**Some of these are affiliate links to the brands I actually liked.**

Let’s talk about a surprisingly large expense for a lot of femmes out there today – bras.

And if you’re not of the bra-wearing persuasion, before you give up on this post entirely, I’d ask you, how much do you think bras cost?

What could it cost, Michael?

For many of us – a lot.

If you have a smaller sized chest, you have a lot more wiggle room in your bra buying. You can find a cheap bra that has enough support for you and is cute.

And, to be fair, you can also still drop $100 on a bra, even with a smaller size.

But once you start hitting C cups and higher, the price cost soars and your aesthetic options become a lot more limited.

Your options in generally become a lot more limited because you need your bras to have the right amount of support or what even is the point?

(Though, to be fair, lots of folks with boobs skip bras entirely in all size categories and more power to them for making the most budget conscious choice that they are comfortable with.)

I… am not comfortable with that choice for me.

And I find bra shopping very frustrating.

So we’re going to review some bras here and talk about whether or not they are worth the investments because they all clock in around $50/each with some a little higher and some a little lower.

Some things to keep in mind for these reviews is that my regular size is 36DD and the two things that frustrate me the most/happen most often with poorly fitting bras are that they either provide no support or I get the dreaded double boob/boob spill out of the top.

My favorite bra brand is actually ThirdLove. I bought my first one in 2017 after a co-worker recommended them.

Since then I’ve bought two more. The 24/7 Classic T-Shirt Bra and 24/7 Perfect Coverage Bra are my two go-tos. They also have a lot of colors, which is fun since that at 36DD you often get white, black or beige as your options. Currently, they are $65 each.

The OG Third Love bra from 2017 is still going strong. The next two that I bought in 2018 were both holding up well until my washer destroyed one of them.

Those 3 bras were probably 95% of my bra rotation for the last 4 years, so they really are pretty great.

I did once buy a 24/7 Lace Contour Plunge Bra and felt the support was not enough and my boobs were falling out, so I returned that one. Another plus though is that their return policy is really good and the first time I ordered one of their bras, I just ordered three sizes around my regular size, kept the one that fit best, and mailed back the other two.

Here’s the thing, after the washing machine ate my bra, I had one of those weird cheap moments that generally come back to bite you. I thought $65 was too much.

So I held off on buying another one, even though two good bras wasn’t really enough.

And then one day, instead of logically just spending $65 for a new bra, I bought a ton of bras for way more than $65 from random companies that have been advertising at me for ages.

For all of you bigger busted folx out there.

For science.

Nah. I really don’t know why. It was a questionable choice. But in the end, I thought it might make a good bra post.

So let’s talk about the contenders: MeUndies, Honeylove, Parade, and Lively

Spoiler: Only one was a real winner.

Parade

Let’s start with Parade. Parade found me on Instagram (not surprising, right? I’ve written several times about what am impulse Instagram/Facebook ad problem I have sometimes).

These ladies in these ads look so happy. And their body types are so varied.

You know what I want to see from bra ads though? Videos of larger women running. Do their boobs fall right out? I mean, they could still use tape or something to mislead us, but you really can’t tell anything from a still picture, can you?

Sometimes though… I’m in denial about this.

Some nice things about Parade – they donate 1% of their sales to charities, they use sustainable fabrics, and they do have inclusive sizing.

Some less nice things – they are super flimsy and your boobs will fall right out. No hold. No support.

I got the Plunge Bralette – now, I know I should be suspicious of anything that says plunge. Plunge has notoriously bad support but this was based off of buying the exact same bra advertised that the woman in the ad was wearing.

And she was quite stacked but I could see that it appeared to have a magic connection there in the middle.

Magic connection? Whatever can you mean?

I have drawn you a fancy Paint picture to explain. If you have bigger boobs, the part in the middle needs to meet higher/have extra support to hold them in place.

Anyway, suffice to say, this bra did not have that magic connection despite being a Large, which matched my size on their size chart.

I bought that bra and a matching pair of underwear cause I was really excited about a fun matching pattern.

• The bra was $38.00
• The underwear was $13.00

I didn’t even try on the underwear since I knew I would be sending the bra back.

