Tomima's Blog – Lingerie & Underwear Expert

One of the most common issues fielded by my fabulous customer service department is inquires about nipples showing through a bra and how to prevent this. It’s actually kind of fun reading how women try to pose this inquiry. It can be as subtle as "I’m looking for a bra that provides modesty" to "I need to turn off my headlghts" to "I want a bullet proof bra" to "I’m trying to hide my huge erect nipples!"

I have heard various lingerie experts claim that nipple show-through can be handled many ways. For example, some feel a lined bra will do the trick. Others have said that placing the nipple on a bra seam in the cups will mask the look. And, of course, there are those contour bras where the cups have a thin layer of foam or padding fused inside the bra cups.

Being skeptical of some of these claims, I decided to bring in a model of ours who has constantly erect nipples (For the uneducated, one side-effect of breast augmentation can be permanent nipple erection). I had her try on a standard molded bra, a lined bra, a seamed bra and a contour bra. I then had her put a t-shirt on over each of the bras. Let’s see what worked.

Molded	Lined

Seamed	Contour

As expected, the molded bra did nothing to conceal the situation. The lined bra seemed to have little or no impact as well. I found this a little surprising given that so many women and manufacturers swear by this solution. But, if you look at the t-shirt shots, the molded and lined bras look virtually identical.

The seamed bra did a pretty good job of reducing the "headlights." However, you have the two-edged sword of having the seam show through the t-shirt. So, basically, you sacrifice "bullets" for seams.

The contour bra option, also known as the t-shirt bra was the best performer. A thin layer of padding or foam can turn your headlights right off. But, the downside to this style of bra is for women with larger breast size who don’t want to add volume. Even that small amount of foam can make their breasts look larger.

Though I only showed these 4 bra styles, I want to also let you the reader know that there are other solutions to this problem. For example, an earlier blog post of mine discusses the Bali Concealer bras currently on the market. They too are contour, but have a very rigid flower shaped decal on the inside of the cup to keep a woman smooth across her breasts. Other options are to put one of the nipple concealer products directly over your breasts. This will smooth over your nipples and allow you to wear your existing bras. Some of the more popular products include Dimr’s, Smooth’m nipple concealers, No Peek Pads, Sassybax Nips and FashionForms Breast Petals.

For a link to all these options, go to:
Nipple concealers

Posted by Tomima at 1:12pm
Tags: contour bras, lines bras, nipple concealers, nipple show-through, seamed bras
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American women have a thing about nipples… they don’t want anyone to know they have any.  In fact, American women have also become a little obsessed with not wanting any suggestion of a bra showing under their garment. Over the last 10 years the goal has been to walk around with two beautifully shaped and separated half-spheres on the front of our bodies without any tell-tale sign of a seam, nipple or support.  Quite a tall order for the bra manufacturers of America, don’t you think?

This year, the manufacturer of Bali bras (Hanes Brands) came out with a line of bras called Bali Concealers. Touting this line as the ultimate beauty secret, these bras are the first to be seamless with a revolutionary concealing petal built inside the cup of the bra to provide modesty (read no nipple show-through).

There are three bras styles in this collection – Underwire, wirefree and minimizer.  Customers on our site have been rather vocal about these bras, so allow me to summarize what is being said about each.

The Bali Concealers Underwire Bra 3411 has an overall rating of 3-1/2 stars out of 5.  Upon reading the 23 reviews posted so far, a very interesting trend appears.  All the negative reviews are from women who wear 32 and 44 band sizes.  All the other sizes are quite content with this bra.  Clearly there is a sizing issue that Bali needs to look at.  For the 32 band sizes, the complaints are consistant that the band is too tight and cups in the DD sizing run too large.  The 44 D and DD sizes are complaining that the band and cups are running large and not giving side support.  So, the results are pretty straightforward.  Women with sizing 34 to 42 seem very happy with the bra and feel it does its job of concealing.

 The Bali Concealers Wire Free Bra 3413 has a strong 4 star rating out of 5. With 25 reviews, there is no specific complaint.  Of course, some women don’t like any padding in their cups, but to be realistic, you can’t have no padding and no-nipple show-through at the same time.  All in all, women like this bra very much.

 The Bali Concealers Minimizer Underwire Bra 3414 is sitting with only 3 out of 5 stars.  Upon reading the 22 reviews, this rating, in my opinion is very unfair.  Here’s why.  First, several reviews complain that the bra fit too tightly across their breasts.  Now, come on… This bra is a minimizer!  A minimizer bra is designed to reduce breast projection so that a woman can wear a button-down shirt and not have that look like her buttons are about to pop off.  So, a minimizer bra will feel a little tight because that is it’s job. It makes me wonder if the women complaining about the bra being too tight knew that they were buying a minimizer bra?  Their comments suggest that they didn’t.  The other complaint was that the cups were too thick.  Now, these women complaining knew they were buying a minimizer because their concern was that they didn’t want to add bulk to their already large bustline.  However, again, I think this complaint is unrealistic.  All minimizers on the market have cups without any kind of padding for modesty.  Bali was the first to come out with a minimizer that also provides modesty.  To do this, something has to be in the cups to push the nipple back and give a smooth look.  And, in order to do this, some small amount of padding needs to be in the cup.  Given these facts, this bra is being given a bad rap.  It’s doing what it promises to do – minimizing and stopping nipple-show-through.

