[EmmaB]

Hi everyone. I've been lurking here a little while now and thought it was about time I introduced myself! After 5 years of pregnancy and breastfeeding my small boobs have reduced to almost nothing so I wanted to do something. I found this site and was realy inspired by people's stories. I decided on Brava even though some of the accounts were a little scary! Tried buying it through the official site but never got any reply to my phone messages or emails. To be honest I thought maybe they'd gone bust or something. Anybody know how to get hold of them? I ended up buying it of ebay.

So, I started about 7 weeks ago as a 32AA, if that. Swelling so far has been awesome. Even in the first week I began retaining sweling. I'm hoping this is a good thing since the manual says more swelling = more growth, but I'm also scared about how much is temporary, I'll obviosly loose a lot once I stop :-(

Now I'm about a 32D in the morning and about 32B/C by evening. I'm half way through the time I have available so fingers crossed I'll make it to being a large 32B by the end of all this.

I've been wearing pretty intensely, mimimum of 13 hours a day, mostly about 14.5 hrs and about 16 hours fri-mon.

So, I have a few questions now that I've been using it a while.
1. The charging unit has numbers at the side. When I started it stayed on 1 but has been creeping up over time. Anyone know what it's for?
2. I've started sucking to get the initial presure. Much quicker and it feels a lot firmer. I was wondering though, if you use to much vacuum will it tear the gel off the domes?
3. At the moment I've about an inch left in my domes when I take them off. I'm obviously quite a fast responder so I'm wondering how long will it be before I need bigger domes? Is there much difference between a large and extra-large dome? When I put my current stats in the Brava dome size estimater it says I'm not a candidate!

Anyway, thanks to anyone that can answer some of these questions.

[Feather_rose]

Hi everyone. I've been lurking here a little while now and thought it was about time I introduced myself! After 5 years of pregnancy and breastfeeding my small boobs have reduced to almost nothing so I wanted to do something. I found this site and was realy inspired by people's stories. I decided on Brava even though some of the accounts were a little scary! Tried buying it through the official site but never got any reply to my phone messages or emails. To be honest I thought maybe they'd gone bust or something. Anybody know how to get hold of them? I ended up buying it of ebay.

So, I started about 7 weeks ago as a 32AA, if that. Swelling so far has been awesome. Even in the first week I began retaining sweling. I'm hoping this is a good thing since the manual says more swelling = more growth, but I'm also scared about how much is temporary, I'll obviosly loose a lot once I stop :-(

Now I'm about a 32D in the morning and about 32B/C by evening. I'm half way through the time I have available so fingers crossed I'll make it to being a large 32B by the end of all this.

I've been wearing pretty intensely, mimimum of 13 hours a day, mostly about 14.5 hrs and about 16 hours fri-mon.

So, I have a few questions now that I've been using it a while.
1. The charging unit has numbers at the side. When I started it stayed on 1 but has been creeping up over time. Anyone know what it's for?
2. I've started sucking to get the initial presure. Much quicker and it feels a lot firmer. I was wondering though, if you use to much vacuum will it tear the gel off the domes?
3. At the moment I've about an inch left in my domes when I take them off. I'm obviously quite a fast responder so I'm wondering how long will it be before I need bigger domes? Is there much difference between a large and extra-large dome? When I put my current stats in the Brava dome size estimater it says I'm not a candidate!

Anyway, thanks to anyone that can answer some of these questions.

Hi EmmaB!

Your experience sounds a lot like me, only better! I also swelled a lot from the very beginning, but really I did not started retaining anything till like week 5. So I hope you will reach you large B! I did not, but I started a AAA, and ended up (hopefully!) an A. Will tell you in two weeks is it has stayed.

It is worrisome that the company may have gone belly up. It is very difficult to get new domes in the net. Possibly because they get so yucky really fast, so not many used ones. I was lucky and got a new pair from one of the girls in the forum when my old ones went kaput. If you feel you are still getting more inches every week when you take the domes off, you should start looking for new domes right away. I outgrew my old domes (medium) in about week 8, kept using them anyway for some three more weeks (my nipple was totally squished against the wall, I actually liked it because that made the nipple not swell as much even though the boob still got huge). then I got large ones and I did not increased my morning swelling for the the next 8 weeks. So I never outgrew those. So I guess if you think you are not increasing the morning swelling, you may not need to change them for the duration of your brava time.

