Swimwear Challenge - Eveden Fantasie Valetta Tankini and Briefs

For our final challenge the amazing team at Eveden offered us the chance to select swimwear from their ranges, if you are unfamiliar with the name Eveden, they encompass Freya, Fantasie, Fauve, Elomie, Huit and Goddess.

Now with our ample assets we are out of luck in the Huit and Fauve ranges but I can shop in the Freya, Fantasie, Goddess and Elomi Ranges with ease and I love all three, but as Elomi is well known in plus sizes and freya is a popular brand I decided to give something from the Fantasie side a whirl and I wasn't disappointed!

A Fantasie bra was the very first bra I was fitted correctly in about 9 years ago, I have always made sure I am in a correctly fitting bra as it means less back ache, better shape!

With bikinis and swimsuits I prefer one with an inbuilt bra as it helps keep my rather large assets under control, and it just gives me more comfort and support in general.

So onto the review the set I went for was the Valetta - Persian Blue Tankini £59 and the Fold down Briefs - £26.50

The colours are amazing, so vivid and cheerful! 

The cups fit well, but think I could have gotten away with a cup size down in this 38H as it is fairly generous!

Bra hook and eye fastening, which I find so much more secure than plastic bikini clasps!

 Fully adjustable straps, which are a must for my tiny short shoulders!

Fold down brief detail!

My thoughts

Appearance - The pattern of this tankini is bold and vibrant not really for some but for me I really loved it and I am not normally a flowery sort of girl (just realised I am typing this in a floral dress!) but it is so pretty and sunny it can't help but give it a good score here. 4/5

Fit - The overall fit is excellent, although I could go down a cup size it isn't obvious and it is not gaping all over, its just a feeling I have but the briefs and the body of the tankini have excellent space and I can fault them on that! 4/5

Comfort - superbly comfortable, for someone who isn't at the 100% body confidence stage I feel I would be happy to wear this at the beach or swimming pool. 5/5

Performance - I haven't been swimming in this one yet due to major crazy decoration sprees but it has been for a test in the shower and had the full giggle and bounce tests, and I have to say it held up beautifully! 5/5

Value - With the tankini coming in at £59 and the bottoms £26.50 this is at the top end of the majority of people budgets but in comparison to the other suits I have tried during this challenge, the material thickness and the bra shape and support have been outstanding in this suit so I feel you are getting what you pay for, though the high, high cost is going to mean a lower score in this.  2.5/5

Coverage -  The coverage was excellent, the cups encompassed my breasts with no spillage and the tankini was a good length on me. 5/5

This has been my favourite from the whole challenge with the Evans swimsuit coming in second and the Panache from Tesco last, I am hoping to visit a lovely spa with my best friend soon so will be taking this little beauty with me for the day!

We hope this series has helped some of you ladies to find something suitable for your holidays and swim sessions.

If you want to look back at the other swimwear challenges you can click the links below

TESCO - EVANS 

Also go check out the other fabulous ladies in there swimwear Becky - Gina - Sara

Thank you Becky for inviting me to take part in this, it has been fabulous and challenging! 

Mhairi

xxx

Out of curiosity, do my Lingerie and Swimwear type post appeal to you, I am hoping to add a couple of new fantasie sets to my collection in september/october and if they are of interest I will happily post about them here for you.
the two I am looking at are 

Susanna - this antique gold set makes me so happy, its just so pretty, I have been obsessing about it since the press day.

Nicola - this lovely seal set is just so pretty!

So would you like to see them reviewed if I ever get my hands on them, finances permitting!

Eveden AW12 Press Launch

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of spending the day with some amazing bloggers, all thanks to Caroline, who is possible one of the most beautiful and lovely women I know.

I was so excited to attend the AW12 launch from Eveden as I am a huge fan of most of the brands under their name which include Freya, Fantasie, Elomi, Fauve, Huit8 and Goddess.

I certainly wasn't disappointed with what was on offer this coming AW12 season.

The venue was the Swarovski cafe, which is upstairs from the main shop opposite liberties, the shop was divine!

Prior warning this will be photo heavy as there was so much to see but it is worth it to lust over the pretties!

The first thing I saw coming up the stairs was the Fauve display it was very pretty to look at and all the scattered crystals were supper pretty if you are between a D and a GG cup you have some very beautiful choices on the way

My Two favourites were the beautiful Midnight Blue Marla Which should be available in July, and the lovely Dominique which can be seen behind the Marla which is due out in August. 

This nightwaer caught my eye too, so petty and sexy the back detail was gorgeous! 

