The 28E Melissa is clearly a cup size too small for me. I get some serious quad-boob and side-boob. The shape of the bra seems to work for my shallow, wide-rooted boobs, but I imagine that a 28F would fit much better.
Other than the fit, the Melissa is a pretty cute bra, and the quality isn't too bad.
The Cleo Maddie is a molded T-Shirt-bra in a halfcup/balconnette style. It has shallow cups and relatively wide wires, fits well on wide root shallow boobs. It is often said that the cups run small. I don't fully agree - they run shallow, so if you are not shallow you might want to go up a cup size. In the correct size, this bra gave me good uplift, a rounded shape, and it goes well under tight clothing and tank tops.
Pros: - super comfy! - thin straps - smooth look under clothing - not too much coverage
Cons: - The band is on the stretchier side, so if you are between band sizes, you may want to get the smaller one.
I had some sizing issues with this bra. Maybe it was a foolish beginner's mistake when I thought 30D fit me, because it was actually too wide in the band and too small in the cups. 30DD gaped a lot. I finally got it in 28E and it fit much better.
Very cute bra, but the cups wrinkle all over and the top gapes. I typically wear a 28E in Cleo, so the cups may run slightly large compared to other Cleo bras. The straps didn't seem very stretchy and are made of the same mesh fabric as the cups, so they dug into my shoulders a bit, even when adjusted long enough.
This is my first well fitting bra. The band is stretchy but doesn't ride up (yippee!), though it is not tight enough to really enhance (i.e. lift) my dense, low-set shallow boobs. However, it is a nice everyday bra when I don't want a little extra oomph.
When I first got it, I had to push the underwires at the center gore towards the armpit end of the channel and bend the underwires away from my body there because it dug into my sternum, but the underwires no longer bother me. After a few wears, the underwires became comfortable centered in the channel. My main complaints are visibility ...under clothing because the top edge of the padding below the lace is so thick and the underwire length/shape. This bra would fit even better for me if the underwires came up higher and more vertically under the armpits to contain my tall side boobage instead of flaring out.
I have mixed feelings about the looser band: on one hand, I do not worry about reverse letterphobia, warped underwires, warped hooks/eyes, or quad boob as much; on the other hand, a tighter band would provide better support (i.e. actually lift..). Anyway, Juna is really versatile and I would recommend it to anyone who is shallow or fuller on top unless they have a very narrow root. Read more 115 more words
This is my first unlined bra that fit. It's made of a stretchy mesh material that is conforms to the shape of my boobs very well. It's a little closed on top for me certain times of the month, but the wires are too wide and the cup wrinkles in 28F. The band is one of the tightest I've tried, and my ribcage is 26-28 inches around. The lift is amazing, but I've recently decided that I don't like the shape very much. Marcie makes my boobs look pointy instead of round because of the 3-parts and the soft fabric. It would be perfect if the fabric were stiffer, wings were higher, and the cups were more open, but then it wouldn't fit as many people.
Very pretty! It arrived with some of the red stitching around the red mesh panel unraveling (ugh). My boobs do not have the projected shaped necessary to fill out this bra. The wires and the bottom of the wire were great, but the top cut in and wrinkled. The band is firm, but less so than Cleo Marcie (6831) or Cleo George (5131) in 28E. This bra is awful for shallow shapes, but the shape is quite rounded and lifted under thick clothing. The fabric is stiff enough to not reveal how I feel about the ambient temperature.
How I made it fit:
Since I didn't ...want to deal with return shipping (or if the vendor refused the return because of the unraveled stitching), I sewed down the "George" fold, basically turning this 3-part balconette into a 2-part vertical seamed balconette and hiding the unraveling stitching. Depth- and shape-wise, it fits very similarly to my Cleo Juna (6461) in 28E. I would recommend this bra and alteration combo to any shallow ladies out there who have difficulty finding an unlined bra that fits.I definitely prefer the stiff fabric of this bra to the stretchy mesh of the Marcie. The alteration can make this bra a little more open on top than the Marcie (i.e. sometimes I quad in Marcie but not in my altered Meg), depending on how you do it. Also, it's been a couple of months and the band is still firm. Read more 140 more words
Edit: I've decided this doesn't actually fit as well as I originally thought. Not sure if it's tissue migration or better awareness, but it's definitely too small in the cup. I can wear it, but only under a loose top. The 28F gapes at the top of the cup however...
The bra is great for me, since it has "nike"-sign shapes wires which follow my boob root pretty well. The wired shouldn't be narrower on the bigger side (right). The center gore or rather the wires in the center gore needed some breaking in tho. I grew out of Juna in 28DD some half year ago and 28E was harder to get comfy. Also, when I have long days at the office, the left wire starts pressing uncomfortably on my ribs but that changes over the month. Without a top there is some unused voume in the cups near the center gore but I have almost no volume there and you can't see it when I'm dressed. As usual with this bra, the lace doesn't lie nicely on my boobies but if it would the bra would be too small. It's quite a pity that the center gore is so high that Juna cannot be worn under low cut v-necks since I love the round shape she gives me.
