Daniella's Ramblings

Hello, my name is Daniella and I am addicted to my forms. That is right people I have succumbed. I have finally upgraded from my rice filled knee high nylons to ‘proper’ breast forms. And by proper I mean ‘proper’. I have acquired a pair of self adhesive forms with detachable, realistic nipples! I know I know, how the mighty have fallen.

Seriously though, I thought I would let you all in on my thinking and then give you a review of the product I have acquired.

When I first began dressing, as a child, I used socks rolled up in a bra to give the illusion of shape. This was far from ideal. They resulted in lumpy misshapen breasts that looked horrible. I tried getting some balloons but these were tricky to explain. Why would a teenage boy want balloons? Especially if there was no birthday party happening? Also, I was terrified of filling them with water, having them break and then have to explain to the clothes’ owner (to my shame I was ‘borrowing’ other people’s clothes as I did not have my own), why their prize lingerie and dress is covered in water! So I just filled them with air. Again, not ideal. They felt wrong, sat in the bra wrong and were just plain wrong.

Then as an adult and courtesy of the world wide web, I found out about filling a pair of knee high nylon stockings with just the right amount of bird seed*. I did this and bliss. They were so good. So much better than balloons and immeasurably better than socks. Then, when my spouse helped me, she managed to give me nipples! What fun!

This has been a more than adequate solution for the past number of years. I have tried the ‘chicken fillet’ silicon bra insert devices and found them woefully inadequate. I saw breast forms advertised and thought that the affordable ones looked cheap and nasty (I am a fan of cheap and cheerful, cheap and nasty, not so much) and that the more expensive ones were simply too expensive and not worth the cash you would need to layout on them, especially as shipping and import duties would add considerable costs to the base price.

Then one of our Priscilla’s Services clients ordered a pair of breast forms through us. She went for a good quality pair. They arrived and a few days later she came to stay at out studio and we went out together. She looked amazing. And without being too oervy, her breasts looked fantastic. Her overall shape was totally feminine. I was intrigued.

My spouse strongly suggested that I get a pair. I vacillated for a number of months before deciding to just go for it. I ordered a pair of self adhesive breast forms (with attachable realistic nipples). They took about a month to arrive.

The first opportunity I had to wear them was to a Priscilla’s Services social evening at The OPC (more on that in a later blog). I decided to test the forms au naturel (that is without a bra). I put them on at around 3-30 pm and I wore a shift dress for the evening.

The above photographs were no from the evening, but they do replicate exactly my outfit (breast forms notwithstanding of course).

The breast forms are lovely. Firstly they are asymmetrical thus giving a very natural looking shape. The material that they are made from is very clever as it heats up with your body temperature, so very quickly they stop feeling like synthetic appendages and start feeling like a natural extension of your body . Being self adhesive, you can shift them around easily to get the most natural looking shape and position for them. The self adhesive backing is definitely strong enough.

Time for a disclaimer. I am not a ‘big breasted woman’. I opted for a smallish size as this gives me a size that whilst still feminine is not over the top and allows me to still fit into a smaller dress size. If I went much bigger I am afraid my dress size would need to go up and that would make finding clothes that much harder. If you must know, I am a size 36 C bra and a size 12 to 14 dress. If my breasts got much bigger I would probably need to go to a size 16 dress and then the dress would not fit properly, it would need to be larger to accommodate my chest and shoulders but would then be far too wide around my hips and waist.

The fact that the forms are of a smaller size means that the adhesive backing is strong enough to keep them on your chest, even without the support of a bra. A caveat though. The adhesion does not last forever! After about five to six hours the adhesive had had enough! Luckily I had a bra on hand and I could perform some emergency repairs in the privacy of a fitting room and carry on with the social event.

For a small amount extra you can choose some very lifelike nipples. I have gone with this option and I can only endorse it. The nipples are very realistic and you get to choose both the size and the colour of the areola. I went for a colour that I thought matched my natural colour best and I went for a medium size. I think I got it just about right and I am happy with them. Wearing these under the shift dress felt good and I think the extra spent on the nipples was worthwhile as they looked natural under the material.

The material of the forms is quite realistic. They have just the right amount of ‘squishiness’ to them and their weight feels right, both on your chest and in your  hands when you hold them. The material is also very ‘skin-like’ when you touch it. But you do need to be careful as it does feel rather fragile.

