Swapped a Freya Deco (which didn't work for me at all, while, strangely, a Freya Taylor in the same size does) for this bra. Best swap ever. I love this bra. This is my first Cleo (and second Panache, the first being a Masquerade that didn't work out). My initial impression when I unwrapped this bra is that it's well made and pretty. I was happy to find that the color is a darker shade of pink than it appears to be in all the photos I've seen of it.
The feel of wearing this bra reminds me of my beloved non-padded Freyas, but the shape is a lot rounder. I get the tiniest, barest hint of in-cup quadboob where the cup meets the lace, but it doesn't show under shirts, and I think a size up would be way too large (this is already a size up from my Freyas).
For all the talk of Cleo having wider wires than Freya, I did not find that to be the case here; all of my non-padded Freyas and this bra have a roughly 5.5" wire width.
It was comfortable to try on, but I'll reserve judgement on the gore, since it is high for me. It feels more jiggly to me than my unpadded Freyas (of course, this bra is a size larger, so that may affect things). I'll have to update once I wear it all day.

Update: I saw a review that called this bra the "work horse of your lingerie wardrobe" (http://2cakesonaplate.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/guest-post-cleo-lucy-the-work-horse-of-your-lingerie-wardrobe). That blogger was not kidding! I take back what I said about this bra feeling jiggly. I rode 2 horses in 90+ heat today (worked a lot on sitting trot on 1, the other was my horses, and he has a big trot, even rising), and not only were there no pools of boob sweat like I normally get in bras in the summer, nothing felt the least bit jiggly during my rides. I wore this bra under an American Eagle aqua and white polo with thick horizontal stripes (similar to this http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/m5kdUQ1C3zNpFXp4SXjzWbw.jpg) in a size small, and the color did not show through.
The high (for me) gore is painful after a few hours, but nothing a cotton cosmetic pad couldn't temporarily fix. I love the shape, so I'm going to suck it up and deal.
The only other problem is that I find the tag to be super scratchy unless I have the band pretty tight.
I give this bra an A (would be A+ if not for the tiniest, barest hint of in-cup quadboob where the cup meets the lace). Closest bra to perfect I've found yet.

This bra is not owned any more

Updated on Jul 09, 2013 Flag this

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