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.

Removing the wires from a bra

 This blog post is going to be about how the fit of a bra changes when you remove the wires.

I will be using my Impimi Nicole bra, and the original review for that can be found here.

I chose this bra specifically because the wires are extremely painful for me. Literally when I put the bra on this morning the gore was stabbing me. I love the color of this bra, but it’s virtually unwearable with the wires.

 

What I did first was get the sharpest scissors I have and gently go back and forth with one end of the blade, against the wire channel above where the wire is.

 

The wire didn’t slip out easily, so I had to use a little force.

 

As you can see, the wires are definitely in a plunge shape.

 

Once I took the wires out, the cup immediately widened.

Left side has wire, right side does not.

 

The width with the wire is about 5 inches

 

Without the wire the width is 6.5 inches

 

When putting the bra on after removing the wires I immediately felt a difference. For one, it was more comfortable, there was nothing stabbing me. With the wire removed there was nothing holding the cup into place, so on my bigger side the cup kind of collapsed. This bothered me very much. I found myself constantly touching my chest. It felt weird.

 

Here are some comparison pics

With the wires

Without the wires

 

You can see the cup is too small (now)

The cup looks a little lower without the wire.

 

The gore doesn’t tack.

This bra felt somewhat like a padded bralette. I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but I hate bralettes.

 

I don’t know what I’m going to do with this bra. I can’t wear it with the wires, and I don’t like it without the wires.

Ordering from Avocado

Ordering from Avocado is pretty straightforward, but I just want to talk about a few things.

 

What I did for my order, was I went to Collections’ and clicked on ‘Essentia’ because 1. That was the cheapest style and 2. It is their “basic” bra. When I looked for this order I wasn’t sure which style to get, so I went with my main Polish size of 65E.

Sizing

According to their size guide, I’d be somewhere between an E cup and an F cup ( my overbust being 87.63 cm. On a 65 band E cup is 86 cm, and F cups is 90 cm. If I went by their underbust measurement, I would have gone with a 60 band (and either an F cup or a G cup. The only time I really wear 28 bands is when I wear Freya bras. Before I ordered from Avocado, I did search around but most blog posts/reviews that I read were on women with breasts a lot bigger than mine. There was one bra for sale in 60E and going by the measurements it was too small, so I decided not to try a 60 band. I should have gone with a 69 band though, because the 65 felt rather loose.

Pricing

When I first heard of Avocado and went on their website, there was an option for pricing to be in złoty as well as euros. Currently on the website, the currency it s only in Euros. Last year when I was first thinking about the Essentia bras, there was a special “2 for 92,25”. I’ll just assume for the time being that it meant if you buy 2, they’ll both be 92,25zł, which equals about $23USD (each). The reason why I bring this up, is because the current price is 33,32€ which converts to ~$36. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d rather the pricing be in Zloty than Euro (it’s cheaper for us americans).

I bought 2 Essentia bras for 33,32€ each, which with the shipping (VAT was included) came to 78,76€ (~$87USD). On the day I bought these bras, I had an abundance of money sitting in my checking account, so I said ‘what the hay’. And didn’t think about the price. (Coincidentally I also bought 2 Ewa bras for around the same amount…)

Ordering times

I placed my order September 18th. Sept 19th I received an email stating that my order was processing. Sept 21st, I received an email stating that my bras were shipped. I received the bras around October 1st. So it took a total of 10 days (7 business days) for me to receive my bras once they were shipped. I live on the east coast, so that’s not too bad.

The packaging

Someone has mentioned this before, but once you open the shipping bag you are HIT with a strong floral-like scent. It’s very strong. To help you imagine the smell, imagine putting in a dryer sheet in a bag with bras. That’s exactly what it smells like. I’m not particularly sensitive to smells, but even this was too much for me. The reason for the strong smell is they put some sort of potpourri/bath balls in the bag. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cute, but very strong. If you have issues with strong smells, you may want to email them asking them to not put the scented balls in your package. The smell won’t come out of the bras until you wash them or air them out.