About the vacuum, I sucked very hard and the gel stayed. However, there seem to be some difference in the quality of the domes. The first pair I got from ebay (US marketed, coming from Fl) got damaged quickly, even though I was way more gentle with them. Then the gal who sold me hers later on was from UK, and I believe they were from brava UK. The get on those was firmer and so far have withstand all kind of abuse. So I guess it depends.

There is a big difference between the medium and the large, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in depth of the domes, but not circunfference. They felt huge when I got them! I do not know the difference between the large and X-L.

Why did brava says you are not a candidate? You seem to be doing just fine!

Best of luck and keep us posted!

[lled34aa]

can I ask how you arrive at the measurement of 32d in the morning? I'm using the narrow large domes. when I wear them for over 14hrs, my nipples look like they're half an inch away from the end of the domes. volume wise, I'd say I fill up around 70% of the domes. when I remove the domes, no matter how large they look and feel, I can still fit into a 43a bra. so I can't even imagine fitting a c or d cup into the narrow large domes. am I measuring wrong? are my bras all stretched out? am I even using the large domes?

[EmmaB]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies!

Feather_rose: I've no idea if the company has gone belly up I guess I was worried in the recession maybe that's why they never answer my calls or get back to me. I'm pretty sure I've seen people talking on the forum more recently about having been in contact so I think they're ok (I really hope so anyway!!)

My morning swelling seems to have slowed down a bit I think. I mostly go by bra fit rather than measuring all the time because I don't want to get disheartened if I start to stall a bit.

As for Brava, I used their dome size estimator to know which size to get from ebay (although actually I was borderline, so I'm glad I went for the large!) whatever stats I put in it never suggests XL so I'm a bit confused about how they work out their sizes. They really don't give out much information, I guess so that you buy direct from them. If I put my current evening stats in then it basically thinks I don't need Brava ( i guess cos it includes swelling still as well as tissue)

lled34aa - when i started this journey I was 28 inches below and 32 across the bust making me a 32AA. Now when I take off the domes I'm 36-36.5 across the bust. Mostly when I've been doing long stints over the weekend (I generally do about 16-17 hours Fri, Sat and Sun night by wearing a bit longer on the sat morning, starting late sat afternoon, then again on sun afternoon.) This swelling stays a lot so week on week it's progressed quite a lot. Only difference I can see is that my domes are wide-large. My nipples don't seem to swell up as much as many other people have talked about so I think most of the swelling is in the boob tissue. It's a pretty rounded shape and I'd say close to the edge most of the way round. I think the width would make a difference to the measurements too. There's no way I can fit this into my old bras so maybe yours are more stretched than you realise!

I'm just really really hoping that at least some of this swelling will stay. Having seen them so beautiful and large for the last few weeks I'm trying to stay realistic about the end result but I'm pretty sure I'll be disappointed to some degree. I guess there's always noogling if they're still not big enough!

[lled34aa]

it must be the difference of me wearing the narrow large and you wearing the wide large. I've read in the older forum that a lot of people had problems with the XL domes caving in as they are too tall in height and the plastic is not rigid enough. when pressure is applied, the sides of the domes cave in. for that reason, I'm weary of ever switching to the XL domes even though after a long wearing session, my breasts sometimes swell up to almost filling the whole domes.

as for the company, I was in contact with them 10 weeks ago when I almost bought my brava directly from them. the lady who sells refurbished brava on eBay actually works for eBay. so I wouldn't worry about the company bellying up. if anything, brava seems to be getting a tiny bit more publicity these days as surgeons are using it in conjunction with fat grafting.

I remember reading somewhere that brava is for women with a to b cups. So if you're putting in your evening measurements where you're around a c cup, that might be the reason why brava says you might not be a good canidate.

you are doing soooooo well with brava! that is ridiculously large swelling to go from 32" to 36"! At my best, I go from 32.25" to 33.75". my underboobs measure around 27 to 27.5 inches. do you think the wide large domes will fit me? do you overlap your domes at all?

[EmmaB]

Oh that's a bit worrying about the XL domes. I was wondering why there was a limit on it being effective only for small boobs so I guess that's why. Can you image the size of the domes if someone wanted to go from a D to an E?!