The forms are very effective at creating a cleavage. Not only do they provide the bulk you need in the breast, but they also pull your own chest tissue downward and inward. This creates a realistic looking cleavage with your own breast tissue blending into the forms, which have a transparent edge to them. My one criticism in this regard is that the forms are of a different colour to my skin and there is thus a distinct line between the forms and my natural skin tone. This is not a problem if you are wearing a top or dress with a high neckline but when wearing a top that shows some cleavage (which after all is kind of the point of getting these forms isn’ it), well then you can sometimes see the form. You can see what I am talking about in this picture if you look carefully.

I contacted the manufacturer and they confirmed that you can use foundation and powder on the forms to blend them in with your natural skin tones. They dis however warn me that it may be hard getting the makeup to adhere to the forms’ outer skin which is quite slippery. I have not yet experimented with this and I will let you know what I mange to achieve in this regard.

Cleaning the forms is certainly trickier than dealing with the rice filled hosiery. You need to wash them with detergent and gently scrub them with a brush and then you need to let them air dry. For those more closeted girls, this could be a tricky proposition, but to speed things up you can use a hair dryer on a cold setting. It takes a few minutes to wash and dry the forms if you use this method. To be safe I bought the manufacturer approved detergent and brush. You only need a few drops of detergent so it should last a good long while. The brush looks like a standard nail brush, but has much softer bristles. I wouldn’t use a nailbrush the bristles are hard and my damage the forms.

I have now worn the forms three times. My first impression on wearing them was that they were very nice: they give a very good shape, feel ‘right’, a big improvement; but that they were just a bit too high maintenance for everyday (short term) wear and that I would therefore keep them for special occasions. Last week I had the hole day (from 8 am to 3 pm) to be en femme so I thought, hey, that is worth it, I will wear them. Today I found myself with a morning to be myself and guess what? I wore my forms. It seems that I really do like them and whilst they have added some time and complexity to the post dressing clean up, this is not too onerous. I am therefore more than willing to wear them rather more often than I thought I would when I first got them. That seems to speak volumes.

So like I said, I seem to be somewhat keen on my new forms. Yes they are an investment. No, they are not a necessity, you can get by with some rice in a stocking but, if you have the money these forms are a very nice addition to the collection. If it is a choice between a quality wig and quality forms, my advice is to spend as much as you can afford on the wig. Your hair is a major investment and one that pays dividends immediately. Great hair makes you look great. Less than fantastic hair can make you look terrible. Great breast forms will improve how you look (and more importantly how you feel) but this improvement is incremental when compared to the hair situation. Having said that, though they are a very nice treat if you can afford them.

Should you wish to order breast forms, you can do so very easily, Google is your friend and there are a number of suppliers out there, or you can always contact Priscilla’s Services. They will be happy to advise you regarding quality, size and the various other choices you will need to make. They will also order the forms for you, receive them for you and handle the customs clearing process ensuring that you do not have any embarrassing questions to answer, whether at home, the post office or anywhere else.

An incidental note on breast forms and medical prosthetics:
Whilst setting up Priscilla’s Services we had hopes of finding a local supplier and manufacturer of breast forms and using them. Sadly no such thing exists. We found a few suppliers of medical prostheses for women who have had beast cancer but very few would even talk to us. Those who were prepared to engage with us were of limited help as the quality of the prostheses they were importing was very poor. We later found out that the prostheses that were supplied to breast cancer survivors are paid for by medical aid. They will only pay for the cheapest versions on offer (essentially the same as the cheap and nasty forms referred to above), but that these prostheses cost as much as the cost of my far more attractive breast forms landed in south Africa (that is after customs and freight costs). I was very surprised. Unless there is something special about these prostheses, it would seem that mastectomy patients and the medical aids are being short changed by the suppliers of these prosthetics. These women should demand better quality prosthetics and the medical aids should demand better quality and better financial deals from their suppliers. Medical inflation is real.

* Being the cheapskate that I am, I calculated that rice is considerably cheaper than bird seed, so I used rice instead of bird seed. The grains are slightly bigger and coarser, but I do not think there is much difference in the overall effect.