New Magictail skin! With extra fins!!!

Wow, I am so, so excited!!

Three weeks ago I went to take a look at the Magictail website, to see if they have something new that I could fancy.  Well, apart from the fabulous Marina Pro that will be mine someday, I was so surprised to find that they offer now tails with add-on fins!  

I was hooked.  The good thing about this feature is you can send them your previously owned Magictail and they will incorporate your chosen fins - this option is certainly cheaper.  But I was worried that my fabrics would not match, and that it would be a kerffufle to send my tail and get it back - it can always get lost in transit.  Besides, it was a good moment to get a new Marina skin, which was my first and most beloved tail.

And so, I ordered a Marina with hip and dorsal fins.  You can also add lower fins, but I chose to omit those.  Why?  Because the Magictail monofin is very bulky at the ankles, and I wanted to draw attention from it using the other two sets of fins.  You can get just one set of fins, or any combination of the three.

It took a little more than a week to ship, but I already knew that as it was specified at the time of purchase.  It arrived today in the mail, and I am over the Moon with it:

Front view; hip fins.  Monofin was inserted

Detail of the dorsal fin

Back view

The colors are absolutely out of this world.  It has changed a lot from my last Marina Magictail.  The fabric is not shimmery anymore, and the black/grey hues are totally gone.  Now we have vibrant blue and purple hues everywhere.  The scale design is also different - the scales are less rounded and more elongated:

Scales detail

Fluke detail.  Notice the difference in colors.  The fluke still has the extra fin tips that look gorgeous while swimming

The fins are not just a piece of fabric attached to the tail.  It actually has some kind of thick fabric insde - you can squeeze them, and they are mushy.  The fins have consistency and they keep their form.  However, they are not rigid; they are bendable and will not cause harm or inconvenience while sitting.  I cannot wait to see how the dorsal fin looks while swimming!

I have tried it on for the size - I got an L.  It fits me perfectly.  Another thing that they have modified is that the waist now has a pull cord to adjust the tail to your waist, so it won't slip down while swimming.  I have never had that problem, but I guess some people did when the tails got stretched after a lot of use, and they took that into consideration:

This time the tail did not come with matching bikini top and bottom - if you want those you have to get them separately now.

In any case, I am eager to try it out.  Hopefully I will be able to get some pics and maybe video next week.  I'll keep you posted!

Another update on the Magictail Monofin

It has died!  It finally broke on the third day of use.  Here are some pics of the damages in stages:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

I seem to remember that it was the guilty party: I think I bumped it against the side of the pool when I was coming out.  In any case, I won't be using it anymore, and I will try my new monofin this Friday.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

Update on the Magictail Monofin

As I mentioned in the previous post, my Magictail monofin broke.  Here are some pics of the fracture line:

As you can see, the fracture is very small, but I guess it will get bigger if I still keep on using it.  I will, just to see what happens.

Here is a YouTube video, doing a comparison between the old one and the new one:

Merbella Seaweed Mermaid Top - Review

All right, so here is the promised review of the Merbella top.

PUTTING IT ON

I always put my bras by inserting my arms under the shoulder straps and then fastening the clasp reaching behind my back. It is VITAL to do this when fastening this bra; if you try to tie it on front and then turning it around the silicone WILL TEAR.  

The first time I put it on I could not reach behind my back because I had an injury in my right arm, and I tried to put it on fastening it on the front and then turning it.  What happened is that a bit of the seaweed decoration teared, and I freaked.  Thankfully, the damage is unnoticeable.  Upon later inspection, I discover that that precise point had been reglued with silicone before it was sent to me.

If you cannot put a bra by yourself the way I described it, ask for someone's help, or if there is not someone to help you, try to practice with a normal bra until you get the hang of it.

I fasten the net of the neck AFTER I have put on the bra.  That way I am sure the net is firm and just of the right lenght - when it gets wet, the knots SLIDE so be sure to fasten it up a bit more of what you normally do, or it will become very loose in the water (it happened to me too).

WEARING IT

I find that if you are going to a nearby pool, you can put the bra at home, where you can be relaxed and not rushing the process, and then a loose t-shirt over it, and no one will notice that you have something funny behind your clothes.  It is comfortable and holds the breasts quite well.

For a long term dry event, this bra would probably hurt my neck.  I read somewhere that people with a breast size larger than C should not wear halter tops due to the pression the breasts' weight put on the neck and spine.  I have experienced minor pain while going to the pool, so I know I would not be able to handle this top in a dry setting for long (I have a D cup).

IN THE WATER

The top is EXCELLENT on the water! It does not move, it adapts to my movements, it is comfortable for swimming.  The only bad thing that happens to me is that my breasts float quite well, and they try to "escape" of the bra cups.  I guess that is due to their size, and probably a person with a smaller cup would not have that problem. Also, the problem with the knots sliding when wet previously mentioned.

PEOPLE'S REACTIONS
People loved it.  They were astounded by the design, the materials, the general look - I had a complete stranger (thankfully it was a woman!) grabbing my breast to find out what it was made of.  It is definitely a conversation starter.

