Ewa Michalak SM Ja Wiem in 65FF

Ever since it came out, I loved the SM Ty Wiesz. Stupid me though never ordered it. I thought it would never work for me, that the straps would be too long and the tops of the cups would reach my shoulders (it looked super tall). I put it off and off and off, reading review after review and seeing picture after picture of it. A few weeks ago I decided I had waited too long. Unfortunately, I was unable to order it from Ewa directly and when I reached out to Jaimie she was told that there was no more fabric to make this one. I waited too long! Ewa had released the same model, Ja Wiem, but in pink several months ago. I wanted the Ty Wiesz so badly because the tan would have been a much better match for my skin. Unfortunately, since I still wanted to try this style and I had screwed myself over, I didn't have much of a choice. I found this set on Bratabase in my preferred sizes of 65FF and 38 and that sealed the deal.

For this model, there is only a brief option. It is in Ewa's lovely unlined 3 part balconette cup and it is super sexy. Not only is it sheer, but the black cleavage straps are so fun and the cup's seams and wire casings are covered in black shiny fabric, as is the seam on the wings and the straps. The black cleavage straps are fully adjustable and have the cutest little rhinestone adjusters. The rhinestone adjuster is also on the gore on top of Ewa's signature big fat bows. The briefs are almost just as lovely. The only gripe I have with them is that they have some lace on them that is not present on the bra. Both items run true to size in my opinion. The brief is lower cut and has black spaghetti straps on them as well that really work to highlight your figure. The cups on the bra are made of mesh while the band is made of powder pink knit. The straps are thick and almost do not adjust short enough: while they provide plenty of support and feel perfectly fine, if I wasn't so lazy I would shorten them.

My worries were partly correct. The top of the cups is a little tall but I don't think it's too much taller then normal and it doesn't actually reach my shoulders! You can see here that this color doesn't really work too well on me in terms of 'disappearing' which is what I'd much prefer. This model seems to run shallow at the wire so sometimes if I've been wearing this for ages I have to pull the wires back up to my imf which doesn't really bother me. Almost no wrinkling! The one thing about those straps is they rest on breast tissue or something since I'm constantly aware of them throughout the day. I think they're well worth the very minor discomfort.

Ewa's signature perfect shape. Very uplifted and perky. As usual, it's not basketball boobs. I much prefer this shape. I feel very secure in this bra. The wires are perfectly narrow and well out of my armpit's way. The wire casings overlap a little bit at the gore and the gore is super low. 

This band is perfectly true to size and stretches to 30 inches. It is very comfortable and the knit is super soft. I don't even feel it when I wear it. 

This was the cause of my biggest concern. I love the fact that Ewa thought about and designed the back of the bra and I love the triangle straps. However, the adjustable part of the strap is almost too long. Those triangle straps are non-adjustable. I find them super comfortable and help pull the straps in. Which means that, for the first and most likely only time, Ewa's straps don't bother me with this bra! They aren't too wide-set for me since that second strap in helps pull the adjustable part of the strap in close to my back instead of my sides.

And here's how it looks under my favorite crop top. It's relatively flat and doesn't show-except for those sexy spaghetti straps! 

And this is the set all together! It's so super gorgeous and I'm so glad that there are full bust bondage/strappy options out there. The brief is entirely sheer. You can see the lace on them. I find that this doesn't go with the rest of the set and it would make more sense if it was on the bra as well. I still haven't found the most flattering spot to put the straps yet. The briefs fit true to size. Any signs of them being too small is just my body being weird. They are lower rise then I was expecting meaning they work perfectly for me. I have a littly bit of a tummy and my other Ewa briefs hit right at my tummy so they flip down and bug me.

I love this set so much even though it's not the color way I wanted. I still think this color works okay for me and I'm glad I have this set in my rotation. While it might seem strictly boudoir, this bra is a workhouse and consistently holds up to long 9 hour days. It's super comfy and super cute, and there's no better combo than that.

