Light Lacing

Light lacing is the most common kind of corset wearing, especially for occasional use.  It’s most often about a 10% reduction of your waist measurement, but the exact amount can vary from person to person depending upon your natural shape and the amount of natural squishiness in your torso.  It’s important because it prevents the rigid corset from shifting and chaffing or slipping around while you wear it.  That compression quite literally holds it in place.  In the process, you should see a nice little exaggeration to your natural figure.

In order to have the strength and stability necessary for a light lacing corset to be comfortable and have any chance of durability, it needs a couple essential features: A strength layer (sturdy cotton or coutil), and steel boning (either spring steel or spiral steel).  Heavy weight leather can eliminate the need for both cotton and boning, but these corsets are not common.  It’s also a good idea for the corset to have waist tape, as this helps provide strength and durability in the location of greatest stress on the garment.  Any seller should have the materials used listed on their site, and be willing to answer those questions if you contact their customer service.  Beware of tricky wording like “Steel busk and bones”, which leads you to think it means “steel busk and steel bones”, but is actually not specific on the kind of boning.

The steel boning (and enough of it) is very important because it is what prevents the corset from buckling under the stress of the compression and ending up a wrinkled, painful mess at your waist.  Plastic boning doesn’t usually work because it isn’t as strong and stable as the steel, and as it warms to your body temperature it becomes even softer.  If the corset doesn’t have enough boning, even if the boning is steel it will still buckle from the stress.  That buckling causes uneven pressure, and can make the corset dig into your body, which is uncomfortable at best.  If the buckling is severe enough, or manages to happen in just the wrong place, it can cause pain and bruising, and generally make the experience one you’re likely to not repeat.

Most corsets will have either a steel busk or some sturdy boning in the center front, bones sandwiching the grommets in the back, and at least one bone per seam (another 8-10 bones).  If you are larger in size, or taking more than about three inches off your waist measurement, you’ll probably need more boning (or sturdier boning) to help the corset keep its shape.

When you are looking at custom and bespoke corsets, you may find other alternative materials that can be used with great effectiveness, but as far as I know these alternative materials are never used by the RTW industry.  They can include reed and cording, and I’ve even heard of one custom maker who uses plastic boning, though a vastly different variety from the featherweight boning or rigiline you can buy at the fabric store.  Alternate strength materials include meshes, ribbon, linen, hemp, and all manner of coutil-family fabrics.  Most makers use a single strength layer, but others use two, or offer the option.

How I Made Him Melt…

Having the kind of love you’ve read about… I never knew what love looked like or I had a very obscure view of it anyway. Something that is very important to me is to live an abundant life where I am happy in every area. I want to show my girls and lead by example as to what love looks like…Healthy blissful soulful love.

I am not an expert in relationships or love, not by a long shot, but I do know what I need to do in order for me to live it. For a few years now I have loved and supported Emma and Den in their journey to inspire savvy couples to have fun, spend quality together and make them melt. Mr BQ and I have just completed their virtual couples massage training program.



couples massage, make your partner melt



* this is not a sponsored post I just love what they’re doing and thought you would too*

After watching the trailer I knew this was something I had to try, who doesn’t like a massage! The videos are really well made and you can start with a short massage routine and build up from there. The way Den, explains the techniques are really simple and fun. I was up for it, but Mr BQ was like… “What do IIII have to do?” so he took a little more convincing.

In the words of Mr BQ he says “For the novice masseuse that I ‘am, the video tutorials were easy to understand and perform. It gave us a chance to zone out and just chill out together. There is nothing better than the power of touch to enrich and connect with your partner.”

It’s something that you can have fun with and it can be as short or as long as you want it to be. The thing that I really enjoyed was just having the time to connect, touch and just be with Mr BQ. We didn’t really talk, we were just enjoying the massage and the moment. The videos are specifically designed for couples so it’s different from anything else you’ve seen or been taught.

Check out the trailer for yourself and if you love it as much as we do Emma has given you a 70% discount for all Bra Queen subscribers. The offer is open for 7 days and you get lifetime access.

Do you want to avoid compression at all, want a light lacing corset, or a tight lacing corset?

Do you want to avoid compression at all, want a light lacing corset, or a tight lacing corset?

If you want to avoid compression at all, you’ll want to focus your corset buying search on “fashion corsets” or “shapewear”.  There is no standard industry term for corsets that aren’t quite corsets, but if a seller is being honest about it, they will usually use one of those two terms or another term that is distinct from “corset”.  Some sellers and makers even sell both shapewear and steel boned corsets.  Despite both being referred to as “corsets” and sometimes having a very superficial resemblance, they are actually extremely different garments.  For example, Spanks, girdles, and fashion “corset tops” fall into the shapewear group. If a seller lists the boning as plastic, or doesn’t specify (this happens frequently with less reputable sellers), then it is shapewear.  Buy to your waist measurement, and if the quality is good, it should slightly shape your figure, but will also move with you.  They often involve other modern materials like elastics, and can look fantastic.  They are also usually less expensive, but tend not to be very durable.  They can be made custom, but there are very few corset specialists who know how to and will make this kind of garment, so I would recommend checking for custom lingerie makers.  In the corset enthusiast world, these are typically not seen as corsets.