I'm glad to hear you've both worn domes even when touching the side. From what the manual says you need new domes as soon as you touch it but I guess it's part of the way they make their money. I've only got a total of 14 weeks to wear them so I think I'll be sticking with my Large size. Even if I reach the end it would only be for a couple of weeks.

Glad the company is still on the go, if it works then it's a good product. Where are you? It was Brava UK I tried getting in contact with.

As for the wide-large size I'm not sure. I'd say the hardest bit about my Brava is getting a good seal cos I have to have them very close together in the middle and it kind of goes round my side a bit on my rib cage. I had a bit of trouble with the gel sucking itself in for a while but have now got the knack of flaring it out enough. The suction on my side is pretty tight and can make the nerves in arm a bit uncomfortable too. My underbust measurement is about 28-28.5 inches so I'd say it's close to the limit of what fits. I do worry as well that my boobs are growing quite far apart! I was wondering about getting a narrow XL if I went up a size but now I'm thinking I might have too much boob for that. Once in a bra they're ok but I really want cleavage and it seems like a big gap in between. I guess everyone's body is different though and think it's just my shape.

[lled34aa]

i'm in the US. maybe brava has more presence in the US?

even after 17hrs of wear, and my breasts look like they fill up 80-85% of the domes, i still can only swell up to a full 34A. since this is the size i want to end up with, i figure i need to get larger swelling in the morning so i can DEFLATE down to a 34A. my ribcage is around 27-27.5"... do you think the wide large domes would fit me?

[EmmaB]

Honestly I'm not sure if you'd be wide enough, they're kind of wrapped around on me and are squished together in the middle so itds probably be hard for you to get a good seal. Did you buy direct from Brava? Can you ask their advice?

But if your underbust is 27-27.5 how does that equate to a 34 bra? I'm 27.5-28 and normally wear a 32 or 30 sometimes. As your underbust numbers go up your cup goes down (ie I can wear a 32D or a 34C bra at the moment.) If you put the measurements you gave earlier (27 under 33.75 bust) into this online calculator it says you are a 32B. http://www.85b.org/bra_calc.php I think you really are bigger than you realise! Although I can certainly understand you needing something a bit looser during the day at the mo, I'm the same.

I seem to be stalling now as it's the same every day so I'm on a mission to increase my morning swelling a bit more now plus my smartbox has started acting not so smart. I can get a good seal by sucking the air out myself so I use that in the evening and then connect the box when i sleep cos i don't trust myself not to nudge it out of place. This morning it seemed less swelling than normal though so I think the smartbox didn't work again. Still had some swelling though so no idea if it was theraputic or not!!

[Feather_rose]

Hello,

It is starting to look like the smartboxes indeed only have around a 10 week lifespan. I had the same experience, and I think Iled34aa is having the same issue too. I tried sucking by mouth the hours I wore it before going to bed, and then for the hour in the morning before showering. That started to take me out of the stall I was in for the weeks 12 to 18, but then I guess having just two more weeks after that was not enough to make the extra inch stick. So I would advise you that if you feel your smartbox is not creating enough vacuum, try to increase the pressure as long as you can while you are awake by mouth-sucking, so you don't waste 8 weeks of growth like I did. How much they charge for a new smartbox? like $200 or $300? It is ridiculous, another way they try suck the money out of our pockets! (like the "change your domes if you are one inch from touching the wall"). Brava works, but by wearing it way longer that they tell you to. I wish they would make it more reasonably priced, or their components last longer to actually match the wearing time needs.

[lled34aa]

my smartbox was only "smart" for 10 weeks as well. now i'm manually sucking the air out while i'm awake, and leave the smartbox on when i sleep. when my smartbox turns on now, i can barely hear it... meaning the suction is very very weak, this, despite me having just changed batteries.

thanks for the info emmab, i don't think i'll get the wide domes then. my narrow domes are squished in the middle as well.

i know my swelling measurement is technically a 32B, and when i deflate at night, i can fit into a 32A. but i just don't like the way the 32 band bras fit on me. i feel like make my boobs too close together. i do have a few 32a push up bras that i wear sometimes because the 34 push ups wouldn't be pushing up anything . ultimately, i want to be able to fit into a 34A bra without any gaps, which i guess is the same as me wanting to be a 32B. sigh... i've got a long way to go.