Samanta Mintaka A122 in 65G

I love Samanta's bras. I think they're gorgeous and very luxurious looking. Unfortunately for me, they do not ship directly to the US and I've been having issues finding retailers that do ship to the US that carry them. My options are therefore limited to second hand purchases, and even more limited because very few come up in both my sizes and a style I love. I loved the Mintaka the moment I laid eyes on it. It comes in two different color-ways and a 5 cuts (push-up, full coverage semi-padded, full coverage un-padded, un-padded balconette, and padded balconette). I love the cream color way best but beggars can't be choosers. I wish I had done my research on this style number before I purchased because I would have realized early on it would not have worked and saved myself the heartache. Because of my petite stature, full-coverage anything usually does not work in one way or another simply because of 'too much'-too much cup, too much width, too much wing height etc.

A122 is Samanta's full coverage un-padded style. To quote Samanta's description: This bra is designed for women with larger breasts. It collects the bust to the cleavage. Lifts it giving it strong support and comfort. Hidden supports inside the bra offer additional support.The cups cover 80% of the bust. I would have done better in their un-padded baclonette or padded balconette styles. This is a gorgeous lacey sheer bra. It is a 3 part cup with side sling. The straps are fully detachable which means that you can wear this bra racer-back if you so need. These straps were unfortunately wide-set which was sadly the deal breaker for me. I was lucky enough to receive the matching underwear to this bra however these were a major disappointment. They were almost entirely made out of the band material (which, granted, was super soft) with barely any of the beautiful lace on them. I purchased this bra in an EU 65G, which translates to a UK 30F. I believe this to be the best size for me.

This bra has a lot going on. There's two different kinds of lace on the cups. The lace on the gore is the lace that is on the top of the cups while the straps are embroidered with a completely different floral pattern. On top of all that lace the bow is double layer of ribbon with the top being velvety. The band is purple knit and super soft. It gives an east-west appearance. It is a lot of boob. There's not much immediate projection-it pretty much goes up like this / with the littlest bit of a curve. 

I love this shape, surprisingly. I didn't think I'd love a pointy bra but I do! I believe the reason behind the east-west shape is because the seams on the bottom cup are not located on the apex but to the side. You can see how deep that top part is. This is not only what makes it full coverage but what contributes to the pointy shape too. Let's see if I can explain this. I'll compare it to one of my SM's. The SM has a deeper bottom part and a shorter top part. That means that it's a rounder more minimized shape because there's a flatter angle when the longer bottom part is connected to the shorter part (I hope that makes sense!) while on this bra they are coming together at a sharper angle because the top and bottom are pretty much the same length. Please let me know if this needs to be explained better. I created a diagram which I hope helps with the explaining. The SM is in black and the Mintaka is the purple:

Hopefully you can see what I mean by the SM connecting at a flatter angle then the Mintaka does-picture the SM coming together at a 110 degree angle while the Mintaka comes together at a 90 degree angle (give or take).

I'm not entirely certain if these slings do anything but they weren't uncomfortable. From the side, you can see how far out the bottom seam sits. I find that this bra fits perfectly true to size depth wise with the wires being on the wider side of average. The wires were originally too wide so I bent them in by .25 inches.

The band runs perfectly true to size. The straps are half-adjustable and for the first time I don't have issues with half-adjustable straps not being able to be shortened enough.

I had wrinkling in the bottom of both cups. I assume this is due to the fact that this bra isn't quite immediate projection friendly.

This is why I gave the bra up. Although it looks fine in photos and on paper, for some reason the outer edge of the cups/straps dug into my armpit area and super-chafed. It was very uncomfortable. I hoped that by narrowing the wires a little bit it would help. It did, but not enough to justify keeping this bra.

The tag is super cute. It's the brand name Samanta as a piece of stand-alone embroidery.

The lace on the gore and top of the cups was mirrored but the lace on the bottom parts were not. I don't mind this: it was mirrored where it would be the most noticeable and that's all I care about.

The straps are super cute embroidered flowers.

This is the short-style bottom in a size large (it fits like a medium). Very comfy but super disappointing. I feel like Samanta half-assed this. I would much rather they used the laces from the bra in the brief instead of making it mainly of knit. That feels very lazy to me.

Overall, this bra felt very high quality. I would love to purchase more sets directly from Samanta so that I can pick what style I want instead of waiting to see what comes my way. Unfortunately, their shipping to the States is prohibitively offensive so if anyone knows of any stockists that ship to the US please let me know! Samanta has some gorgeous gorgeous stuff and I envy anyone that gets a chance to try them. I'd love one from each season! I hope I can continue to explore Samanta's options and ranges in the future.  