 Prior to these Bali Concealers bras, there have been nipple covers by Dimrs Fashion Forms and Wacoal on the market that you can slip into your existing bra to give the same look.  However, they too have their issues because in some bras the edge is visible.  Bali merged this idea into one bra and does a great job of hiding show-through without a flower-like edge showing through, but it doesn’t allow you to retrofit your existing bras.

All in all, Bali has come up with a great idea, and women seem to be embracing the Bali Concealers line.  Chalk one up for Bali – they came up with something new and needed in the bra category.

Find Bali lingerie at HerRoom in these departments:
Bras
Panties

Posted by Tomima at 8:19am
Tags: bali, bali concealers, bra reviews, minimizer bras
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Goddess bras are getting a face lift… or should I say breast lift?  One of the original plus size lingerie companies in America, Goddess has always stood for quality, support and great design for the plus sized woman.  That philosophy has been the bedrock of Goddess, and won’t be changing.  But what will be changing is style, fabrication and technology to be up-to-date with the market and better service their new and existing customers.  So, to that end, Goddess will be letting go of more than 16 old bra styles this year.  But in return, Goddess is also announcing 5 new bra styles that will start arriving in February of 2009.

So, why the change?  I sat down with Betty Schearf and Mary Alice from Goddess for a frank and informative conversation.  The first point they wanted to make clear is that Evedon , the parent company of Goddess is very committed to continuing the Goddess line.  It’s not going away, in spite of what their competition is saying. Next, we talked about the Goddess customer.  They are committed to their core Goddess customer, but also feel like they owe it to her to bring more modern and stylish looks into her lingerie wardrobe.  Additionally, there is a younger Goddess customer who is staying away because of the dated looks of many of the traditional Goddess bra styles.  Taking all of this in, they concluded that a sweeping change was warranted.

Okay, so what exactly are some of the changes that we will see in the Goddess line?  Mary Alice was quick to point to the fabrication.  First, the lace choices have a more modern look.  To my surprise they explained that lace can look old and dated.  There are newer floral laces out there that give their new styles a fresher look.  There is also more emphasis on the hand of the fabrics they are using.  Softness with support is at the top of their list.

The conversation then moved to color.  This was a very interesting point they made. The core Goddess brand color has always been white and they were selling ivory (on the yellow side) as their nude alternative. Now, I know from selling different brands of lingerie, that nude makes up the lion’s share of my sales.  Well, Goddess knows this too. Their limited color offering was giving the Goddess brand a consumer opinion of being out-of-date.  Needless to say, the new styles coming will be offered in fawn and chocolate to better reflect skin tones.

We’ll also be seeing several construction changes.  For example, there will be more use of the leotard back styling than the traditional camisole back.  By way of explanation here, a leotard back has the elastic from the straps giving a broad "U" shape to the back, rather than the camisole style where the straps come vertically down from the shoulders and attach to the back band.  The advantage to this leotard back style is that it’s more comfortable for the wearer, the straps tend not to slip, and the design creates a more even distribution of breast weight along the wearer’s back.

At least one of the new styles will be bandless.  You know that piece of fabric that can be seen under the cups of a bra? Well, that’s the band.  Though great for support, this band tends to give the bra a large look and can be uncomfortable and/or roll on more petite women.  The trend away from banded bras has been in the industry for a while, and Goddess again wants to provide a product for its customer that is current.

As I mentioned above, there are 5 new bras styles slated for early 2009. The Alice bra will be launching on 2/25/09.  This bra will have that traditional Goddess look of projection with the breasts front and center.  But, the inside of the cups will be lined with a very soft fabric and the fit is extremely comfortable.  The Kiera bra will be launching 1/26/09.  This bra gives a rounded shape to the breasts and includes a modern mesh insert along the top of the cups. Finally, the Rose Collection is made up of three bra styles and will be launching on 3/25/09.  As with the Kiera bra, the breasts will have a rounded more modern shape with new and stylish lace details.

Reflecting on my meeting with Goddess, I was impressed with the thoughtfullness of the decisions they have made.  It’s always hard to let go of tradition, but I think the new styles will not only win over new customers, but update their core Goddess customer as well.  After all, no matter our size, we’d like to know that what we have on under it all is fashionable and attractive.

You can learn more about full-figure sizing in HerRoom’s fitting guide.

Find Goddess lingerie at HerRoom in these departments:
Bras

Posted by Tomima at 8:17am
Tags: Full-figure, goddess bras, plus-size
1 Comment »