Freya as usual had some gorgeous offerings, it still makes me sad that they don't quite work with my shape, but I will forever keep trying!

Freya speaks for itself in the beauty stakes, the patterns and colours are always beautiful and I want just about every set :) 

This one really caught my eye the butterflies were so subtle and pretty The Martha, but I am utterly devastated to see it stops at a G cup!

Elomi had some very pretty offerings but by far my favourites were the Valentina and the Paloma, the Valentina has such a pretty vibrant red the petals are super cute! but the paloma is so sexy in the luxurious purple colour with the metallic thread, this is one I will have to try when it is released!

Huit8 had such stunning style that made me think of art deco era with sexy shapes and colours, the size range seems to go to a DD cup, so no good for me, but stunning if you fit the range.

These caught my eye!

Finally in the lingerie section I want to show you Fantasie, who I genuinely love, they are one of my favourite brands as they were the first bra I ever owned after I was fitted correctly for the first time! 

I havent had anything from them in a while but having seen what is on offer i will be remedying this as soon as possible!

This has to be mine the black lace over the gold was just diving, I need this in my life! 

This one also really caught my eye and may just have to find its way into my underwear draw!

To be honest the whole range was stunning to me, it is simple sexy and I just love it!

OMG look at this set, the green colour is just beautiful I was so excited to see this is is super super sexy!

There are lots of gorgeous new swimwear sets coming out too and I need to find something that fits my ample bosom fast!

There was a selection of nightwear which looked gorgeous!

And the Freya active rang which includes a new swimsuit and a sports top with built in bra!

So that was everything, it was an amazing day and so much fun was had, I even got to go see Ghost the musical thanks to the very lovely Caroline and Natasha, but I think I will blog about that later. xx

Hope you survived the crazy amount of photos, but there was just so much to see and I wanted to share it all. 

Mhairi

xxx

Freya Active - Sports Bra Review

Now  this is NOT a weight loss post, this a health post, as far as I am concerned plenty of Fat girls love to go to the gym or walk/Run, and I firmly believe a good sports bra is important to us all.

For me it is important as I have a large bust and find exercise painful if I am not correctly supported, so I have begun a quest to find my perfect sports bra.

The wonderful Katie from the Eveden group who produce the Freya, Elomi, Huit, Fauve, Fantasie and Goddess ranges offered to send me a Freya Active sports Bra to try.

Now this post has been delayed quite a while so thank you so much to Katie for being patient and allowing me time to let my back heal before I got stuck into my health kick.

Ok the one I choose to try was the Freya Active Red Underwired Sports Bra, and the Active Shorts, now a little advice, at the time I ordered I went for the 38GG but think I could really do with the 38H for a perfect fit, so if you have the opportunity, make sure you visit a decent fitter and try them on to get the perfect size for you.

The colour of the bra is beautiful, which isn't important to us all but for me I love a good colour, so this was a bonus for me.

It is a very rich red/pink colour and the black piping is a nice contrast.

It closes with a good 4 hook and eyes which is brilliant for supporting my ladies.

Little bit of detail, not the most exciting but still.

The material is nice and non scratchy which is important to me as my skin is sensitive and gets irritated quickly and while I could have done with the 38 H for better side coverage it is actually not too bad a fit, but as I find with all my freya bras, I cant get the central gore to fit flush against my chest.

I also found that it gave me a very madonna in the 80's pointed shape, which for exercising isn't a huge deal but if you really hate that shape, this wont be the bra for you.

I tried to give the bra a good testing and ran about and jumped up and down, there was some movement but it wasn't jarring or painful like I experience in a normal bra.

Over the next few weeks I will put this through its paces and give you an update on how it copes, and hopefully I might get to try some other brands out as I want the best possible bra to stop the pain and suffering :) 

Have you found a sports bra that works for you, if not I would say definitely give freya active a try but go and get fitted into it so you have the best possible support and fit. 

The Bra can be purchased from around the £30 mark and if you look here you can find a stockist near you, also if you need larger than a 40" back give elomi a try they go to a 46"back. 

Mhairi

xxx

Plus London Two

Wow I cant believe it is wednesday already, it has taken me until now to recover from the epic day that was Plus London Two.

I was so ill last week I really wasn't sure I could make it on saturday, as well as the anxiety of just going out, but at 11 pm on friday night I decided to just go for it.