Passionata Starlight Plunge in 65H

Ages ago, before I discovered bras that fit, I purchased the Passionata Starlight thong. It looked cute, was bright pink and the best part was it had sparkles! I saw the matching bra but never wanted to pay for it. About a month or so ago I was bored online looking at lingerie as one does when I decided to look up the Passionata Starlight line to see if I was sol or if I could still purchase this bra. I wanted to complete the set as the thong is so comfy. There's two bras in the Starlight line: there's the plunge and then there's a t-back molded cup bra. I figured this plunge would fit me better. Unfortunately, while I could purchase this bra still, it was not available in my ideal size which would be a European 65G (UK 30F). However, for 15 bucks I figured I might as well try the EU 65H (UK 30FF) as one doesn't know until one tries. While this technically fits, all signs point to the EU 65G as being the best fit. So if anyone has one in pink and would like to swap for this one, let me know!

This bra is so pretty. It is a 3 part cup covered with glittery stars and checks. It's a double layer of fabric on the bottom for support while the top part is only one layer. It is not sheer though and hides nipples well. The gore is very low and the very top of it stops before the wire channels do which is an interesting effect not often seen in full-bust lingerie. The wires are on the wider side of average, which I expected from sizing up but it does seem wide for a 30FF in general. The cups are as deep as I expected (luckily!) although this means that I cannot bend the wires inward because then the cups would be too deep. Where I have the most issues with this bra is that it's tall and so full coverage. While the wings, at 4 inches, are not too tall to be uncomfortable, because it's so wide the edges of the cups are right in my armpit and chafe like hell. Not only that, but these cups are the tallest I've ever seen on a bra and not a bralette and they come up right to my shoulders. I'm sure in the next size down this would be less of an issue but I'm still not certain if the cups would ever not eat my armpits. The straps are the cheapest looking part of the bra: they have no decorations so they slip very easily.

Look how tall this stupid bra is. Why? Why is this necessary? I still get a decent shape but a little more east/west then normal because of the wide wires (I think). That means no cleavage which is fine. I can't really wear this under anything but sweaters anyway. The wires are wideset and have a tendency to slip off my shoulders if I'm not careful. The gore also poses issues for me and ultimately is the deal breaker. I could wear the bra on days when I'm not too active but even just lounging around, the gore stabs me. I have no idea why. I've had low gores before and it's not an issue. But this tacks so firmly it actually rubbed me raw over the course of a day. I can slide the wires in their channels to solve this issue a little bit but not enough to make it comfortable.

It was so hard to photograph but on the left side of this picture you can see how red I got at the top of the channel. It was actually rubbed raw and I had a little sore there for a couple of days and couldn't wear most of my bras comfortably.

So here you can begin to see how wide this bra really is. It gives a lovely shape really so I want it to work. I just haven't figured out how to yet. I'd say this bra is shallow to middling on the immediate depth front. My righty has some space under the cup because it's a smidge more projected then lefty.

Here it is folks. How awful is this. My poor armpits. The wide wires don't bug me too much but the damn wire channels are like half an inch longer then the wires. That means that this irritating situation isn't actually necessary. If I can figure out how to shorten the cup/wing without damaging the integrity of the bra I will. Nice uplift though and I can tell that if this wasn't a shape mismatch it would be pretty comfortable. 

The band is relatively true to size and wider in the back than my Ewas. I love the firmness of the band and it's one of the most comfortable parts of this bra.

I think I have average/tall roots but I had a lot of excess space in the tops of the cups that I think most people won't be able to fill. Luckily it lies relatively flat even when laying around.

I so wanted this bra to work. If I get a chance I might try the next size down. Unfortunately, it's just a big ol' shape mis-match. If it was just the wide wires or the tall wings/wide rubby cups or tall cups or gore I'd keep it but since I have issues with pretty much every aspect of this bra except for the depth and the band I know I should pass it on. I'll keep my eye out for the next size down because I'm too stubborn to give up this easily. It is for sale here. I won't discount Passionata styles in the future, especially since I figured out what size would work best for me. The quality looks good for the price and their pieces are so cute. It's a shame this one didn't work.