This bra was the second (fairly correctly fitting) bra I ever bought. At the time I was fitted into it I had been fitted as a 32GG in the Panache Tango II balconette in a store quite recently, and still had some tissue at the sides of my ribcage from wearing the incorrect size since high school. I'm mentioning this because the subsequent tissue migration I experienced over the six months after I bought this bra came to affect how it fit me.

I'll start off by mentioning that it runs pretty tight in the band and cup. I'm definitely lucky that I prefer ... a firmer band, as otherwise this would have been unwearable. The fact that I filled the cups of the 32HH when I'd been sized at 32GG/H is also a testament to how small this is in the cup. I've heard this is the case with a lot of Bravissimo's own brand bras that are cut like this one. If anyone is interested in buying this one I'd probably recommend you go up a band from your normal size and keep the cup letter the same (eg. if you're a 30G, size up to a 32G). It was also rather horrible to break in. I'd worn it a couple of times since buying and made the catastrophic mistake of wearing it on a 20+ hour flight back to Australia from the UK. I don't think I have ever been so acutely aware of the fact that I was wearing a bra before. The underwires and band felt extremely tight and painful against my ribcage. (Additionally, the wires set off the metal detector at the airport.) I also experienced a lot of digging into my sternum due to the height of the gore. If you want/need a low gore my advice would definitely be to look elsewhere! However, once it was broken in I found the bra much more comfortable.

As far as appearance goes, I had purchased the bra in order to have something close to my skin tone to wear under white work shirts. The beige colourway isn't unattractive - it'd be good for anyone who dislikes yellow-toned beige. I will point out that the top embroidered section looks a lot sheerer in Bravissimo's product photos (especially in the black and the purple fashion colour currently out) than it is in real life. This isn't something to wear under short-sleeved or tank tops either - it does look like a 'lot of bra' once on, and is visible at the underarms any time I wear something lower under there. It also has very thick (but fully adjustable and comfortable) straps. I would call the strap placement on the wider side, although it wasn't a problem for me. For a more utilitarian sort of bra, Bravissimo seems to have put some effort into making it a little more appealing - the detailing they've given it prevents it from looking too frumpy.

Shape and support - this bra loses points in my book as I suspect many, many people would experience shape incompatibilities with it. If you have any kind of top fullness, give this one a miss. The bra has a four-part cup construction, using a side sling. On my fairly bottom-full shape, I get a lifted, natural sort of look - like the shape my boobs are without a bra, only better - but anyone top-full would get the dreaded squished-on-top triangle shape. (I suspect this is the source of the many reviews on Bravissimo's website saying that the bra gives 'pointy sandbag boobs'.) The source of this is the top embroidered section, which is made out of a firm mesh that has no give. I think also that this would be unlikely to work on someone petite or short-waisted - the underwires and also the wings come up fairly high on the sides (I occasionally still feel discomfort from it and I am relatively tall with a longer torso). It is however a very, very supportive bra and great for wearing to work and occasionally uni - I like to wear bras that I can run for the bus in - and looks OK under a t-shirt. I don't tend to wear this with anything super form-fitting though as I prefer to keep my 'round-shape' bras for that.

Final note about the shape - it's pretty wide but looks less east-west from the front than the Tango does (I think this is the four-part cup at work). The wide wires were great for me when I still had tissue at the sides of my ribcage and anything narrow definitely felt too small, but not so much now. My breasts sit almost completely on the front of my ribcage now and there is significant empty space at the side of the cup. Finally, although I've had my issues with it since undergoing shape changes, I'll note that Bravissimo has certainly made a sturdy bra in the Melrose. I was subjecting this to heavy use when it was only one of two or three bras I owned and still wear it occasionally for work, and it still gives the same level of support as when I first purchased it.
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Updated on Oct 17, 2014 Flag this

I have to be honest, this bra's been a weird one for me. When I first bought it, it was too big for me in the top section but sizing down resulted in the wire sitting on tissue, and I liked the shape under clothes, so I went with it. I'm not normally one for pink bras, but this one was different enough that it appealed to me - the watercolour-type rose print felt fresher than a lot of other florals around at the time.

