If when you think of corsets, you think of 18th century torture devices for women, you have not been paying attention to fashion in the past ten years. These days, corsets are much gentler on the wearer, and fashionable for anyone, whether within the bedroom or out on the town.

I am still new to the world of corsets, but the Purple Magic Tesa's Sweetheart Corset is not my first. I have two others that I acquired in the last year, and have an interest in getting more, as after seeing me in them, my SO said that I should always wear corsets. It was with this in mind that I chose this corset.

The Tesa's Sweetheart Corset features the sweetheart neckline alluded to in the name. Its fabric is polyester, with a shoestring-type lace and plastic boning. It also features a modesty panel on the back, and a side zipper for easy on/off access. It does not feature anything in the way of an interior lining. It is comfortable for wearing a short amount of time, but as for an extended amount of time, this is debatable.

My corset is size 38, as I wear a 38D bra. For measurements on this, the dip in the "heart" is about three inches from the top of the corset. In length, from the top of the heart to the bottom, it is about 15 1/2 inches, and from the dip in the heart to the bottom which extends a little below the rest, it is 13 1/2 inches. As for width, including the modesty panel as it would be if let out to its fullest extent, it is 38 inches, exactly as it should be.

The corset has a dual-lacing system, meaning you can make the laces tighter on top than the bottom, or vice versa, if need be. Believe me, need will be. I personally had to take the corset off four times to adjust the laces. While it fit perfectly around the waist and below, the top section did not cup my breasts adequately. I made the laces as tight as I could stand them, but the material did not stay perfectly flat at the neckline. You can tell this from the shadows in these pictures.





Here, you can see both how low the dip actually is and also how far the fabric stands out from my skin.



Here is a picture of the zipper. Be very careful when zipping this up. You will catch your skin in it if you are not.



Here are two pictures featuring the side and back so you can see the laces.





As you can tell, the material does bunch up a little bit at the waist line.

As for cleaning, the care instructions say to hand wash in cold water, separately, and then to allow it to drip dry. It does say not to iron the corset. If it does wrinkle, and you do choose to iron it, I would suggest placing a cloth over it first and ironing it on the reverse side on a low setting.

My first impression when I took the corset out of the packaging was that it was very shiny and not at all the same color as is shown on the website. Then as I was handling the corset, I noticed that it gave off a rather crinkly sound. For days, I tried to figure out what exactly the sound reminded me of. Finally, it came to me...the sound of the material shifting is like that of a tarpaulin. This does make sense though, as the polyester in this corset and the polyethylene in tarps are actually quite similar. How sexy is that?



Fortunately, it is a lot more comfortable than it sounds. Unfortunately, comfort is not the only thing to look for in a corset. Corsets are made to be shape-wear, to enhance both the waist and the bosom. In the case of Tesa's Sweetheart Corset, it does one, but not the other. The waist is indeed enhanced, but the corset does not do the job of lifting the bosom and delivering the eye-popping cleavage that a corset should.

Nevertheless, whether or not the corset delivers everything I want, it does still draw the eye, and it is still sexy. As for my SO, his jaw dropped to the floor when he saw me in it and said it "accentuates [my] good qualities."

I am still not overly crazy about this corset for the same reasons I illustrated before...the cups do not hug the breasts properly, leaving some areas to gap a bit, and it does not lift and enhance the bosom as I want a corset to do. That said, my SO still talks about this one as a favorite of his.