The Sculptresse Gina reminds me of a bra I used to have - the Cleo Blake. It's a similar color and style/shape. The Gina has a prettier fabric (the Blake was more of a plain mesh fabric whereas the Gina has a pattern). It's well-constructed and good for women who have close-set breasts and need a narrow gore.
Aesthetically, the Gina looks good. It lifts and projects and gives a nice rounded shape and the hot pink color is pretty. It's sturdy; this is not a flimsy bra. I felt very secure in it.
The only thing I don't like about it is that the wires are a bit ...firm for my taste. I need to break the bra in. I can feel the underwire and band pressing after a few hours and it gets uncomfortable for all-day wear. It's not as comfortable as my Elomi bras which are always comfortable for all-day wear right out of the package. The Gina reminds me of my old Parfait bras which ran tight in the band and had firm underwires until they were adequately broken in. I feel like the Cleo Blake didn't take as long to break in as the Gina, but I could be wrong.
Fit-wise, the Gina is almost a perfect fit. It encases all of the tissue, gives a good lift, has no quad boob or side spillage/pinching, and the gore tacks (the majority of bras don't tack on me). I have close-set breasts that are almost even. I suppose I have average roots. I tend to do best with balconettes and plunges.
Overall, I'm happy with the Gina and would consider ordering another Sculptresse bra. I just wish that the bra was less stiff.
Edited one year later - October 2019. I only wore this a short time due to the scratchy fabric. I gained and lost weight and now most of my 40H bras don't fit. I tried this Gina in a 38H on again today and this bra is the closest to a perfect fit. It tacks and has a very smooth look. There's a tiny bit of the bottom that I don't fill, but I think that is due to the very bottom of the wire being just a little wider than my breast. I have just a little swell of tissue above the top of the cup, but not truly quadding.
Over the past year, I learned bra sewing but haven't been able to find a perfect fit. I'm tempted to try cloning this bra since it is nearly perfect. I wish they still made the Cleo Blake as that bra was my favorite Cleo/Panache bra I've ever owned. Read more 335 more words
I have finally found a band that is firm enough to not roll in the back when I sit down. Yay!
However, I'm not sure the cup width is right for me. I'm having a lot of trouble determining my breast root width is. I have pushed on my breast tissue to see if I could find any definition of where my breast tissue ends and my underarm fat begins, but no luck. With the last bra I reviewed, (Elomi Eva Bandless) I noticed that the underwire dug into my underarm fat. I've been wearing it for a few weeks, and it still does that, but is tolerable ...throughout the day. I'm having the same problem with this bra, but the wires are moved forward more. It doesn't hurt, but you can see it is pushing in on the sides. The wires are also digging into my armpits when I sit. I guess they are too long? I'm not too keen on deconstructing a brand new bra. I may just sew some cushioning in that area, along with the top of the gore, as that is rubbing on my fuller side.
As for the cup volume, it's a great fit, till you get to the top of the cup in the clear mesh area. It seems I'm continuing to have this same shape issue in all the bras I've purchased so far. (Not all I've tried are listed.) The top mesh area is too big, and it's super loose and wrinkly there, making my breast tissue squishy/wiggly because it's unconfined. I plan to tack in the top part of the cup with some creative sewing. That should help confine my upper tissue.
I do like the up front look this bra gives me. I have a feeling Polish bras would be good for me in the projection area, but since the wire length is so short on them, I'm not sure if they will be comfortable for my breast tissue. Read more 223 more words
Do you think sizing down to a 38GG would help the wires get smaller and the bra wrinkling, or does that cause orange in a glass at the bottom?
I'm not sure. I fill out the depth of the cup very well. it's a very solid fill, till you get to the top of the mesh. I'm afraid if I went down a cup I'd be spilling out of the top and wrinkling at the bottom big time. So i guess that would be an orange in the glass? There really isn't any wrinkling of fabric in the bottom of the cup on this one. The line of the wire is a bit lower than my IMF though. I can try and bend the wires a bit to try and adjust the fit, maybe that would allow the wires to conform to my IMF better; just not sure if that will throw the top of the wires even more into my armpit. I went in buying this bra with unknown sizing. There's really not a lot of info on any sculptresse bras near my size for getting a feel of the land. It's a very pretty bra, but the avalability is scarce, so if I try another sculptresse, I would probably have to pick a more current design.
I have two more bras on the way. A Freya Paradise plunge balcony 36hh, and a Curvy Kate Portia in a 36hh. From what I've gathered, those bands a pretty stretchy, and both of my Elomi bras are now on the tightest hook, after three weeks of wear. The band's roll badly, so I'm trying a smaller band to see if that will stop that. I will share my take on those bras soon.
I send all my packages to my parents house for shipping, and my mother is thinking I'm loosing my mind buying bras left and right. She's content wearing a 38 D bra, that really is the wrong size. It makes no sense that I can fit a smaller band even though I'm about 100+ lbs bigger than her, without her wearing the wrong size. But I get nowhere with that arguement, so I let her alone about it.
