Padded Bras for Small-breasted Women

Choosing Padded Bras for Small-breasted Women

Small-breasted women like to flaunt cleavage too, and there's no reason not to have a little in a low-cut shirt. Padded bras make it easy to add a cup and push up what you've got to make it look like you have even more.

The plus side to having small breasts is the variety of styling and colors in your size. Also, there's the fact that they're widely carried, so you won't have to do a special order in a last minute pinch. You can easily sport padded strapless bras or bras with skinny straps. The DD+ sisters can't get by with that small amount of support, so in some ways, consider yourself lucky!

With or Without Wire?

The average padded bra comes with underwire. Some women like that, others don't. It's a personal choice; usually it comes down to comfort. The good news is, if wire isn't something you want to live with, there are some out there that don't have it. They're still padded, and they can still push your girls up.

Bras With Wire

• The Wonder of Gel Satin Push-Up Bra from Wonderbra at Fresh Pair is available in sizes 32-36A and 32-38B (among other larger sizes) and utilizes built-in gel cups and fabric to create a bustier silhouette for your body. It's lightweight enough for daily wear too!
• The Hollywood Extreme Cleavage Bra from Frederick's of Hollywood is quite possibly one of the best on the market for adding to what Mother Nature gave you and pushing it up for the world to admire. It's got a deep-plunge neck and comes in a wide variety of colors.

Bras Without Wire

• The PINK Wireless Padded Bra from Victoria's Secret gives you seamless cups—with padding—without the discomfort of underwire.
• Another simple, go anywhere bra style can be found at JCPenney. It's the Jockey Padded No-wire Bra. Sadly, it only comes in one color -- neutral (not stark white!) -- so you can still wear it underneath just about anything.

Try on a few bras with and without wire. See which you prefer. Keep in mind, different manufacturers use different wire lengths for their cups, so you may find one brand's underwire bras to be comfortable and another's to be extremely uncomfortable. If you have the funds, try buying one comfortable bra with wire and one without so that you may wear them the length of the day to decide for yourself which type makes you feel most supported.

Removable Padding

Padded bras can make you look more voluptuous in seconds.

If you want extra padding sometimes, but would prefer to leave it at home some days, there is another option. You can buy bras with removable padding. The padding is similar in shape to a silicone insert, but it is made of fabric and slides down into a discreet pocket on the insides of the cups. This gives you the control of how full your breasts look without the need for additional bras. Styles like this usually are only lightly padded, however. You won't usually find add-a-cup-size padding to be removable.

Extra Help

Inserts (silicone or gel, for example) inside a padded bra in a size a little larger than what you usually wear are incredible for making you look busty. You could actually appear to have gone up two cup sizes between the padding on a bra and the inserts, so unless you plan to wear them every day, you probably want to reserve your inserts for special occasions. Stick with regular padded bras for daily wear.

Another reason not to wear inserts all the time is the intimacy factor. Unless you know your partner well and feel very comfortable together, there's nothing more shocking than removing the bra and hearing the "slap, slap!" of two silicone inserts falling to the floor in the heat of the moment. Simple padded bras generally look and feel like regular bras.

Caring for Your Padded Bra

All bras should be handwashed—especially those with wire and additional padding. And they should never, ever be tossed in the dryer. You'll run the risk of pulling out the wire (if you have an underwire bra), twisting the material, or shrinking the bra overall so it doesn't fit like it should. Just a few minutes in the sink will do the trick and then you can lay it out flat to dry.