A lot of the shape issues I had I chalked up to the bra being slightly too big for me, ... but later on I gained weight and experienced tissue re-migration, resulting in my boobs sitting more on the front of my ribcage (I now have very little side tissue). When I was able to fill out the cups more, I could see more easily some of the weird little shape incompatibilities I had with it. My boobs look almost too 'long' for my body in this bra when I look at myself without a shirt covering at the side, and it seems like my tissue wants to fill out the top of the cup more but the pink mesh section is too firm to let it, resulting in a strange, almost squared-off shape. This is something that flattens under clothing, giving the usual Cleo round shape. The gore and wires are also too high for me - when I first got the bra I experienced a lot of sternum-digging, and even though the digging has lessened as I've worn the bra, the gore still won't sit flat - my left boob (larger one) appears to be pushing one of the central wires out. The wires are also too high under my armpits, which is fine now that the bra's been broken in but was unbearable the first few wears. They cut into me under the arms like nobody's business. This problem was exacerbated by me having to adjust the straps quite short in order to take out some of the slack in the cups.

What I *think* my fit issues with the Ellis originate from are two things: the bra is too projected for me, and the lack of flexibility of the material (particularly the mesh section). I think this bra is cut for a very specifically balanced even shape, and my tissue was skewed just slightly too much toward bottom-fullness to be able to fit it well. As a result, my tissue uses up all the room in the slightly-too-shallow bottom of the cup and the rest tries to occupy the top mesh section - but there isn't enough room for it to do so.
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Updated on Mar 28, 2015 Flag this

I bought the sister size of my regular Curvy Kate unpadded size (32H) as I was informed that the band was quite stretchy. This bra fit reasonably well for a little while, but over the course of the day I found that my boobs tried to escape the cups (fell out when I bent down, too much jiggling, quad boob etc.). I have a full-on-bottom shape and the cups are quite shallow at the bottom, to give 'cakes on a plate' cleavage - it was necessary for me to size up in the cup to 30J to get a correct fit in this bra. It's a pity because the Black/Almond colourway is lovely. I'll be listing this since it doesn't fit me - for more details about how this bra is in the correct size, see my review for the 30J Tease Me.

Black/Almond colorway

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Updated on Dec 05, 2014 Flag this

This is a great bra for evenly full, projected boobs! It was a really good, true-to-size fit on me when I was smaller. I got a really nice, rounded shape in it - probably the best I've ever had from an unlined bra. It looks great under t-shirts.

My main beef with Cleos (apart from most of the colours and designs failing to appeal to me) is the two-hook band and (make that two) the way the wings seem to bite me under the arms. I had very sore underarms from my Cleo Ellis the first few times I wore it, but this Lily ... was much easier to break in. I didn't get much discomfort at all wearing it new.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be particularly compatible with tall-rooted boobs - I had slight cutting in when I first bought it which only got worse when I gained a cup size.

Appearance-wise I feel this is one of the less obnoxious Cleo colourways - the blue is nice, pretty similar to the blue Marcie that came out a few seasons back. The pink is more neon-y than it looks on the Cleo model, but it wasn't loud enough to turn me entirely off the bra.

The fabric on this is nice - soft to touch, but firm enough to maintain shape throughout the day.
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Aqua/Pink colorway

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Updated on Jun 14, 2015 Flag this

This bra is a complete disaster on me. The only reason I hung onto it for so long is because it looked decent under clothes, and I needed a smooth t-shirt type bra that matched my skin tone to wear under button-down shirts at a research conference.

For reference, here's a quick run-down of my shape: I have projected boobs with immediate projection at the bottom. I have almost no tissue on the side of my ribcage and very tall roots that extend up to my collarbone. My boobs are also extremely close-set - at a certain point on my sternum there is no ... way any gore will tack because I have less than a millimetre of space in between my boobs. For this reason I usually need low gores. I am also full in the centre and have about even distribution between the tops and the bottoms of my boobs.

The Smoothie is way, way too shallow for me, particularly at the bottom - the bottoms of the cups are permanently buckled as a result of my breasts not being able to sit in the cups properly. The straps are fully adjustable but feel quite loose and stretchy - they're not as bad as the straps on the Tease Me bras, but I could still feel them slipping down at the conference. The gore's technically the right height for me - it's not low enough that I'd be constantly spilling out of it, and it's not high enough to sit on tissue - but it's too wide for my boobs so ends up being pushed away anyway. My Smoothie also has something weird going on where the wires are too short for the channels and won't don't extend all the way up to the gore, which worsens the problem of the gore being pushed out. I'm not sure if this is a common problem or not.