TAKING CARE OF IT

Since I did not received a sheet of how to take care of the top I improvised the following:

After finishing with it, I take a plastic bucket, fill it up with water and add a couple of spoonfulls of baking soda.  This will turn the water pH from neutral to alkaline, and this will help to neutralize the chlorine that may still remain on the fabrics of the bra.  I let it soak for 30 minutes, and then rinse it with lots of cold fresh water.  Then I hang it flat to dry.

The thing with the baking soda will work too for your fabric mermaid tail.  You have lots of info on how to deal with chlorine in this Mernetwork thread courtesy of Mermaid Iona.  As soon as I read about it I tried it with my new Magictail Arielle skin.  I have no way to know if it works, but I assure you that when the tail skin dried it smelled like new; no trace of chlorine odor.  So it must work...

Also, an update on the Magictail monofin: mine has a small fracture line that I am sure with time will get bigger.  I am not surprised, I had read that all Magictail monofins eventually break because of the material they are made of.  However, I will be buying another one, because one monofin every two years is a price I can afford, and I do not want to have to modify another monofin to fit my tails.  I will put pictures of the damage soon.

That is all I can think of.  If anyone has questions I would be happy to answer them.

A mermaid's tale

Bear with me, because this is a long story...

I was probably about 12 or 13 years-old when I got a book called "La sirena perdida" (The lost mermaid).  It was not a book you read from begining to end, but a book in which you get to choose your own adventure by taking decisions and turning to a specific page to continue the story. 

Book "La sirena perdida"

Anyway, I got to meet a mermaid named Tana, and she and I spent a lot of adventures together, some ending better than others, but all of them exciting.  I was frustrated that nowhere in the book was an ending in which I got a tail and ended up living in the ocean with her.  I wanted to be a mermaid. My mom sewed for me a pair of wool tights, so I got my own rustic mermaid tail, and I always put it on while reading the book.  We did not have then, or now, a culture of mermaids for little girls in Spain, so there was nowhere I could acquire bedsheets, or accesories to transform my room into a mermaid cave.  Oh well... I had my imagination, right?

A few weeks ago, I don't even know what I was doing, I ended up in YouTube, watching videos of people swimming in mermaid tails (I assumed they were neoprene or some kind of latex).  I was completely mesmerized by them, and I was like "Oh my gosh, you can buy those tails?!".  It did not took me long to find the maker's website, and my goodness, what an amazing work.  But I was completely crushed when I looked at the prices.  "Well", I thought, "maybe some day, when I am rich..."

But then it ocurred to me that maybe some other people sold mermaid tails too, so I found this website with a list of vendors.  I visited them all, but only one got my attention as potential customer: MagicTail.  The tails came in a variety of colors and sizes, were affordable, and you could actually swim with them because a monofin was included.  I loved the fact that the fabric was printed as if it had scales.  I wondered if I would find YouTube videos of these tails in action or reviews, so there I went.  And yes, I found them.  Everybody that had one seemed very happy with it, so after several days of consideration, I decided to gift myself one for the good grades I got in my lab tech course.

Two weeks later the tail has arrived, and I am in awe!  Here are some pics of it:

It came with matching top and bikini bottom

Detail of the fluke

Detail of the waist

Isn't the fabric amazing?

I could not wait to open it, and yes, even try it on!  The top does not fit me (I was not expecting it to); even though it's an XL, it said in the website "up to C cup".  The bikini bottom fits like a glove and does not move.  The tail is swimsuit-like fabric (maybe lycra?), and it is very soft.  The monofin is on the fluke, covered by a protector so it does not rip the fabric.  The monofin fits snuggly, but I could adjust it to my feet without trouble.  There is no risk of it loosing the gripe while swimming.  And it's very floppy!  The tail is stretchy, and goes up to my waist perfectly, and as it says in the commercial "it fits like a second skin".  The tail is hot while wearing it on land, but I guess that will be OK in water.  I will not be able to try it in the water until next month, but I'll let you know as soon as I do.  I am so looking forward to it!

Regarding the MagicTail website, it's very easy to open an account and place an order, and you can choose to have the page translated into English from German.  I paid with PayPal, so no troubles there. It took them a week to ship my tail, and they sent me an e-mail when they did.  I got the tail one week later, in perfect condition, excellently packaged and protected. 

When perusing the page for colors, I found a gold and orange tail called "H2O", which I found out was for fans of an Australian TV series that features 3 mermaids (which I have never seen).  Researching tails, I found that the tails used in the show cost 20K each.  For people with not a lot of money to spare I think MagicTails are great, specially after seeing the prices of silicone and latex tails, which are not affordable to most people. 

These tails are a good investment for anyone loving mermaids, small or grown-up, and I would recommend them to anyone looking to buy a mermaid tail.  Maybe I should buy now an H2O locket, which are gorgeous too?

In any case, I should go and read again "La sirena perdida".  Now with a real mermaid tail to put on!!