My crazy day started at 6.30am I got myself ready and finished packing and stuffed half a hot cross bun in my mouth (the last piece of food till 11pm that night) and headed to the train station, I headed for the Bakerloo line at Baker Street, where I found the gorgeousness that is Caroline of Curvy Wordy, you should check out her blog for amazing underwear fabulousness.
We headed off together to Anna Scholz where our adventures began.

What and adventure it was...

Anna has created two collections within the black and white labels, there really was something for everyone and far too much that I really really did like.

 There were so many vibrant colour and patterns making me wish for the warmer weather to come, there were a few items which really caught my eye and called to my purse.

The first item to really catch my eye was the original pattern I fell in love from the campaign photos

The colours were just so summery and bright.

But I really surprised my self by falling in love with the palm print fitted dress which is so far out of my comfort zone, but after being persuaded to try it I honestly would do anything to own this dress. 

I also loved that it worked on 3 completely different shapes and we all felt good in it. 

Above is the stunning Lauren who looked beautiful in the blue of this dress.

Anna Scholz, Liz and Kathryn all looked stunning too.

Caroline looked beautiful in the this dress I loved the orange colours.

She also looked a total hottie in this dress. x

Anna and cliff along with there whole team were so welcoming and friendly answering so many questions for us and throughout the morning, proving us with drinks and amazing hummingbird bakery cakes (I couldn't have any, they use cream cheese frosting on most things) 

Anna also did a fantastic Q&A session towards the end of the morning and it was fascinating to see how her collections and business have evolved.

I loved how she collects ideas for her collections and develops her mood boards by taking photos and collection samples over time to help her come up with ideas, I also loved that the python print she used in the purple and black dress was a real python skin scanned into a computer and coloured and stretched till she had her perfect pattern.

She also informed us that she is working on a simple basic range of classic items that would be available all the time, such as black trousers and shirts, which every girl needs.

it was a fabulous morning and I had so much fun meeting all the other girls, even if i did need to hide in a corner a couple of times to calm down my anxiety at being in a room with so many people at once.

After this a group of us raced off across london to the OSP offices for a practice of the catwalk, I was not modelling but my wonderful friend Kathryn was and as we were staying together in a hotel and need to check in we decided to stick together.

On arriving at the office, we had to ask for a drink and even though most of us were starving after dashing all over london no refreshments were offered and they even ordered pizza for themselves and ate it in front of us all, I don't expect them not to eat, but god have some manners these women were pushing themselves out of there own comfort zones to model there clothing without any form of payment, I think the least they could have done was provided some snacks for them.

Now I did end up on the catwalk, but only because someone didn't turn up and poor gina, who had done such an amazing job of looking after us all and working with OSP to get everything sorted was desperate, so I stepped in and went for it, I wont lie this was the most terrifying experience for me, I was having very bad asthma that day and anxiety was at its highest, but I did it.

Anyone who does get to see the photos from the show, please realise we DID NOT have any say in what we were wearing! 

I found it honestly bizarre that a company working with plus fashion bloggers did not allow them to select there own clothing from the new range to put together an outfit showing there own style and take on the clothing, instead we were all dressed in our worst nightmares of plus clothing and made to feel frumpy and unhappy.

After another mad dash across london with Kathryn and Caroline we managed to get checked into our hotel and headed straight back out to the strand gallery to prepare for the catwalk, I am not entirely sure why we needed to do all this running about as OSP didn't even get the running order right and had missed out most of us so it was still a mess, but we went on and a staggered my way down the catwalk in my ill fitting skirt and dodgy flip-flops which I kept attempting to fall out of, luckily I only needed to wear one outfit so as soon as I was done I got out of them and into my own dress.

Which was this stunning little number from Bettie Page clothing which they kindly gifted to me to wear for the event.

It went down a storm and I had so many lovely complements, and I will be doing a full review of it this weekend as I think it deserves some true screen time, to show just how wonderful it is. 

The evening was fabulous, we had clothing on show from Simply Be, Navabi, Asos Curve, Elomi, and a fabulous selection of vintage clothing from Michelle of Red Bows Boutique which were so fabulous.

There was also a pop up photo studio provided by the gorgeous Diana of Fashion Loves Photos I can not wait to see the photos!

Here are a few blurry photos I manages to take, violently shaking hands and tiredness do not make for a steady photo, whoops :)

The whole day was brilliant even the strange parts (OSP) were fun just because the wonderful women who's company I was in made it that way, and I feel that Claire of A Monkey Fatshionista deserves a huge thank you and should be so proud of the amazing event she pulled together it was a fabulous night and day and I am so glad I had the chance to be involved.

Thank you. xxxx