvy Kate bras I’m quadding out of them. I have a lot of bras that I haven’t gotten around to reviewing- so for the ones I still have or recently sold I will have pics when I originally got the bras, and current pics; for the bras I sold a while ago, I’ll only have the older pics up (and those reviews will be shorter). 

I’m baffled as to why I have this ‘growth’. I’ve been on birth control for at least 10 years, the current one I’ve been on for almost 2 years. So I don’t think that’s it. For like 2 weeks I thought I might have been pregnant, but I’m not/wasn’t. (Alas, it was more like I was *hoping* I was). The last time I had growth like this was around Sept of last year. I thought it was because of my period, but it was 2 weeks before my period was due. After my period was over my breasts went back to normal. My bratabase measurements from then were a bit higher than they are now. My weight fluctuates about 5lbs or so, so it’s not like I gained weight, but even so, when I gain weight it really all goes to my lower half, and I’m still wearing the same jeans  (+ my damn scrub pants don’t feel tighter)

So now I know how some feel when they get a bra and some time later it no longer fits (this is a first for me). My Polish bras seem to be open enough on top to be accommodating but my U.K. bras aren’t. 
I’d love to hear your thoughts. 🙂 

Victoria’s Secret Valentine’s Day bralette set size Small

I saw this set right before last Valentines Day when I was in a mall I rarely go to with my sisters. I was interested in it, but saw that on that particular day they only had size M and size L. And when I asked a sales associate, she said they only had what was on the sales floor.

I was okay with not buying it because I was single at the time, and also the price. The original price for this set was $45. I didn’t like the way the material felt (for the price), the only way I can describe it as it felt like the top part of thick stockings. It’s very stretchy and cheap feeling. However, the material isn’t scratchy.

I didn’t buy the set when VS had it on sale for $25 (with a code). I ended up buying it in June when it was $10 during the semi annual sale. And at the time I wasn’t sure which size to get, because when I’d first saw the medium in the store, I thought it looked small. I went with the small, although I debating on getting both the small and the medium.

The small fit.

I held off on wearing this because I’m not really a bralette person. (I really only wore it to review it)

 

This set was actually very comfortable. It wasn’t expensive feeling. It kind of reminded me of these cheap mini shorts that I wear underneath short dresses. (I got the shorts from a store called Pay half, which is similar to/sells the same stuff as Rainbow)

 

So the top has very thin adjustable straps (which I love). The unstretched ‘waist’ measures 11.5 inches, and the unstretched bust measures 12.5 inches. When I wore the top, I noticed that the band seemed to be riding up a bit, so I loosened the straps. Loosening the straps didn’t really help, because the band still had the appearance of riding up. What ended up happening was the weight of my breasts was pushing the front down (never thought I’d mention the weight of my breasts, lol). So when I woke up the top was barely covering my nipples, and there was some fabric beneath my breasts. This shouldn’t have been bothersome, but it was (mentally).

 

 

The bottoms were really cute. I noticed that when I wasn’t wearing any pants the bottoms tended to ride up, but when I was wearing pants they felt like they stayed in place.

 

This was was a really cute set, and I’m surprised VS didn’t come out with one for this Valentines Day.

 

*the main picture is not mine, I found it online

Comexim Mixed Colors plunge 65G

I ordered this bra on Black Friday weekend because Comexim was having a 15% off sale- which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it made the price go from around 160pln down to 135pln. 135 is around what Comexim bras used to cost when I first started buying them.

Along with the mixed colors bra, I purchased the mixed colors thong. In all of my recent Comexim orders I ordered matching panties, so this was no different.

I requested that the bra have the following alterations: cups reduced 2cm, total gore height 5cm, straps moved in 1cm, and thinner straps. I meant to requested a cup reduction of 3cm, not 2cm. My goal for this bra, was for it to be very low in the cups, like Ewa’s M style. I love Ewa’s M style bra, but wish there were more color options. I figured depending on how this bra came out, I would order a bunch more with the same alterations, I especially wanted to order the magic bra with the very reduced cups in mind.

 

My order was shipped out about a month later, right before Christmas.  I knew from recent orders that I wouldn’t get the stuff for about another month or so, due to the holidays. I ended up getting the package around January 13th. When I opened the box, I noticed the 2 bras were in there, but the panties were not (I’d also ordered the Bellissima). I’d thought maybe I’d dropped it, so I looked all around the couch I was sitting on. Nope it wasn’t there. I looked at the declaration on the box, and it said 2 bras, 1 thong. Okay. I looked at the receipt that was inside the box, it only had the 2 bras. Something wasn’t right.

The actual amount I paid was 347.30 pln, not 305.15pln

I decided to email Comexim, because maybe the thong was accidentally not put in the box, maybe it shipped out separately. When they emailed me back, they said they ran out of fabric, and forgot to let me know. So it took them almost 2 months to let me know they ran out of fabric. 😡  They only let me know, because I emailed to ask about them. 😡 They said they were going to refund me, and that took 2 days.😡 That is bad. I should have been informed when they were packing my order that the thong wasn’t there because they ran out of fabric, I also should have been refunded for them, when they realized they ran out of fabric or when they realized they couldn’t send me exactly what I ordered. Had they told me they ran out of fabric, I would have asked for them to refund me for the bra, and not to send it, because I wanted a set. Mixed colors has a lot,of colors, but I don’t think I can easily match it with any panties I own. Ever since I’ve gotten into the habit of  wearing matching bras and panties, I don’t like not matching.

