Rhea by Masquerade

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I've heard nothing but great things about Rhea by Masquerade. It's supposed to be amazing for shallow breasts and for full on top breasts. I've had my eye on various Masquerade bras for a while, but this was one I especially wanted to try out. I picked up a used one on Ebay for pretty cheap, and it's in great condition. The picture above is the color option that I have; it seems to be a Bravissimo-only option. The bra itself is a three part vertical seamed cup. I find that bras like this generally work for me, and they give excellent shape. This bra has a satin outer lining, and intricate lace across the top of the cups and the band. It also has zigzag seaming on the cups and straps, which I think is a nice extra detail.  

 Oh snap cleavage.

Pros:

• Good quality; nice materials 
• Pretty details!
• Surprisingly close to a neutral underneath clothing - I wore it under a creme and grey top and it didn't show
• Cleavage, yay! 
• Good for shallow/full on top breasts
• Wonderful globe like shape

Cons:

• Half adjustable straps - they fall off easily. 
• The lace is a little stiff -it kind of gapes
• Gore is too wide and pokes into my breast tissue
• Wires are not quite wide enough on the sides for me- they cut in a little bit

Lauren Half Cup by Freya

I thought I would try this out because it looked like a more elegant version of the typical half cup from Freya. It has a light texture-based pinstripe on the cups, and lace details on the straps and along the seams. The straps are made from black satin, rather than the textured elastic that normal freya half cups have for straps. However, unlike the older freya half cups, it has a microfiber like cloth trim above the main part of the cups, and it is a bit fuller coverage than a normal Freya half cup. It also has a large black bow in the center, and matching bows on the straps. 

Apologies for terrible photos, the iphone knows I hate it and it doesn't want to cooperate. 

Pros: 

• It's a half cup in black that doesn't poke much underneath tops
• Pinstripe pattern 
• Nice materials
• Comfortable 
• Supportive 

Cons:

• Fuller coverage than normal Freya half cup - gapes sometimes 
• Less great shape than some half cups I've tried 
• The straps are too large for the rings connecting the straps to the band - might wear out early because of that 

Ashlee Half Cup by Freya

This is definitely my favorite t-shirt bra at the moment. I purchased it on a whim from Ebay since it was a good deal, even though it's the sister size up from what I generally wear in Freya. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually come in my actual size for Freya, so 32F is as good as it's going to get (In case you're wondering, Freya runs about 2 inches larger than whatever the band size says it is. It's annoying, but at least it's consistent.)

It does press into breast tissue in the gore, but it isn't painful 

Pros:

• Half cup t shirt bra!! 
• Low cut 
• Pattern is cute, although not particularly pronounced 
• Lace isn't an issue under shirts 
• Good support 

Cons:

• Push up pads in the bottom - less room in the cups 
• Wide straps 
• Gapes a tiny bit in one cup and I quadboob in the other. 

Juna By Cleo Review

I have been in love with this bra as an idea since I first saw it on Asos about a year ago. It has pretty much everything I like in a bra: simplicity, elegance, femininity... reasonable price. Plus it comes in solid colors, unlike the Freya half cups. I like solid color bras because they are easier to match with underwear. I feel weird if my undies are too chaotically mismatched. 

So first off, the pictures are absolutely terrible because I'm using an iPhone instead of my beloved and dead Samsung Galaxy S4.

I absolutely hated this bra the first time I wore it. It gaped on the side of my smaller breast, regardless of how I adjusted it. The gaping could be seen through my shirt, even. The gore, in its natural state, is far too high for me. My breasts are very close set in the middle, and most half cup gores end up being too high for me. I had the unlucky mistake of wearing it for the first time on a day when I *had* to be at work for 13 hours. I ended up almost crying on the phone to the boyfriend that this bra was biting me. 

Since that night, I've made a few alterations that have made it comfortable. I bent the wires so it's a little bit more shallow. It got rid of the gaping issue, at least if I have good posture. I also pushed the wires away from the gore - it stops them from poking me in the chest. 