There was also a catalogue like booklet in the package. And on the very back of the booklet, there is pictures of some of the bra fits (with no description of the actual fits). I’m thinking it’s a somewhat older booklet, because the styles are ‘A H & K’, I don’t think there’s a lot of H or A styles on their site for sale.

The straps connect to the upper portion of the cup

The strap is connected to the lower outer portion of the cup.

The straps are attached to the upper portion of the cup, and there is a slight curve of the diagonal seam.

Returning

I debated for a few days as to whether or not I was going to keep the bras. But for the price I paid, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sell them without losing a good amount of money. So I decided to return them. I ended up paying $9 in return shipping. In the shipping bag, along with the bras there’s 2 sheets. One is like the order form, and the other is a contract that you fill out if you decide to return the bra. I wish I took a picture, but I didn’t think about it until today, days after I shipped the bras back. On the paper it states that you can receive your refund by a bank check/money order, OR directly into your bank account. Neither one of those options were acceptable to me, so I made a note that I would prefer the money be refunded to my PayPal account. I did put my info down for the check/money order option though. I don’t know if I’ll have an issue cashing an international form of payment.

I tried to print the return label via PayPal with the return address provided by Avocado, however Paypal wouldn’t let me complete the transaction, because the ‘region’ was missing.

Avocado
Ul. Pilicka 14
60-401 Poznań
Poland

I assume ‘Poland’ is the region, but since this is something I was sending back for a refund, I didn’t want to assume (and risk losing my refund because the package got lost), I emailed Avocado and asked them what the address was to send the bras back. This is the address they gave me

Avocado Lingerie

ul. Jackowskiego 15
60-508 Poznań

Wielkspolska

Whenever I get the refund I will let y’all know how it goes.

 

Based on how the bras fit, in conjunction with the price, and the lack of reviews in smaller sizes, I don’t see myself ordering from Avocado again.

I dyed the Portia/Princess hybrid

Original post can be found here.

I used Rit Dye in the purple color. As the water was boiling, I read the side of the bottle that says not to use it on polyester fabrics. I already had my mind set, so I was going to do it anyway. But I had a feeling that it was going to dye, because I the dyed a white dress with pink Rit Dye, and the back of it that had mesh, didn’t dye. So I crossed my fingers. I probably used more dye than I needed to, but I wanted to make sure that the bra came out dark. I really wanted to dye it brown, but I forgot to go to the dye section when I was there yesterday.

On to the pictures:

In the above picture it looks blackish, but it’s not. It’s very purple.

I believe the polyester warning on the Rit dye bottle was for the stitching, in my dress the stitching stayed the original color. And as you can see the thread is still white, as is the floral design and the lacing. Well it actually got tinted somewhat.

I don’t know if this occurred because I used hot water & dye on the bra, but the lacing is comIng undone form one area on both of the cups. Oddly enough, on both cups it’s on the right side (when looking at it).

Inner part of the cup

Band

The floral design

Underneath the floral design

The fit:

I don’t know if it was the dye, or it was the scorching hot water, but the bra shrunk. From my experience being a denim addict, I know that really hot water (too hot to touch) can shrink jeans.

so yeah, it shrunk, a good amount. Before I needed to alter the bra, now I don’t think there’s enough room to alter it. It shrunk enough that now it fits. The band, however feels really tight. I ordered some new extenders, so I’ll probably wait to wear this until those come in. Enough blabbering.

Right side

Left side

No gapping.

A little space in the upper panel on smaller breast.

Side view

I initially was going to make this a two part post, with the dye being one post, and the actual alteration another post, but I’m not going to alter it now.

What do you think?

Amazon prime order

I bought about 8 bras Wednesday night when Amazon was doing their prime day deals.

This morning I check the status of my orders and they’re ALL in the town next to mine by 5am and ‘out for delivery’.

I was doing a happy dance because *maybe* just maybe, I’d get them before I had to go to work.  So I kept checking every hour. But I know ups normally comes near my house around 12, 7 at the latest. 😒

I get this text just now.

It’s like 80 degrees outside. It’s not raining. It’s actually pretty nice out. So nice that I wish I didn’t have to go to hell, I mean work.

