Review: Comexim Carmen

The full set! Ignore the messy apartment 😛

Um. Holy crap you guys. This is kind of one of the best bras I’ve ever put on my body. So this is going to be a very glowing review.

I dithered over my Comexim purchase for a really long time, because it’s always hard to pinpoint what size to get when you’re trying out a new brand, especially if the reviews of the brand that are already out there are contradictory about how the brand runs! I kind of knew that I needed a 60N/65M, but I’ve been lusting after the Carmen for a REALLY long time now, and the largest cup its made in is a 60M/65L. Keeping in mind that the band might run tight, I went for the 65L. For the thong, I looked around Balkonetka (sort of a Polish Bratabase, though a bit different) and noticed that sometimes women would post their hip measurements on there and include the size of bottoms they  had gotten, so based on those I got the matching thong in a large. I feel like I’m a little in between sizes on the bottoms, and proooooooooobably could’ve done a medium, but I’m not upset with the large at all, and the medium might’ve cut in a bit.

So how does the bra fit?

Trying to photograph the quadboob that wasn’t coming across in the other photos.

It fits pretty much exactly as I would expect it to, about one size too small in the cups (though the pictures do not do the amount of quadboob justice). I’d read that Comexim bands run firm, and I would agree with that. When I first got the bra, which is the equivalent to a 30HH, I was nervous that the band would be too big, since I normally go for a 28. However, it fit well on the loosest hook. I can wear it on the tightest hook, and if I had gone for a 60 band instead of the 65, I probably would’ve been fine and just suffered through a little discomfort for a few days. I would say that the band is maybe half a size smaller than normal, so if you normally wear a 28 in a brand that runs loose, such as Freya, you may want to size up, but if you wear a 28 in Panache or Cleo or another brand with more true to size/tight bands you probably will do fine with your normal size.

The cups, aside from being slightly too small, are awesome. The wires are the narrowest I’ve had, similar to Kris Line’s wires. They are definitely narrower than the Ewa Michalaks I have, so if Ewa is borderline or too narrow for you, Comexim will be a no-go. I think that the wires are actually a little bit too narrow for me, because as the day goes on I find a lot of my “armpit fat” (breast tissue… not sure if that’s just where it will always be or if it needs to be migrated) falls out of the cups and my double boob goes away. I think that if I went for the tighter band and the larger cups I would get a better fit, because when I put the bra on the middle hook this happened a lot less. I also get a little bit of “orange-in-a-glass” affect, where, because the wires are too narrow/the cups are slightly too small, my boobs can’t fall into the bottom of the cups and I get a very small amount of empty space there. Even though the wires are slightly too narrow, the bra is very comfortable and I don’t get any poking or anything (which is what makes me question if they REALLY are too narrow or if the fit issues I described above would be solved with the bigger cup/smaller band…).

The shape seems less projected than Ewa Michalak’s does (my boobs feel less big in it) but that once again might be because the cups are slightly too small. It isn’t perfectly round, but it’s still a shape that I really am enjoying. Despite the boobs-feeling-smaller in it thing, which I usually am AVOIDING in a bra, this is already one of my favorites. Possibly because it replaces the sexy feeling I get from showing off some boob size with an undeniably sexy color/shape/pattern. Like seriously. Just look at it.

The absolute BEST PART of Comexim, for me so far, is that they seem to actually scale their cups with band size instead of just sister-sizing the cup down to a smaller band without changing the strap position and cup height under the armpits. Because I’m decently petite and have high set boobs, pretty much every bra I’ve ever tried on has straps that are a little too far apart, cups that dig into my armpits, and wires that go a liiiiittle higher than I like. Not Comexim. The side of the cup actually doesn’t cut into my armpit! And neither does the strap! Hallelujah! So if that’s something you regularly struggle with like I do, and you can handle some super narrow wires, I would definitely check out Comexim. I cannot tell you how awesome it is to have a bra that isn’t showing through the armpit holes of every sleeveless item I own.

Ordering from them isn’t a completely straightforward process, and neither is figuring out the size you should buy, but I feel like that information is separate enough to deserve it’s own short post, so I’ll be writing that a little later (possibly tonight)! Seriously though, I’m not sure how many other companies I’ll be buying from after trying Comexim… they are exactly what I’m looking for in a sexy bra, and the prices are extremely sensible (though shipping can get a bit pricey). Overall, based on this set, they are definitely one of my new favorites!

Boob Growth and Some Other Stuff

Hey guys! I have a fluid mechanics test coming up on Monday, so you know that means it’s time for me to write a new post 😛 My favorite form of procrastination!