Pros: 

• Cute design
• Good shape for shallow breasts 
• Nice shape under clothing 
• Doesn't really show underneath clothing

Cons: 

• Not fully adjustable - the straps are just barely the right size. 
• High gore
• SUPER itchy tag 
• Wide straps 

Marina Half Cup by Freya

I am not in love with the print on this particular half cup. Something about the print looks vaguely animal like to me. Kind of like a bird covered in paint rubbed itself all over the bra, and then they attached lace to it. Other people like it, but I find it to be unattractive. HOWEVER, it was a good deal, and I am super cheap. So I bought it. I tend to be on the fence about most Freya prints, but they have been a lot more interesting the last few seasons. 

Looks fine from the front, the gore tacks and no quad boobing. 

I think the shape looks good from the front and the side. It's rounded and uplifted, and it fits my shape well.

This is kind of your average freya half cup, in that it works well for my shape but it's ugly. Freya by far is the best fitting brand for my shape that I have run across. Even though I hate how the print looks, the comfort and the fit outweighs the look. Once I moved the center gore wires, it fits perfectly. It's one of the bras I wear the most. 

Pros:

• Fully adjustable straps 
• Good shape from the side and the front
• Comfortable
• Good for shallow/wide breasts 

Cons:

• Thick straps
• The print
• High center gore 

Sweet Blush by Evollove

I purchased this from Asos, mostly because they have a good return policy and I hadn't tried this brand before. And it looks super cute. I am a sucker for pretty pictures.

The color is what I would describe as raspberry. It's a deep red/purple. with relatively low saturation. The pictures don't do it justice, mostly because the iPhone I'm using seems to take really bright pictures. Hurray. 

You can tell here that my breasts are pretty separated. I don't like how they are pointed off to the sides. The seems on the outside of the cups give the optical illusion of my breasts pointing in opposite directions. Not so good. 

Looks alright here but the shape is less round than I prefer.

Here you can see that my breasts actually look a bit saggy. It seems like the apex of the bra is too low for my breasts, and the top of the cup cuts into my breasts a bit because it isn't open enough. The bottom of the cup felt filled, at least on the side of my larger breast.

I think this would be a good bra for someone less full on top.


Pros:

• Thin straps - I like thin straps because they tend to fit my frame better and I don't need much support from the straps anyway. 
• Soft memory foam style cups with microfiber on the outside. This is nicest feeling cup I've seen on a D-G brand. 
• Pretty color and delicate details. 
• Runs true to size 
• Low wings 

Cons:

• Not the best shape from the side. 
• Looks kind of east west from the front. 
• Straps are NOT fully adjustable 
• Rubs in the armpit area

Laura Padded Bra - Parfait by Affinitas

Hurray for being seduced by pretty pictures. I had heard that Parfait by Affinitas is good for shallow breasts, but I wonder if they just meant the half cups. I love how this looks on the model, but it's positively terrible on me. So according to all those bust calculators, and like.. math, I should fit a 32FF. So that's what I ordered this in, since I heard this brand runs small. Turns out it probably didn't matter, since this cut is terrible for my shape.

Seems like it's an OK fit here, but it's still not great.

You can see here that it's empty at the bottom and that it gapes at the top. 

Looks even less filled at the bottom, and you can see here how high the wings run. At that height, it runs too high to actually be comfortable. It also has side boning, which some people are very partial to. 

So I have classic computer guy posture. I'm a software developer by trade, and I hunch my shoulders pretty terribly. I tend to spend the last few hours of my work day like this. The minute I do, all illusion of this bra fitting disappears. I don't know why I thought this fit, but it really doesn't. I'm a fool sometimes. 

In short:
Pros:

• Nice color- I personally am very partial to navy because I think it is less harsh than black and looks nice on my skintone. 
• Firm band that seems to run true to size in 32F
• Side boning- good for support and keeping things where they should be

Cons:

• High gore - gave me blisters almost 
• Very high wings 
• Rough edges on pretty much everything.The boning drew blood since I ended up wearing it for 13 hours on the first day I wore it. 
• Stiff cups 
• The foam feels rather.. cheap. 

Overall, I don't like it. It doesn't fit. If I could have returned it before I wore it, I would have. But I couldn't, yay Zulilly. I guess it's my fault for being unsure what size to order. 