But I’m leaving for work in 20 minutes, so that: 1 I actually get there on time. 2   I have ample time to get some Starbucks and 3 return a bra. And getting Starbucks is like a 30 minutes thing. 😓

A word on my reviews

I just want to mention that a majority of my reviews are going to be how the bras fit when I try them on. A few reviews here and there will be how they fit after wearing them. I realize it makes more sense to do a review after I have worn the bra for a few hours, but some of the bras I’m not completely sure if I am going to keep. Some of the bras I know I won’t keep due to them not fitting, but didn’t/can’t return. 

Some issues don’t come up until you are actually wearing the bra– like right now the bra I’m wearing fit okay when I tried it on, and for okay for the first two hours, but later on the gore started digging in. As I’m typing, it is still digging in, but I’m too lazy to take it off. Some of the bras I can’t comment on how they fit after a few hours because I either didn’t buy them (tried them on only) or returned them immediately. 

When I can, I will update (with or without pictures) on how the fit of some bras are. 

Cleo Meg from Poshmark… 😒

I got the Cleo Meg 28e from poshmark today…

All I will say is, I am NOT happy with the bra. I should have went with my gut instinct, and not bought it.

This is a picture from the listing.

The top part of the pictures is how it originally looked. The bottom picture was added when I asked the seller if there was any fading there. She said ‘no that’s just the lighting’. When I looked at the second picture, I thought okay that could be the lighting. So I offered $11 for the bra, and she accepted. I actually ended up paying $16 because I had to pay shipping. Well, technically I paid a little over $2, because I sold one of my bras there and the money was available in my account.

I got the bra today….

I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Close up. 😷

😷😷

Close up 😷

😷😷😷😷

So as you can see, this bra was not clean. And there was fading/discoloration on the closure.

When I messaged that seller she said the bra was cleaned right before it was shipped out (yeah right), and that if I wanted to return the bra, I could and she would refund me. 😒. There is no way in hell that bra was washed before bring shipped out.

It looks like there was a bunch of deodorant caked up on the armpit area, both on the inside area and the outside area. It also looked like there was something (deodorant perhaps?) caked on the bottom part of the gore. Why deodorant would be there, I don’t know. But it was gross. There was also some sort of animal hair embedded in the wires near the gore. Now, I don’t own an animal, and I don’t plan on it’s any time soon, but how does animal hair get stuck INTO your bra?

Me being the person I am, I hate going through the hassle of return, so I decided to wash the bra. This would have been the perfect bra to use a salad spinner on, but I don’t own one. So I used my nephews bucket (the same bucket I used to dye my princess/Portia hybrid bra). I filled if with hot tap water, a few drops of dish detergent (to get that grease and grime out), and some detergent. I sprayed the armpit area and gore area with this shout spray that I have. I put the bra in and swished it around, rinsed and repeated. I then rinsed the bra off with hot water, and then put hot water in the bucket with the bra, and let it soak for a few hours (I had a family gather in to go to). Came back, rinsed the bra with cold-ish water, and now it’s drying in a towel.

This isn’t dirty water, it’s water with HD detergent.

Melissa Dessous order

My Melissa  dessous bras came, yesterday. I had to wait to pick them up because I just missed the mailman yesterday. I was so anxious waiting to get to the post office today.

The bras came in a box.

Wrapped in some wort of pink wrapping fabric (it’s not tissue paper, it’s a lot thicker)

The bras are very beautiful & soft

Both bras are 60E, and while neither really fit, one of them I couldn’t close without using my extender!!! 😳

 

How I ordered:

Tue two bras I bought were in the sale section. You cannot put sale items in a shopping cart, you, have to email them telling them what you want. In my email I asked them if they shipped to the US, and if so how much was it. I believe I wrote them in English and below it had a Polish translation. Their response came back in English. The shipping cost ended up being around $15, so I paid $45 for 2 bras. The shipping took about 1 week, from the time it was shipped to the time it arrived.

Coffee dyed bras

I have more than a few bras that are beige. Beige is not a color that I like, especially in bras. So I decided I was going to change the color of some of the beige bras. I actually wanted to dye all of them, but I forgot one.