So what prompted me to write this was realizing that my PL Mak, which when I first received it almost 3 months ago, was a little too big without the push up pads in place, now fits perfectly without them. Picture evidence:

Now

Before

Before

Now

Now. (Ignore the pit stain 😛 A college student with only 1 well fitted bra doesn’t have time to hand wash something very often! Haha)

Before

 

 

 

This is one of the reasons Ewa Michalak really meets my needs. Maybe the pictures don’t show it as well as I can see it, but this bra is much more full now than it was at the beginning of January. I don’t know if it was tissue migration, the fact that I’m only 19 and could well be experiencing breast growth still, or something else, but I love that with Ewa I can order a size up from what my “safe” choice would be and I don’t have to worry about it much. I also love that now that this bra doesn’t gape without pads, I can use them just for extra cleavage when I feel like it (and if I’m being honest, I always feel like it!). So yeah. If you know your boobs are growing (mine seem to have been growing steadily since around last April), ordering a cup size up in an Ewa Michalak bra that comes with removable pads is a good plan. I know that before I got this bra, I was having to buy a new bra in a higher cup size ever 3 months or so. I just do not have the money for that! I got three months out of this bra with the pads, so hopefully I’ll get at least three months out of it without the pads before it is just all around too small. That will still be twice the average life span of my bras prior to this.

The “other stuff” I mentioned in the title is just this little thought I had inspired by the semi-controversial Bras I Hate & Love post about using +2 instead of +0. I personally disagree, but to me it also doesn’t matter that much what the starting point is because I’m going to end up  just telling everyone to do what’s comfortable for them, and +0 is just more logical to me than +2 (I personally find it much easier to tell if a band is too small than if it’s too big) but that isn’t what my thought was about.

After reading the post, naturally I tried on a few bras to see if I was falling victim to the very tight band look that she had going on in 28 bands. When I saw that picture, it looked very uncomfortable! I thought, “Surely my back doesn’t look like that! Wouldn’t I have noticed?”. Then, she mentions strained hooks as a symptom of a too small band. And my super comfortable, perfectly fitted (in my opinion) PL Mak has strained hooks! So today I took a picture of what my back looked like in it, to see if it was indeed too small.

The hooks do appear strained, though not nearly as strained as the ones on the 28 bands in her post, but I don’t get the corset-like compression she describes. I think my back here does look similar to her well fitted 30s (it’s hard to see what the hooks in her well fitted bras look like because her example is a darker bra and it’s a rather dark photo).

But the hooks on this bra do look pulled out when I take it off. But the more I looked at all my bras… all of my hooks look strained.

28K PL Mak hooks

28J Tease Me hooks (usually worn on the 3rd set)

34DD Victoria’s Secret push up bra hooks

So, yeah. Obviously the PL Mak is the most pulled, as it is the smallest of the bands shown. But it’s also the only one that doesn’t ride up and move around. The 28J Tease Me stretches to 32″, far above my underbust measurement of 28.5″, but still shows signs of strain and pulling out. Even on the 34DD, the hooks I usually wore the bra on are pulled further out and show some strain (compared to the first pair of hooks which I don’t think I ever used), though obviously they show the least strain, since that band stretches to ~36″.

Basically I’m not sure that for everyone, strained hooks is a sign of a too small band. Two of these bras are definitely too LARGE in the band for me and the hooks are still pulled. Also when you look at how the back of the PL Mak fits me, I don’t think it looks too small. It has the normal amount of bubbling underneath the band, but none from the top, but the hooks strain. But I can pull it around 3″ away from my body, and it’s perfectly comfortable to me.

I guess ultimately it doesn’t matter. If your hooks strain but the bra is comfortable to you, wear it. I keep worrying that I’m wearing my band too tight, after reading about reversed letterphobia and the Bras I Hate & Love post, and I keep doubting myself. But then I remember that I have multiple bras in a 30 band that lay unused in my drawer because I can’t even leave the house without pulling the band back down to the correct level. I wish I could wear a 30 though! So many more options!

The other “other stuff” that I’ll go ahead and mention again, in case you don’t follow me on Facebook, is that I’ve made a couple purchases relevant to the blog! I bought the Small Red dress from Urkye in a 36oo/ooo and the Carmen bra and Carmen stringi from Comexim in a 65L and a size large. I’m in between sizes at Urkye, and in hindsight feel like I should’ve gone for the 38oo/ooo for the extra boob room (my bust measurement is too large for any of the size 36 clothes), but whatever. I’ll just wear shapewear and hope for the best on the boobs, since it’s made from stretchy fabric. The Comexim bra is going to be an iffy fit, because I bought it in what’s essentially a 30HH. I hear the bands run tight sometimes, and would rather have a slightly too large band than an unwearable one, so I went up a band size. Nowadays I think I’m a 28JJ (I think?!?!?!), and therefore would’ve needed a 30J, but the Carmen doesn’t come in a larger cup size, and it’s sooooo sexy… I couldn’t pass it up! And honestly, all my bras aside from the Mak are too big in the band and too small in the cup, and that doesn’t stop me from wearing them, and that won’t stop me from wearing Carmen assuming all else looks good.

Red Dress from urkye.pl!

Carmen set from comexim.pl

Hopefully you guys don’t mind my hodge-podge post! Haha I just had a little to say about a lot of things. Also, how would you guys feel if I branched the blog out to other things (makeup, shoes, non-busty-specific clothing, general woman-with-curves things, delicious recipes?). I don’t really have enough money to do bra reviews very often, and now that I’m kind of buying exclusively from Poland, there isn’t much selection for me either. Let me know what y’all think!