Rive Gauche Half Cup T-Shirt Bra By Chantelle

I actually own this in two colors, cappuccino and sunshine, both in 32DDD(32F Euro). The cappuccino color is a nice neutral, latte like color but with a bit more grey. I like it SO much more than the normal nude color because of the low saturation. Something about that weird light tan nude color a lot of bras are made in just rubs me the wrong way. The sunshine color, as seen below, is yellow but with a bit more gold than the picture seems to imply. I absolutely adore this bra. 

Too bad it doesn't really fit anymore. 

It gives nice shape from the front, not east-west at all. It's sort of minimized, raised, and evened out. It looks wonderful underneath shirts, very natural. The lace is also invisible underneath t-shirts, as are all the other details. If you look at the photo below, you can see that it has two separate straps, both of which with tiny cute stitching. 

From the side, you can see that it gives me a little bit of pushup, like a less dramatic version of the stock photos. I suppose if I could shorten the straps any further I could get more, but they are shortened as much as they can be. 

From the side, it gives a very nice shape. It's rounded and uplifted. 

From the front, it looks like it fits. The gore tacks, and although there is slight quadboob on one side, it's not bad enough to be noticed by anyone but me. The main reason why I feel this doesn't fit anymore is that it is painful on the side of my bigger breast now. 

In short: 

Pros:

• So cute! And not tacky or childish feeling! 
• Well made and very comfortable when it fits 
• Good shape 
• Invisible underneath clothing 
• Great for shallow 
• Available for cheapo on ebay 
• Thin straps and only two hooks

Cons: 

• Straps are NOT fully adjustable. 
• Only goes up to DDD/F
• Straps are rather wide set

Marcie By Cleo Review

Now doesn't that look lovely on her? Such a nice bright blue, and such pretty details. I even like the contrasting pink bow. I've heard a lot about this bra on reddit/bra blogs. It's supposed to be good for shallow and full on top breasts, both of which I think I qualify as. 

 So I when I saw it on amazon for $26 in 32F, I ordered it. I think it's a little bit too small on my larger breast, and it more or less fits on the smaller one. I don't think you can really tell from the picture, but I'm stretching the top out of shape completely because there isn't enough space. I don't think it would be noticeable underneath a shirt, but it's still off putting enough that I ended up returning it. In addition, the gore is poking into breast tissue because it goes up too high. I find that to be my biggest issue with fit at this point; I find that most bras give me blisters at the gore because of rubbing :(

Side view of the bulging. To me it seemed absolutely awful, but maybe it wasn't as bad as it seemed.  I didn't end up liking this bra enough to order it in a larger size. I suspect that if I ordered it in a larger size, it wouldn't be able to give me the rounded shape that I want.

Freya Patsy in Peacock

I purchased this in 30F, and I absolutely adore the way it looks. I've been teased by coworkers for having too many polka dot things. I have just about every item of clothing or accessory I can in polka dots, except a bra..until now.

Well, a few weeks ago. I got this from Asos when it went on sale, and my only regret is not sizing up at least a cup. Well my only main regret. I love how it looks from the front; it's very flattering, and it matches where my breasts naturally lie. Unfortunately, my breasts seem to press down the gore and make it lie lower on my chest because the gore is too wide. I tried pushing the wires out of the way to alleviate that, but I took these pictures before I had made that change. Worst come worst, I will just alter the gore by sewing it closer together. I got really bad blisters from the center gore when I wore it without moving the wires. I haven't tried it out since, though.

I really like how it looks from the side; my breasts look rounded and full. I think it looks very natural, and not at all pointy. One thing I really hate about most bras is that they seem to be overly pointy. I'm not sure why bra companies seem to like to make them so pointy. The shape I get from this bra is pretty much ideal, in my opinion.

I really like how my boobs look in this. I even seem to have cleavage, at least from the side. Unfortunately, this bra is not without its flaws. The straps are super wide, so if your shoulders are narrow set, which I think mine might be, it could be too wide for you. It's too wide for me,but I'm able to tolerate it. Barely. It bothers me quite a bit if I wear it the whole day. It's not as bothersome as the high gore though. On the bright side, it does have fully adjustable straps, which is a lovely feature that seems to be a bit rare. 

Overall, I love this bra, but it just doesn't fit as well as it could. I measure right now as a 32FF, so the size difference is probably why a large part of why I find this bra to be uncomfortable. I'm tempted to buy it again in a larger cup size (and possibly a larger band size).