This is my first correctly sized bra. It fits like a glove and holds my boobs perfectly, gathering all the flesh into the cups and keeping it there without cutting into the sides. The band is a little tight, but that is to be expected especially since it has never been washed. The cups fit, except the extra panel of lace at the top seems to bunch a little especially on my right boob which is a little smaller than my left. It doesn't make much sense because the rest of the bra up to that point and at the top of the lace fits perfectly. I think ...its because I have shallow breasts that are, if anything, a little bottom heavy and so can't fill out the top quite right. This bra doesn't even have pads and my boobs look bigger in it! My only serious complaints are that it pokes my sternum (I have a very short chest) and the straps are a bit too wide and can irritate (I have very narrow shoulders). I'm hoping that the poking will improve with washing, and I'm ignoring the wide straps for now since its actually very useful for some of the boat neck shirts I like to wear. Despite these flaws, it is much more comfortable than all of my badly fitted bras because it is soft and stays put. Read more 124 more words
I have some initial disappointment with this bra. I was hoping I could get away with it as a t-shirt bra, but its seams and the cups' edges are quite visible under shirts. The top edge of the cup seams to flare outwards where it meets the lace, and this is particularly noticeable where the vertical seam meets the edge of the cup. The fit is ok: the band is tight but not unbearably so, and a small amount of tissue seems to be pushed into my armpit. The lace does not lie flat and is loose near the center gore and straps. However, I love the rounded shape that this bra provides, so I'll be looking for something similar in the future.
Overall this bra fits quite nicely. I think it might have a firmer band that my beige Cleo Juna, which I've heard runs a tad large. I'm unsure though as my stretched band measurement is about 30". I can't pull the band out as far as I can with my Juna, which is good for me since my underbust is on the smaller side of a 28 (27" comfortable/25.5" snug) I fill the cups out. There's a teensy bit of quadboob on my left side (larger boob) when I inhale but it's not really a problem. The gore tacks and doesn't dig in. This bra is pretty comfortable; I wore it most of the day today and didn't have to adjust it once.
In terms of appearance - I love it! The watercolor print is really pretty, and the pink lace compliments it nicely. Before I got this, the only fitting bra I had was the beige Cleo Juna I mentioned earlier which can get a bit boring. This bra is a great start to my pretty-bras-that-fit collection!
A bra that (almost) fits! I probably should have gone with a 30 DD, but with an extender, this bra fits fantastically. As others have said, the wires at the gore dig (and my boobs are close together, so double ouch), but after I bent the wires away from my body, this bra fits like a dream. Fantastic for boobs on the shallower side.
Edit: I wore this with an extender for about a week, and the band stretched out enough to be comfortable for my 29 inch ribcage. Now officially a bra that fits!
This is a good basic bra. The lace does show through clothing a little bit. I wish the bra just didn't have any lace because this is an annoying feature. The cups are the perfect size for me, but the band is big. I have bras with a 30 band that are tighter than this one. It seemed tighter when I first bought it, but after only about a week it seemed to have started to stretch out. My ribcage measurement is 26, so now that the bra is broken in I've been wearing it with a Rixie clip, which I now have to move all the way ...to the strap because the band is so stretchy. I had to bend the center gore away a little bit since it was pretty uncomfortable in the beginning, but it's no longer uncomfortable. The underwire is not super comfortable either, it seems to be too far down, but maybe that's because the band isn't fitting very well anymore. When the band is tight enough from the clip, it's still uncomfortable because the underwire pushes against my ribs on the left side. Originally I was happy with this bra, but after owning it for a few months I'm not thrilled with it. Read more 102 more words
Cleo Bella Balconnet Bra (7001) fits snuggly and has a beautiful design. The fabric is breathable and feels high-quality. The straps are slightly too far apart for my shoulders, and are too short, but the bra is still wearable.
I am short (5'3"), so in order to get the straps fitted properly it causes the cups to come just a little too close to my armpits. The underwire also pokes a bit, but overall it's the best fitting bra I own.
For something simple, this is a pretty great bra. After realizing I have been wearing the wrong bra size my entire life, this was the first bra I purchased in my real size. It fit almost perfectly. It looks great—it isn't too flashy, but doesn't look poorly designed either. The straps in the back swoop.
Cons: I have rather small shoulders and a small frame, so the straps were not a problem once I wrung them to their longest point. However, I could see someone larger than me having an issue with the straps being too small.
There was also an issue at first with the underwire being way too high and tight on the sternum, which irritated me for the first few days but I no longer notice it.
The lace is very thin and it will sometimes sink into the cups. However, this should not be a problem if you have round breasts (mine are much wider on the bottom).