The top of the cup doesn't feel closed off, and seems to be compatible with upper fullness and/or tall roots in this respect. However, my centre fullness (liberated by the poorly-fitting gore) sneaks up throughout the day, so I get quadboob in the middle. I have empty space on the side and the wires poke me in the armpits, but this is something I seem to get in pretty well every non-Polish bra.

I am of Western European descent and have very pale skin, despite living in Australia, and this bra did a reasonable job of matching my skin tone. It could probably work for someone with similar colouring to me with more of a light tan as well.

I'll conclude this review by noting that this is the older Smoothie cut, so I'm not sure if the issues I've experienced are present in the new cut (Smoothie Wild, I think it is?) as well.

I'll be listing it as a giveaway, for obvious reasons.
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Blush colorway

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Updated on Jun 28, 2015 Flag this

This bra no longer fits me as I am more of a 30J now, but fit really well when I was a 32H. Seems to run true to size for Curvy Kate - I found it to fit similarly to a plum/watermelon Romance I own in the same size. The bra seemed to maintain its shape throughout the day, no turning into upside down 7. It didn't quite have enough room in the bottom of the cups for me when I bought it, so I'd say that the Dreamcatcher would suit someone with even fullness and average root width. I didn't find the wires as wide as some other CK bras I've tried.

Petrol colorway

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Updated on Jun 14, 2015 Flag this

EDIT: I'd like to retract the 'comfy to wear' comment below - I am once again getting the bottom of the cups digging into my ribcage and get very deep, painful, welt-like marks there when I take these bras off. I think these bras just run way too shallow for me now, and the projection I have at the bottom of my breasts is forcing the bra lower and lower over the course of a day. This also explains the overspill I get late in the day, in a bra that has slight gaping when I put it on in the morning. If I keep ... these it'll be as bedroom bras. I'd only recommend them for those with extremely shallow breasts. Otherwise, give the Showgirl line a miss.

Finally got the sizing right with this bra! I have two 30J Tease Mes, one in Black/Scarlet and the other in Cherry/Blush. For reference, I usually wear 32H in Curvy Kate and Panache, but I have a full-on-bottom shape and was warned that the band on the Tease Me can be quite stretchy. I sized down once in the band (to 30HH - I tried this size and it was the tiniest bit too small after a minor weight gain) and then up in the cup to 30J. I'll point out that the Cherry/Blush colourway seems to run very slightly smaller, but not enough that I feel I'd need a bigger size.

The detailing on this bra is gorgeous, and it's very comfortable to wear despite having lacy trim - Curvy Kate have very cleverly constructed this bra so that the lace doesn't come into contact with the skin at all. The only comfort issue I sometimes had in the 30HH before it stopped fitting me was that occasionally the band under the cups would flip up and dig into my ribcage, but this doesn't appear to happen with my 30Js, oddly enough. The ribbon on the centre gore in my Black/Scarlet Tease Me is slightly angled, so occasionally (and annoyingly) the ribbon end flips up to peek out the top of my shirt. However, I think it'd be quite easy to fix this by stitching the ribbon back into position. The straps of this bra are also very smooth and stretchy, so someone who needs to wear their straps tightened all the way might have issues.

I do have a bit of a bone to pick about the sizing. This bra is labelled as a 30J, but someone with the same shape as me who was a true 30J would most likely find it unwearable due to quadboobing. I recognise that the shallowness in the bottom is what gives the Tease Me the ability to provide 'cakes on a plate' cleavage, and I know that this is what is causing me to have to size up. Somebody more FOT would probably be able to wear this without sizing up. I do feel though that Curvy Kate marketing this as coming in D-J can be a bit misleading since there are so many people that, like me, have to size up, and this makes the size range more limited than it first appears. I know a lot of people are also quite irritated about the band being stretchy. Once I got my 30J, I found that occasionally the band did feel a little tight over the course of a day, so I could probably wear a 32HH or a 30J in this bra - I think that sizing down in the band will only be an issue for those who need very firm bands or those who need a 28 band or below. But again, this annoys me on behalf of the people who do need these things, particularly since the market for 28 bands is as limited as it is.