Anyway, I really wanted to get the bras as dark as I could– dark enough that they would look ‘nude’ on my skin. I googled and say that with something that has polyester as a part of the fabrication, rit dye or something similar, may not take, if it did take, it wouldn’t be as dark as an animal fabric. I saw that there was ‘idye’ for synthetic fabrics, but it says that you have to keep the items in boiling water for 30 minutes. Given that I was going to dye 2 Ewa bras, I wasn’t going to take the chance of damaging the bras before I even wore them. (Years ago when I tried to shrink some jeans I would put them in boiling water. They never got damaged-and I tried it on at least 20 pairs-, but they did shrink temporarily. Shrinking bras isn’t what I wanted to do.) So I decided to dye them using coffee. Using tea was another option, but in all the pics I looked at the coffee dyed items came out darker.

Here is what you’ll need (if you want to try this):

• Water
• a pot
• coffee (preferably instant)
• a large container
• a stirring utensil
• a strainer/coffee filter (if using regular coffee)
• Measuring cup (or something similar)

 

I got a large pot filled it about 2/3, then poured coffee into it. I didn’t actually measure how much water or coffee, but I used about 2-3 scoops with an ice cream scooper.

I let the coffee come to a boil. I put the hot coffee in the fridge for 5 minutes or so, to cool off a little. Then I put my bras in.

This is why you need a filter if not using instant coffee. I am no a coffee drinker,no it didn’t dawn on me the grounds wouldn’t be dissolved until after I put the bras in.

I stirred red the bras/coffee for a few minutes, then put a smaller pot with the coffee container on top so that all the bras were completely submerged.

I took the bras out after an hour.

I wasn’t happy with the color, thinking I could get it darker if I let it sit longer, so I poured the coffee into a large container. I used the remnants from the Marcie baby doll to filter out the ground coffee (smart!)

This is how the pot looked after. 😧

As as you can imagine there was ground coffee in the bras.

I put the container with the coffee in the microwave for around 10 minutes. I put the bras in, and then put the small pot filled with heavier items back on top to keep everything submerged. I left it like this overnight. So the bras were essentially soaking for 12 hours in coffee. I just knew when I took the bras out of the water they’d be darker than my skin.

They weren’t. They were the same color as before. 😔 Except now 2 of the bras had a black mark on them. Boo.

After I rinsed the bras off, there was still coffee grounds in the water.

Here are some comparison pics. As you can see the bras became a caramel/golden color. Better than beige, but still not what I was looking for.

Gorgeous bra

Top- new color Bottom- original color

Left- new color Right- original color

Closeup of the bow that didn’t change color. You can see the difference

CHP cappuccino

Top- original color Bottom-dyed

Top- original color (natural sunlight. No flash) Bottom- new color

PL Triumf

Top- original color Bottom-new color

Top- original color Bottom- new color

I adjusted the straps longer & you can see the slight color difference

The unlined bra took the color the best, while the chp cappuccino looks very close to the original.

So this may be ideal for someone where beige is a little too light for. Also you could probably get away with leaving the bras in the coffee for an hour, no need to keep it overnight like I did. I do wonder though if I would have been able to get a darker color if I put the bras in the hot water immediately.

Also, another thing worth mentioning, these bras have a scent to them. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s not the same as when you spill coffee. It’s slightly irritating. I did wash & (briefly) dry the bras and the smell is still there. But I suppose if I were to soak something in bleach for 12 hours whatever didn’t get dissolved would smell like bleach.

I may attempt to dye the triumf again.

 

Eta: I decided to quickly try the 2 Ewa’s on before going to bed, and they both shrink in length. The original I stretched length that I measured for the pl triumf was 21.75″, but the current I stretched length is 20.5″. I decided to re measure because the straps felt like they needed to be adjusted longer again. Also with the cappuccino, the original unstretched measurement was 22.75″, it’s now currently 22″. Which is actually a good thing for me because when I first got it, I had to put it on the 2nd set of hook instead of the loosest because it was a little loose. (This one has 4 settings)

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!