Those Eva bands do stretch out way too fast. It's really annoying. They aren't the sturdiest but they are pretty comfy.
So maybe you are really projected but full on bottom so a shape with less room at top would work better in sculptresse. Chi chi wasn't projected enough for me, but Flirtini was. I had bubbling at the top so maybe that shape would work well for you as it seemed best for projected fob shapes.
You might really like that Portia too. Although it's a bit wide it has shorter wires and less of a deep u shape.
Moms are funny ladies. Mine also thinks I'm crazed for ordering from Poland.
Hmm, I've done the lean over test 90 degrees, and there is about an inch of tissue that fills over my nipple towards my face. I thought I understood that meant you were full on top. My tissue is very squishy, and will very much act like water filling a container, so I guess my breast tissue just goes to the bottom of the cups till it meets resistacne by the curve of the cup fabric, and then fills upwards. Maybe that makes me functionally FOB depending on the forward projection of the bra?
In my bra less state, my breasts just lay across my chest onto my upper stomach, kind of flat till you to about 4 ish inches from the end of my breasts where my nipples are, like down pointing arrows, then the tissue firms up. Imagine what I said earlier about water filling a container, well that's what my skin is doing here. I've gone up and down with my weight within the same 40 or so lbs in the last 10 yrs, so my skin is just not as elastic anymore, especially appoaching 40 yrs old. (Good ole Hashimotos thyroid, functional hypothyroidism at work there.)
The gap at the top of the cups is not a deal breaker, as I can fix that, but the poking wires are the real question on wether it will be wearable. If I can't get that to work, I may just list it as a give away here, because by then, I'll have modified it, and can't legitimately ask for money for a "damaged" product. That's a shame, because it's one of the prettiest bras I've ever owned too.
Something I've thought about is why don't we have a measurement for how deep the cup is vertically on this site. I know that can't answer all queries, but for example this bra is very projected forward, and has a pretty long distance from bottom to top of cup. The Eva is taller where it connects to the straps, but is not as deep in forward projection, thus making it a shorter length vertically. The cup depth horizontally in the charisse is 33.5, while the Eva is 35cm, making it much wider. I don't fully fill up the Eva, but it's nowhere near the gaping on the Charisse, which is listed as a smaller cup depth by 1.5cm. So in my case, I could benefit from knowing how far out the apex of the vertical distance is from the bottom, and then from the apex to the top of the cup. If I just hold my breasts up with my hands, I know how far I can go forward distance, before the fabric of the cups have to return to the chest, and how much fabric is left to go on the return trip, wether my tissue will fill that space up or not. Thus helping to determine if the cup is going to be too big or not. Just food for thought. :)
There is a cup height now in the measurements section but it's new and not everyone has added it. It's at the bottom of the enter measurements page under experimental.
Ahh, I found it. I will add to that when I get a chance. Thanks for the info.
I think Charisse is a bit of an odd duck up top. The mesh is quite firm, not much like the "power mesh" a lot of stretchy cups are lined with. I think it softened after a few washes, but it does still lay a bit oddly across the top of my breasts. I have it in 36H. I am a bit bigger than you; I wear a 34J most of the time now.
Breasts in this cup range are often functionally FOB, as you say. In my case, I definitely need a ton of depth at the wire and FOB-like projection, but I have a decent amount of center-fullness too, so a tall gore is added to my list of bra requirements. It's not that you can't also be somewhat evenly full if you are functionally FOB, but FOB-like projection will likely be one of your most important fit requirements.
Panache bras often have very firm bands, though Sculptresse is the stretchiest of their brands, IME. Freya, Elomi, and some Curvy Kate bras have stretchier bands. Freya and Elomi also have softer wires than Panache, which can make them feel less supportive. I think Curvy Kate's wires are somewhere in between Panache and Freya & Elomi. Some people prefer to sister size down in brands with stretchier bands.
I have a Curvy Kate Portia in 34J and it's a really great bra for me. The only issue is the gore is too low so I get some spillage/quadding, but it's still very comfortable so I wear it around the house. The wires are much shorter than Charisse. Sculptresse Flirtini is similar in shape to Charisse, but the top of the cup is made from stretch lace lined with power/stretchy mesh so it is a more forgiving fit. Check the measurements on here, though, as I think you will have the same problem with the wire length.
I think Charisse is a bit of an odd duck up top. The mesh is quite firm, not much like the "power mesh" a lot of stretchy cups are lined with. I think it softened after a few washes, but it does still lay a bit oddly across the top of my breasts. I have it in 36H. I am a bit bigger than you; I wear a 34J most of the time now.
Breasts in this cup range are often functionally FOB, as you say. In my case, I definitely need a ton of depth at the wire and FOB-like projection, but I have a decent amount of center-fullness too, so a tall gore is added to my list of bra requirements. It's not that you can't also be somewhat evenly full if you are functionally FOB, but FOB-like projection will likely be one of your most important fit requirements.
