Disclosure: This bikini was received as a review sample. All opinions are my own and based entirely on my experience. Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

It’s certainly a strange time to be reviewing swimwear, but when the Hourglassy team published our annual springtime Busty & The Beach series earlier this year, the world was in the throes of Covid-19 and many manufacturers had limited samples they could send us. As a result, I received this set only a few weeks ago. Since it’s still available in limited sizes with several retailers, I thought it’d be useful to assess the fit even though I can’t try it out in the water.

This is the Empreinte “Star” underwire halter top in size Euro 30G and high-waist bottoms in size France 42 / UK 36 / Euro 40 (which I think is a US large, but I’m honestly not sure. Every conversion chart on the internet is different! But I did request size large).

In these photos, I measure 38”-29/30”-42” and height 5’6”. I typically wear bra size UK 28GG / 30G.

This is the first Empreinte garment I’ve ever tried—and it definitely won’t be my last! I’m so impressed by the quality and fit. The hangtags include a little fold-out outlining the 5 points that contribute to its “advanced performance,” and I have to agree with every one, which include:

  1. Smoothing fabric for a sculpted shape
  2. Corsetry inner structure for guaranteed support
  3. Made-to-measure cups for ultimate comfort
  4. Adjustable straps for perfect support
  5. High quality finish for reshaped figure

First off, I could tell right away that the fabric is really nice quality. It’s not too thick or too lightweight. It has good bounce and a tight weave.

Second, once I put it on, it did feel like the cups are made-to-measure! The fabric moves and stretches with the shape of each breast to provide excellent support and lift without any hint of pillowing or quad-boob. Even with the best-fitting bikinis in my collection, I usually get a little pillowing on my bigger boob, but that’s not the case here.

Third, every seam on both the top and the bottoms is flat-lock. So there is no bulk along any of the seams and everything remains smooth. Plus, the inner edge of the cups is folded over so the flat-lock seam is on the inside (I suspect this is contributing to my second point above), maintaining that clean look.

As usual, I wish the waist on the bottoms was a little higher up, to fully cover my belly button. But that’s what I always want, thanks to my super long torso. On most ladies, I’m sure the waist would hit closer to their natural waist, as in the manufacturer model photo.

I feel that the band is true to size. It looks tiny on first glance, but stretches nicely without becoming loose and ends up feeling supportive and comfortable. It closes with a standard non-adjustable plastic clip. The band and the bottoms are unlined.

The support in the cups is really excellent. They’re lined with solid black stretch microfiber rather than mesh. There is a single contoured seam up the front to create a nice round shape. And the cups are rather tall, which benefits my very tall breast tissue roots. The resulting shape is front and center with good lift without padding or push-up and no east-west splaying. The gore is a little wide for my relatively close-set boobs, but it’s not bad.

The wires are slightly narrower than average and the base of the cup is quite deep (YES! Literally exactly what I need). Overall, this bikini top fits my very full-on-bottom, pretty full on top, tall, narrow boobs extremely well.

This style has halter ties that are long enough to make a proper bow. The ties are made of two layers of fabric, but the strap narrows at the point where you would make the bow and then gets wider toward the ends. So it’s not overly bulky or creating a giant knot that digs into my neck. As well, I feel that the halter strap is contributing very little to the support; it’s mostly coming from the band and the cups (as it should), so the halter strap so far does not hurt my neck.

The Empreinte “Star” bikini was a spring/summer release, but can still be found with several online retailers, including Amazon. If your size is sold out there, a Google search reveals many other sources to buy it.

As Empreinte is a French brand, the cups come in European sizing, which follows a single letter scheme. As such, EU 30G should, in theory, be too small on me. However, French brands are known for featuring deeper cups than UK brands and the difference from cup to cup is not a one-to-one conversion with UK sizes, so a French 30G and a UK 30G end up fitting me about the same. The top comes in sizes 32-40 CD, 30-40 E, 30-38 FG. The bottoms come in XXS-L.