I've dilly dallied and delayed putting up my review for this bra, but as it's one of my current favourite bras, it is the only one that I had not added pics to or reviewed.

I got this bra in from lcl0706 who I'm friends with on Facebook with. She's much more experienced in bra fitting and shapes and such, and has been helping me with my shape and fits for a little bit now. When she put her listings up, she asked me if I was interested in it before she put it up because she thought it would be a good shape for me, given our similar shapes and sizes. I waffled on it for a bit, at first over the colour and then concerned that it might not fit. This is the kind of friend that she is...she sat with me, via messenger, and stepped me through measuring my current favourite and best fitting bras. Once we finished, she determined that it had a strong chance of fitting...that I *might* need a 30F and that she would toss in an extender with the bra just in case that it was too tight for me in the band. She even sent the extender attached, as I've never used one before.

Anyway, I bit the bullet and got it from her and tracked that sucker every freaking day, because I was really excited. And one day, I tracked it and it said it was in Canadian customs, which it had been for many days, and then I randomly decided to track it again after work and I saw it had been delivered! YASSSS!!! I was so excited that I put it on as soon as I got home instead of making dinner. 😂

On to the fit...

My shape, as best we have determined, is narrow with average to short roots (possibly thin and tall roots but with most of the tissue being lower, and thus, still functionally short ish), even to FOB, center full,and pendulous with soft tissue. So as best I know, I need something with enough projection at the wire that's not too wide.

When I saw the bra, I no longer had any concerns about the crimson colour. It's exceptionally pretty (but also exceptionally hard to match underwear to in terms of colour) and I think that it's a nice match for my skin tone. It's got a good balance of warm and cool red tones. The extender that was sent is bright red, so not an exact match, but very kind to add one in a similar colour. The material is really light and soft, and the detail of the stretch lace is quite pretty. I'm fairly ambivalent about the strip of elastic at the bottom. I think that it looks alright and hasn't been problematic for me so far. When I tried on the bra and took pics and sent to my best friend, she was in awe and said it looked like it was made for me. That aside, there are a few minor fit issues with the bra that aren't hugely noticeable to the untrained eye or under cloths.

Although I can do up the band on the loosest hook setting, it's not my ideal comfort setting. After wearing it for a while, I start to get pain behind the gore at my sternum. I have the same thing happen with my 30E Lepel Lilly. I expect that it's a sign the band is too tight, so I'm currently using the extender and it fits more comfortably, so I feel like it would be better to have a 32 band in this. I'm told it is one of the snugger CK bands. I'm getting a slight bit of in cup quadding and more when I've really extended my swoop and scoop and done it more aggressively like I have been lately since I got my Freya Fancies and Kiyoko. If it was not for the stretch lace, I'd probably have more quadding. One thing I've noticed is that the stretch lace sort of bubbles and doesn't lay smoothly over my smaller breast (in particular) so it does look a little bit funny. I'm not sure if going up the cup size would be better. The fear is that going up with the cup may make the nice rounded shape less so. I think that I'd like to try it again in a 32DD and go from there. I think that the 32DD might have just enough extra depth that the cup issues might be better with it. My only concern about going up with the band is whether or not the wire width and the strap placement will be ok or too wide. I'm quite happy to use the extender but I feel like it's a bandaid and that using it means that I am in the wrong band size. Anyway, I am quite keen to try it ok other sizes and colours.

I'm very thankful to have been given the chance to try this style.

Crimson colorway

Updated on Feb 28, 2018 Flag this

• Show all comments (10)
• 1

  The color is gorgeous on you! So glad you tried this one :-)

• Love4Pollinators Thanks so much! The colour is much better than I thought. I had been afraid it would be too red, or too pink as one of the pics of it I'd seen. I'm glad I got it. I did find underwear that's a close match, though not exact I'm colour, and some that's complimentary and/or coordinates. I think that it's a pretty good fit...perhaps not 100% perfect, but better than a lot of my current bras, so it's a start. Even though the Fancies would have been ok in a 30E, this is a better fit and I would prefer another one of these to the Fancies.

• 1

  This looks good on you! That colour looks nice on your skin tone. I had the same fit issues with this bra, as you know. In the 30E I got in cup quadding, and in the 30F my smaller side had some loose fabric at the top of the cup. The shape was less rounded in the larger size too. Again... It sucks being between sizes! If you end up ordering a larger band, I would get two cup volumes to compare, and just send one back. If you pay through Paypal they have paid return shipping as long as you sign up for the return shipping thing they have. I'm in Canada and I use it every once in a while when I need to send back bras that aren't ordered through Amazon prime.

• 3

  This looks great on you. Your review encouraged me to try this in a larger cup size.

  And if it fits fine with an extender, wear it. Nobody will notice and it will stretch out anyway so you may even get more lifetime out of it.

• aboobaccount yay! I’m glad you’re going to try yours in a larger cup. I think that will help. As for the extender, I feel sort of the same way. I sometimes feel like the extender creates doubt in my mind as to what size I ought to be starting at. I feel like if I’m using the extender on my two 30 bands, maybe I really do just need a 32 band. But then I think of the 32 bands in the So Free lightly lined balconette (and full cup) and how big and stretchy they are and how I’m able to use the tight hook straight away. My unlined balconette is totally different in the band...it’s much snugger. And I tried a Fantasie Rebecca and it was loose, and the Natalie was snug. And the Freya Kiyoko was probably ok to co to a 28 even though I was not able to do the 28 in the Fancies. So I guess that it’s really up to the companies, styles, and such. And if I use the 30 and it’s tight, and the extender works, I’ll eventually get more use out of the bra. But it does kind of feel like I’m cheating a bit.

  Wilderness1 hi! Thanks so much! I sort of feel like I want to try all the sister sizes, lol, because it’s almost like each sister size has its own size, and not true sister sizing, based on the measurements here. It looks like the 32DD cup depth is larger than the 30E, when it should be the same, and the same should go for the 30F and 32E. I worry about the shape in the 30F and the straps, wires and cups (widths) in the 32DD. Ultimately, it is probably going to be a price thing. If I’m able to get another 30E in latte or white and pink, and it’s significantly cheaper, I’ll stick with the extender. But I think I want to try a 32DD in it next. But yeah, it’s hard to be in between cups and band sizes. As for the PayPal thing, it was mentioned in the ABTF fb group in one of my posts. I’ll have to look into it. Is there a cost for that service? Btw, where in Canada are you? I’m west (aka wet) coast.

  Thank you everyone for saying such wonderful things. It’s definitely one of my favourite bras and I look forward to getting more.

• I'm in Alberta, where we've been having an awful winter :(
  I think this is the link for paypal return shipping: https://www.paypal.com/ca/webapps/mpp/returnshipping

  It's free to join, and I've used it probably a dozen times. When you return something you'll need the receipt from the post office and a picture of the box with the stamps on it. It's pretty easy actually.
  

• Thanks Wilderness1 ! Excellent information! You've used it and it's worked for you well? Sending love and hugs from Vancouver Island. :)

• Yes I've used it quite a few times. I've received return shipping every time I've used it. I think you get up to 30 dollars per return. I'm not sure how many times/year you can use it, but it USED to be 12/year. You'd have to read the terms to confirm the details.

• Yeah it says $30 up to 12 times a year. Is that $30 USD or CAD? I'm definitely going to look at this for future orders. Right now, my next bra is a listing from here, from the same user I got the Ellace from, so no return options.

• it's $30.00 Canadian as far as I know, but I've never needed to use that much for a return. I usually just send things back regular post, because it's like $45.00 to send packages back with tracking (internationally). I'll just take the risk instead....

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