It took two days for their customer service to reply to my email when I inquired about returns. They issued my refund with no questions asked but the craziest thing, especially considering it was worth $51.00 is that they don’t take returns, you just keep the items.

Their email said “we don’t accept returned items, so no need to ship these back – feel free to keep them or give them to a friend, or even better, donate unopened items to your local women’s shelter.”

Brownie point to them for that last line, but why would I give another a woman a terrible and useless bra? I donated it in the Salvation Army bag so at least someone can try it on themselves if they want it.

Parade: NOT WORTH THE SPLURGE

MeUndies

So who hasn’t seen an ad for MeUndies? Is it just me or have they been all over social media for a while now, with a lot of really cute patterns.

The thing about MeUndies is that they have tons of prints, that last for a limited time, and lots of different cuts. They also have matching mens and womens patterns.

I bough the XL FeelFree Longline Bralette and FeelFree Hipster. The bralette looks like it has substantial magic connection happening and in all the ads, with women of various body shapes, it looked like that bra had pretty good coverage.

They are also advertised that they are super soft and comfy.

Some nice things about MeUndies – they have super cute patterns, though the bra is wireless, it does have a little extra support where the wire usually goes that is a little helpful, and they are incredibly soft.

Some less nice things – the bra and underwear were different shades of orange (as in, the underwear was a much more faded orange out of the package than the bralette), their bras don’t have nearly enough support, and their customer service was kind of rough.

So the XL turned out to be much too large and I wanted to exchange it for a Large. At the very top of their website, you can see it says Free US Shipping & Returns.

But then friends, how does one make this return? There is no clear spot for Returns on the website. I went to the FAQs and found Orders & Returns but they only have a What is Your Return Policy link that takes you to a Submit a request form, which I did and then didn’t hear from anyone.

Overall, it took 3 days to figure out how to navigate the return and I really only started to get anywhere with it after I complained online.

Like Parade, MeUndies told me to just keep the bra (kind of weird) and they fully refunded me. Since I really loved how soft the fabric was and was immediately won over to the underwear, I just ordered the next size down in the same bralette.

• The bra was $36.00
• The underwear was $18.00

It doesn’t have nearly enough hold to wear out in public but it is fine to wear around the house, so I do, but $54 for a bra and underwear set to just wear around the house isn’t generally a thing I want to do.

I won’t be buying another bra. The hipster is pretty comfy though.

MeUndies: NOT WORTH THE SPLURGE

Lively

Another company I found through the interwebs, Lively does have the magic connection and the ads looked super cute.

They actually had more prints when I ordered back in  August and are not currently stocking the poppy print that drew me in for this particular bra, but I bought the Busty Bralette in size 2.

I also got a matching hipster.

Some nice things about Lively – lots of color choices, good return policy, good support, and very comfy

Some less nice things – I do get the double boob happening

If you’ve read this far, you probably already know what double boob is, when your bra fits fine but it squeezes in the cup and even though the girls are securely restrained, they are oozing out a little.

So you wouldn’t want to wear a tight t-shirt with this bra.

That aside, I actually like it a lot and find it pretty comfy. Due to the double boob, I probably wouldn’t buy another one, but I’m ok with owning this one and I do wear it out of the house plenty depending on my shirt, and with chunky sweater weather here, it is in regular rotation now.

• The bra was $45.00
• The underwear was $15.00

I may also have given up too soon and possibly should’ve tried to return it for a size bigger, but the band fit well.

Lively: MAYBE WORTH THE SPLURGE

Honeylove

I saved the best for last.

I don’t even need to do a pros and cons here. This bra is fan-freaking-fastic.

I bought the Silhouette Bra for $64, of course, the most expensive on the list.

However, it’s really comfortable, has excellent support, and no double boob issues. It’s really a great bra.

There are even a few color options. I got it in fig and it has a velvety pattern on it. All around very cute.

So speaking of those affiliate links, if I’ve sold you on this bra, this link will take you to Honeylove and save you $20, while giving me a $20 credit.

Honeylove: WORTH THE SPLURGE

Overall, my two brand recommendations are Honeylove and ThirdLove for your bra buying needs. Sadly, they are the most expensive, but I guess that’s not so surprising.