Panache bras often have very firm bands, though Sculptresse is the stretchiest of their brands, IME. Freya, Elomi, and some Curvy Kate bras have stretchier bands. Freya and Elomi also have softer wires than Panache, which can make them feel less supportive. I think Curvy Kate's wires are somewhere in between Panache and Freya & Elomi. Some people prefer to sister size down in brands with stretchier bands.
I have a Curvy Kate Portia in 34J and it's a really great bra for me. The only issue is the gore is too low so I get some spillage/quadding, but it's still very comfortable so I wear it around the house. The wires are much shorter than Charisse. Sculptresse Flirtini is similar in shape to Charisse, but the top of the cup is made from stretch lace lined with power/stretchy mesh so it is a more forgiving fit. Check the measurements on here, though, as I think you will have the same problem with the wire length.
I adjusted the wires a bit wider, to try and lessen some of the underarm poking, and wore it while running errands today. Well the poking wasn't as bad, but still needs some work, but the top of the cups filled in a little better. It's still not perfect on top, but nowhere near as bad.
@triumphof: So you've had more luck with FOB bras than FOT. I believe I am center full as well, since I have more tissue gravitating to my vertical midline. Have you had any luck with bras that are lower in the center gore? I have close set breasts, that can accommodate a high gore, but as I found out today, if the wire area doesn't have much padding at the end points of the wires, I get rubbed raw, particularly on my left side, as it is a tiny bit higher and fuller than my right.
I didn't have the above issue with any of my previous bras, so I never gave thought to the length of the wire. Now I know better, and will try to purchase accordingly.
Also, thanks for the info about Panache bands. I barely fit this 38 band. If I purchase any of their other brands, I may have to go up a band size. I wasn't miserable today, but it is certainly a chore to get it on, considering I have never been able to attach the hooks from behind.
I am certainly learning a lot from this experience, and what things work for practicality, from each bra adventure. I really appreciate all of you that have helped me. Thanks!
Nice fabric, good construction, sturdy. I wish the top lace had a little elastic bit, I've only tried on a few bras that didn't but without it my boobs seem to have a lot more freedom to escape the bra and fall out toward the middle of the cup. Definitely had wrinkling above the wire but where my boobs ended up did have a lot of projection, I just need that projection lower.
Painful for me but I have to say it give a very nice shape. Quality fabric and design. Frills on straps hurt and armpit area of cups digs in more than my other bras do. Definitely not my size but pretty cute overall.
This bra is quite comfortable. After a few hours, I find the wire to be digging in under my armpit, so I think the cup shape or the wire placement is weird for my shape. Otherwise, I love how this bra fits. The cups are soft to the touch and hold my breasts nicely, no spilling out or bunching anywhere.
This is a wonderfully comfortable bra and pretty great for a moulded cup. For my FOT and center, narrow roots, though, the cup was too wide. This created a lot of empty space on the sides, plus with the plunge cut, I had some quading in the center. This would be great for those with more even fullness and a wide-root. It is super soft and a lovely baby-pink color that would work great for fair-skinned folx under t-shirts.
This was part of an Amazon Wardrobe order. I knew this was a long shot, but there's not much available in my size.
It's just too small. Band runs a bit tight and I could barely fasten it. Cups are too small and I had quadding, and the gore didn't tack. Wires felt like they were a good width and height, though.
I loved the style of this bra, and the construction. However, it must run small in the cups. Also. Although band felt very comfortable, the stretchiness could be an issue after some regular wear. I would be worried it would slide. Ordered this on Amazon, didn't fit (cup one size too small) and returned. They don't make them above H cup, so I'm out of luck.
This is my best fitting bra so far. It's very comfortable, I forgot I had it on right away. It doesn't poke me or feel to tight.
It could be better, the wire marks when I take it off are a couple of inches below my breast. I think I need more projection and the wires could be a little shorter under my arms.
The seams show very much. I had on a tank top and a loose t-shirt and I could still clearly see a seam across my breast but it did hide my nips very well.
I'm loving this bra. On the downside for me, the wires are too low and narrow for me, but that's almost always true. The material is VERY soft and comfy though. I kind of can't stop groping myself in it. It's seamless but still an unlined bra, although there seems to be a very subtle internal side support panel?I didn't notice it at first, but it's there. BEWARE, people that struggle with and are bothered by nipple show through, that's a quite likely possibility in this bra. It's thin abd there are no seams to hide behind. My nips are kind of lazy though, so it's not too ...often a problem for me.
The cup fabric is somewhat stretchy - not like on the level of stretch lace, but I'm juuuuust barely quadding a little on my larger boob when I scoop into this, but if I sort of tug on the fabric I can get it to settle.
The straps have a comfy slight padding to them, and the bottom of the elastic band shares a similar fabric backing. The band is also nice and thick most of the way across. The gore is refreshingly short for a non plunge bra in these sizes, and unadorned for once. The color is much darker than my skin tone, like a slightly lighter clay, but vanishes nicely under clothes.
Over all, short wire side spillage aside, this is an awesome basic bra and I expect will be a new go-to. <3 Read more 175 more words
Do you think sizing down to a 38GG would help the wires get smaller and the bra wrinkling, or does that cause orange in a glass at the bottom?