I also let them know I wasn’t happy with the bra because I asked for customizations,  and I don’t believe they were done.  When Joanna responded, she let me know that Imcould return the bra, and wanted to know which alterations did I request that weren’t done. I repsponded January 16th (most of this conversation took place the 16th). AND I HAVE NOT HEARD BACK FROM THEM SINCE.  It was nice of them to say they’ll take back the bra that was supposed to have alterations, but if you can’t respond to my emails, I’m not going to send something back so you can refund me.

So… needless to say, I am not happy with Comexim right now.

Let’s discuss the bra:

 

As you saw, I requested a 2cm cup reduction. I don’t think this was done, but some sort of reduction was done because the cup height is 5.5 inches, an unaltered 65G is about 6 inches. The bottom of the cups is shallow.

 

I requested that the gore be a total of 5cm, which would make it 1.96 inches. I said I wanted this to mimic an M bra, but the gore on those is around 1.5 to 1.75 inches. I didn’t think Comexim would alter a gore that low, so I settled for 2 inches. But that wasn’t done. The gore height is 2.75 inches, which I believe is the unaltered Comexim gore height.

 

So the cup is slightly reduced, but the gore is not reduced. I believe that is why this is happening. There is a space at the inner portion of the cup by the gore. My breasts don’t go that far outward to fill that area (btw none of my other Comexim bras have this gap)

 

I requested that the straps be moved in. I’m not sure if this was done. When I have the bra on, it does feel like the straps are a little more inward, but when I look at the pictures, the straps look very close to my armpits. I haven’t worn the bra, so I don’t know if this is something that would irritate my skin or not. I requested thinner straps…. and you can see that was not done.  The straps are very stretchy. They also feel like they’re too long, I’ve adjusted the straps halfway, and they still feel like I can adjust them more, but I think if I adjust them anymore, the band will start to ride up.

 

The band is firm at 28 inches. The wings are 4 inches in height, and it very much gives a flattened appearance (no bulges).

 

Overall, I’m not happy with my experience with Comexim. This may be my last time ordering from them. It is a big problem to me that I wasn’t made away of the panties, nor refunded until I said something. That’s not good customer service. I don’t like how whenever someone asks for alterations, we’re not actually sure if they were done or not. I don’t like how if you add something to your order Comexim doesn’t add it to your actual order. (Anytime I’ve added things on to my order from Ewa, they’ve ALWAYS added the items to my order summary on their website, so I can see it.)

I’ve been told by a few other people that Comexim forgot to add things to their orders (from Black Friday), so it wasn’t just me, unfortunately.

 

I ordered my first Comexim bras in April 2916, and literally every month until December I’ve placed an order. They lost a loyal customer due to their lack of customer service.

Aubade Bahia halfcup bra 85C/D*

Aubade is a French company, so the 85 band size, correlates to a size 32. I don’t know much about Aubade other than that.

The band was professionally altered. It was originally a 32/85 (I assume). I have the size in the title as being 85C/D, because since there is no tag on the bra, I’m not 100% sure of the original size. When I bought this bra, it was sold to me as being 30DD, but after looking at the measurements, there’s no way this bra was 30DD (or sister size 32D), unless the cups ran small.

 

The band was {presumably} altered from a 32, to 30, but it only stretches to 27.5 inches, before the wires start to distort. The wing of the band has 2 layers of fabric a somewhat stretchy inner mesh piece, and a cotton feeling outer piece. The actual band is a totally different stretchy nylon/polyester feeling and it’s only 1 layer. The way this bra was altered was by cutting away some of the back of the band. I don’t think the seamstress did anything to the straps.

 

 

 

The cups are a halfcup style (this bra apparently comes in 3 other styles– triangle, padded, and 3/4). Most unlined halfcups don’t work for me, and this is no exception. However, this bra is currently too small for me. Like I said previously, I don’t think this bra is the size I was sold. The width of the cup is 4.6 inches, and the depth is 7.75 inches.  I’d need about half an inch wider, and around half an inch deeper as well. The cup height is 5.25 inches, which seems appropriate for a half cup.

This bra wouldn’t be good for FOT breasts because there is a thin band of elastic at the top of the cup. The fabric on the cups is very stretchy. There is a mesh side sling.

 

 

 

The gore on this bra is ridiculous; it’s beautiful, but ridiculous. The gore is 1.25 inches wide, and 2.5 inches high- this is the widest I think I’ve ever seen for a bra that is more than half an inch high. The gore is best for wide set breasts, because of the lacing design on the gore, you wouldn’t want to alter the gore. Naturally the very wide and high gore is sitting on breast tissue, and I can imagine after a while it would be painful.

Look at how wide the gore is

 

 

 

The straps are very wide set. My shoulders aren’t narrow and you can see the straps are in my armpits. What makes the straps somewhat bearable is the altered band. It somewhat makes them not as wide, but they’re naturally wide. The only way to make the straps more narrow is to actually alter the bra. The actual straps are also wide. They’re wide in the front, but thin in the back. The back part of the straps are .375 inch, but the front part is 1 inch.

 

I’d be interested in trying this in a bigger size if the gore wasn’t so wide.