Bra Guide: How to identify your breast shape to find the perfect fitting bra

Do you struggle to find bras that fit you?  Do you spend hours in the fitting room trying on a hundred bras and end up feeling frustrated that you couldn't find one that fit you?  I hear you girl.  I'm hear to teach and show you how your breast shape can affect the type of bras that will fit you.  It's a lot like dressing for your body shape to accentuate your favorite parts of your body.   By knowing this little secret will help save you a lot of time when you go bra shopping and you'll be able to find that perfect fitting bra without wanting to pull your hair out.

If you're new to bras and or to my Bra Guide series, I would strongly recommend you to read the first two posts in my Bra Guide series.  By doing this will help you to better understand this post.  You can check the blog posts below:

Bra Guide: How Bras Should and Shouldn't Fit

Bra Guide: Learn How Bra Sizing Works

Make sure to click on my Bra Guide tab where you can read all of my other bra posts and learn more about my bra consultations.

Let's get started.  Your breast shape is determined by a lot of factors: genetics, race, nursing, gaining and losing weight, hormones, age, and gravity.  Because of all of these factors there's a lot of breast shapes because every woman is shaped so differently.  Below is the best illustration I could find on the internet of the many different breast shapes in women (it's not very beautiful, but it works).

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Now, the exciting part, you're going to figure out what breast shape you have!  Don't worry, it's not rocket science and it's really easy.  

First, you're going to take off your shirt, and your bra, and stand in front of the mirror and take a good look at your beautiful self.  You'll want to take note of the shape of your breasts from the side.  After you take a mental note, draw it on a piece of paper, or you could take a picture of yourself (make sure you delete this picture if you don't want your kids, friends, or neighbors seeing this).  Then go to the illustration above and identify your breast shape.

You might find you have a combination of two different breast shapes.  If you find this to be your case, choose the one you feel best describes your breast shape.

I'm going to identify each breast shape, issues associated when it comes to fitting for that shape, and my favorite bras I recommend for that shape.    

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1. The Perfect Breast Shape

I don't like the name of this because I don't feel like there's a "perfect" breast shape.  I do agree that this breast shape is the easiest to fit.  I rarely found women who were naturally this breast shape.  The women who have this shape are younger, have had a breast augmentation, and who haven't nursed or have been pregnant.  There's really no known issues with this shape.  You could wear a molded, seamed, balconet, minimizer demi, or full coverage bras.  Most bras will fit this shape without any problem.  Remember to make sure you're wearing a supportive and the correct fitting bra.

My favorite bras:

Chantelle Women's Rive Gauche 3 Part Cup Underwire Bra
Le Mystere Dream Tisha Lace Bra
Wacoal Women's Spot On Contour Bra
Freya Women's Deco UW Moulded Plunge Bra
Natori Women's Body Double Lace Trim Full Fit Bra

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2. Swooping Breast Shape

This shape of breast is fuller at the bottom and the nipple is pointed upward.  This shape is very common in women who have nursed and loss volume up at the top of the breast, have lost weight, or you were just born this way.  The most common problems associated with this breast shape is a lot of bras will gap at the top of the cup due to this loss in breast tissue mass.  For this breast shape, I recommend bras that have a demi cup (not full coverage).

One thing to be cautious about demi cut bras is that you don't want the dreaded double boob. It's where the cup digs into the top portion of the breast, therefore you can see your breast bubbling out of your bra underneath your shirt, and you can see a distinct bra line across your breast underneath your shirt.  Like in the pictures below.

Some of my favorite demi bras are the following:

Calvin Klein Women's Seductive Comfort Custmized Lift Bra

Chantelle C Chic Sexy Demi Bra
Wacoal Women's Embrace Lace Contour Wire 
DKNY Signature Lace Underwire Demi Bra

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3. Sagging Breast 

Sagging breasts can be defined as the breasts that point downward.  This can be caused by several factors including: gravity, genetics, age, not wearing a supportive bra, menopause, and the amount of fat tissue in them.  I found that most women who had this particular breast shape were older, who have had children, nursed, lost weight, and went through menopause.  When you see this in young women, it can be from her not wearing a supportive bra during puberty and developing.     

By not wearing a correct fitting bra, the tissues that hold the breast up start to stretch, break, and lose their elasticity.  The only way to remedy this is to start wearing a correct bra NOW!  It may not fix the problem, but will prevent future stretching to occur.  That's why it's really important to invest in your bras.  Surgery is the only permanent way to get your breasts perky again.  This is one of the main reasons why wearing the correct bra size is SO IMPORTANT.  

For sagging breasts, I recommend soft cup bras that have underwires so you can get the girls fully supported and covered.

There's some differences in soft cup bras.  There's bras that have seams sewn in the cups and there's seamless cups.  Both are fine, but there's major differences.  Soft cup bras that have seams in the cups will shape and minimize the breasts a lot better than the seamless soft cup bras do.  Some women will not like the seamed cups because you tend to see them underneath shirts so that's why some women prefer the seamless cup bras.  

In the pictures below you can see how these two bras shape the breasts very different.

When you have sagging breasts it's a lot easier to fit and to fill out a soft cup bra.  Molded cup bras are shaped a certain way, and if your breast aren't shaped that way, they're not going to fit correctly.  I illustrate this in the photos below.  

