Bandelettes review

Please be aware that there may be a little TMI in this post for some people who are shy about these issues. Read on at your own discretion! 

I saw a post on tumblr about Bandelettes, and it piqued my interest

so I immediately went to check out the website. Bandelettes are basically lace bands that you wear on your legs/thighs to keep the skin from rubbing or to avoid "chub rub". Earlier that day, I was thinking about how irritating it was and lo, and behold, a solution. Chub rub isn't a huge problem for me, but I live in a place where it's hot and humid most of the year, so when I do wear skirts in hot weather, my legs notice.
After arriving at the website, I noticed that they come in a variety of sizes (from A to E) and colors. They also have a video tutorial for how to measure your leg so you can buy the right size. The regular price seems to be $14.99 but the one I was interested in (beige in size A) was $10.99 for some reason

After browsing the testimonials and other reviews, I decided I could trust this website and went ahead with my order. My shipping was $1.99 which is flat rate for (U.S.) domestic orders. I was really happy that Hawaii was included in this because we often have to pay more for shipping despite being within the United States because we're not part of the contiguous 48.
I was able to pay with PayPal and received a email confirmation for receipt of payment right away (4/2). The next day (4/3), I received what seemed like an order confirmation email in the morning and then a shipment notification email later that night with tracking information. The package arrived on 4/7 with no problems.

(Sorry not a great picture, but I wanted to open it immediately to try them on so I didn't wait for better lighting!)

 

Here are a few pictures of me first trying them on. 

I think the beige is a somewhat reasonable match for my skin tone (which is what I wanted) and "A" was definitely the right size for me.

I've worn them a few times this week. Here are a few things I noticed -
Pros:
The biggest and most important one - They work! Bandelettes do prevent chub rub.
The lace/design is cute.
The silicone strips on the inside of the bands function as they should and keep the bands up.
Easy to wash and care for.

Cons:
I personally find the band a little long (5.5") for the length of skirts and dresses I wear. The band can be seen when I walk up the stairs. If even a slight breeze moves my skirt, they're visible, and I don't want them to be.  Perhaps this is also because I don't personally *need* the bands to be so long, but do understand why they are this length.
Although they are not uncomfortable, I am rarely unaware of the fact that I'm wearing them.
Warning TMI ahead - It's a little awkward to go to the bathroom while wearing these. I don't think you're supposed to take them off or pull them down when using the toilet, so I left them as is and to me it just feels weird to have something on that part of your leg and so close to your crotch while doing your business. Maybe it's where I personally wear the bands (pretty much as high on the thigh as possible) but yeah, just kind of odd to me. I also tried pushing them down, which is an option, but if there's a line in the bathroom, they do take a bit to put back in place and I prefer efficiency...

I saw that someone on tumblr reblogged the posted and said that this product would be better/cuter if the lace bands were attached to shorts, but I feel like that almost defeats the purpose of this product. If you wanted to wear shorts under your skirts, you would probably already be doing that and wouldn't need the Bandelettes to avoid chub rub since the shorts already provide that protection. If you wanted just the look of lace sticking out under your skirts, they already make those lace hemmed shorts for that as well so that product already exists...Basically, Bandelettes provide the protection from chub rub that shorts do, without wearing shorts! So making them into shorts would be kind of useless. My thoughts, anyway. However, if you do want to just have a lace detail, I don't see why these wouldn't work if for some reason you didn't want to buy the lace shorts. 

It seems like the cons section (above)  is a lot longer than the pros, but that's only because I really wanted to explain my criticisms properly (whereas the pros don't necessarily need to be elaborated upon). All in all, I feel like the first pro -they work- is enough tbh. No product is perfect and this one achieves its goal which is pretty good. Because of the bathroom issue though, I don't see myself investing in multiple pairs of these because really, one is enough at that price. I'm not disappointed in the product, and I'm glad I gave it a try.