I like this bra - I'm comfortable in it, I don't feel like I'm going to pop out the top, it's very good at preventing visible nipples etc. through shirts and I get a nice round shape under clothing - but I feel there are a lot of women who need larger cups and smaller bands who'll have trouble fitting into it.
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Black/Scarlet colorway

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Updated on Feb 25, 2015 Flag this

I have this bra in the Tea Rose fashion colour, which I find to be a very attractive, muted pink. It's very comfortable to wear and less 'stabby' than the balconette equivalent. The wings are made of a very soft material, and the straps are partially lined with something that feels a bit like felt. It looks like a very well-made bra.

I have close-set breasts where the closeness begins further up my chest, and the centre gore doesn't sit on my breast tissue at all - it's quite low, which is obviously because it's designed as a plunge. However, this isn't a ... plunge that gives a lot of cleavage - it leaves skin uncovered without pushing the boobs together too much. It's basically the opposite of 'a lot of bra' without being a Freya Deco, and would be a great option for under a v-neck for someone not wanting to feel too exposed. I also found the bra to run true to size, without feeling too uncomfortable in the band as Panache bras sometimes do when I first buy them. It's supportive as well as comfortable, and I don't feel as though I'm going to fall out of it if I wear it at work.

The reason I don't wear this bra all the time and sing its praises to everyone I meet is because I am very much not a fan at all of the shape it gives me. My boobs look unsupported and pointy - in fact, there's not a lot of difference between how I look when I wear this and how I look without a bra on, except that my boobs aren't pointy when they're braless! I was very sad about this, because seriously - this bra is great in every other way and supportive plunges that don't give too much cleavage are hard to find. I just cringe a bit every time I walk past a mirror, and that's not how a bra should make me feel. I've thought about why this could be and I think it's partially the construction. This is a three-part cup, but the segment attached to the bottom isn't attached to the strap at all, which I think is the reason for the lack of lift. This is also a pretty shallow cup. I think it would have been fine for me a year ago, when I'd only just been fitted correctly and still had a lot of tissue under my armpits (and hence a wider, shallower shape). I also think, due to the rigid top section, that this would be a no-go for anyone with top fullness. The straps are also not fully adjustable, which wasn't a problem for me - but anyone who is petite may have issues. I can't comment on strap width, since I never notice the straps being too wide set on any bras, but I know this is something Panache bras are infamous for.

In conclusion, I feel this would be suitable for someone with a full-on-bottom to (possibly) even shape who is wide and shallow and not particularly petite, short-waisted or narrow-shouldered. It may also be a good option for someone still undergoing tissue migration from the armpits as a result of wearing an incorrect size.
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Updated on Nov 13, 2014 Flag this

http://drbralove.com/2015/08/19/lingerie-review-lorraine-bra-by-comexim/

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Updated on Aug 20, 2015 Flag this

At the time I bought this bra, I was a solid 32H in Panache, but knew that the Deco had been reported to run a bit big and wanted to try this as it was on sale.

I could definitely tell the cup was too small for me, particularly on my larger side, but the quadboob I got in it wasn't all that noticeable through shirts. I tended to wear it under lower-cut tops when I wanted to look more 'cleavagey' anyway. As time went by, I discovered that the appearance of the bra wasn't enough to make up for me constantly feeling like my ... boobs were trying to get out of it. This only got worse after I gained weight at the start of graduate school - I'm more of a 30J now, and the constant need to adjust only became worse when I needed a smaller band.

I do like the look of this bra, even though I generally dislike Freya as a brand and wish they would be a bit more original with their collections than releasing 6 Decos in different colours with slightly different ornamentation and calling them new styles. The trim on the straps is pretty but not scratchy or irritating, and I like that they've put a mesh overlay on the band to make it a bit more interesting. I also like the use of buttons as a decoration on the central gore - it feels a bit fresher than a bow. It's also very comfy to wear and I never felt the wires dig in at the bottom of my ribcage like on some of my other bras, although I know this is most likely due to soft Freya wires.

Fit-wise, I think it's a pretty solid 32GG for someone fuller on top. A 32H who's more full-on-bottom could probably wear this as well.
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Jade green colorway

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Updated on Jun 13, 2015 Flag this