From the front it looks like this molded cup bra fits this gal pretty good.  BUT, check out the next photo.

Because this gal has sagging breasts, she cannot fill out the top of this bra, so therefore it gaps.  This is very common for large busted women who try on molded cups.  This is why I recommend soft cup with an underwire over molded cup bras.  

Here's my top picks for soft cup bras: 

Seam Cup Bras
Chantelle Cachemire 3-Part Cup Bra
Wacoal Full Figure Retro Chic Underwire Bra
Freya Lacy Underwire Plunge Bra

Seamless Cup Bras
Wacoal Full Figure Underwire Bra
Wacoal Slimline Seamless Minimizer Bra
Fantasie Smoothing Full Cup Underwire Bra

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5. Large Breasts

Large breasts have higher volume of fatty tissue in them.  Larger breasts can be saggy too, but the real difference between the saggy and large breast shapes is in large breasts, there's more fatty tissue on the top of the breast.  

Large breasts can be easier to fit shape wise because they're more of a bulbous shape, but getting the size correct can take a little more time.  So make sure you pay close attention to the middle part of the bra, and make sure the bra is separating your breasts, that the underwire is completely covering your side boobs, and that the band is snug and lying low in the back.  

To see how a correct fitting bra should look like, check out my post here.  Again, when you have larger breasts, it's SO IMPORTANT to wear the correct fitting bra.  Make sure you take the time and get fitted by a professional.    

With larger breasts you have more options when it comes to bras.  You can wear molded, lined, balcony, plunge, and a minimizer.  

My favorites bras for larger breasts:

Fantasie Smoothing Balcony T-Shirt Bra
Elomi Abi Underwire Bandless Bra
Goddess Women's Kayla Banded Underwire Bra
Cleo Women's Juna Balconnet Bra

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6. Small Breasts

Some call it a curse and some call it a blessing.  Don't you worry my small chested friends, I haven't forgotten about you.  Having small breasts means you don't have much volume of fat tissue in the breasts.  I find most women who have small breasts are more petite, but you'd be surprised by how many larger women have smaller breasts too.  

The problem when it comes to fitting a small breasted gal is you find bras will gap at the top and feel big all around.  I try to go for bras that are made for petite women.  There's two types of bras I recommend for small breasts; push up and padded bras.  There's a difference between these two bras. 

A push up style bra is only padded at the bottom of the bra and will create more cleavage by pushing the breasts up and together.  A padded bra is just that, it's more evenly padded throughout the cup to give you a more fuller cup.  

My favorite push up and padded bras:

Wacoal Women's Petite Contour Bra
Wacoal Women's Petites Lace Front Contour Pushup Bra #75627
Calvin Klein Women's Seductive Comfort Custmized Lift Bra
Calvin Klein Women's Naked Glamour Add-A-Size

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7. Constricted or Tubular and Snoopy Breasts 

I'm combining these two breast shapes because they're fit is very similar, even though they're slightly different in shape.  Both of these breast shapes look kind of like torpedoes or pointy pyramids.  Both of these breast shapes are fuller on bottom then they are at the top.  Women who have this breast shape are either born that way, nursed, or experienced some weight loss.    

The most common problems associated with this breast shape is a lot of bras will gap at the top of the cup due loss in breast tissue mass.  When it comes to fitting is a lot like the swooping breast shape.   The main problem you'll have with finding a bra that fits is having the top of the cup gap.  I recommend a demi or push up bras to remedy this problem.  

My favorite demi and push up bras:

Betsey Johnson Women's Stocking Stripe Demi Bra
Natori Women's Feathers Contour Plunge Bra
Betsey Johnson Women's Eyelet Lace 3 Section Foam Demi Bra
Calvin Klein Women's Seductive Comfort Custmized Lift Bra

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8. Pigeon Breasts
I like to describe these breasts as flatten pancakes where most of the breast tissue is stretched, and elasticity is pretty much gone, therefore leaving you with a breast that feels like a bag of skin.  Because of the loss in volume they tend to sag and feel like they're floppy.  Most women with this breast shape are older and have gone through menopause.

Some common fitting problems you'll run into is being mislead that because you don't have that much breast volume, that you're a small cup size. You'd be surprised by how much volume the skin of the breast has when you stuff them into the cups.  Just make sure you're not coming out at the top of your bra, and the underwire is completely covering you on the side of your breasts.

For this breast shape, I recommend a underwire soft cup bra due to the lack in shape with these breasts.  You could go with a seam or seamless cup.

My favorite soft cup bras:
Wacoal Women's Halo Lace Seamless Underwire Bra
Wacoal Women's Body Underwire Bra

b.tempt'd by Wacoal Women's Full Bloom Underwire Bra

Wacoal Women's Embrace Lace Bra

I hope going over the different breast shapes will make it easier for you to find the perfect fitting bra.  If you have questions, comment below.  I answer all questions, so none are stupid.  

Just a reminder, if you missed the first two segments to my bra guide series, check them out here:

Bra Guide: How Bras Should and Shouldn't Fit

Bra Guide: Learn How Bra Sizing Works

Also, if you want to learn more about bras and how you can have me help you find your perfect fitting bra, go to my Bra Guide page.