Empress Ember: https://empressember.com/
Sweet Nora Photography Yelp Page: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sweet-nora-photography-vacaville-4

THIS PHOTOGRAPHER HAS NOT STOLEN PHOTOS

Back in February I got a lot of messages about this vendor, Empress Ember, who sells garments to boudoir photographers. Their pasties sell for $50+ and their body cages sell for upwards of $250+. Often these items are heavily bejeweled. It seems their primary area for selling their items is via their Facebook Group which has about 4K members.

The gist is that these luxury pieces are falling apart and the company isn’t making things right with their clients.

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First, lets cover the names!

From what I have been told, Trisha and Lindsey, a mother/daughter duo, started out as Sweet Nora Photography in Vacaville, California which they rebranded to The Studio Haven around mid-2019 after some troubles with customer service issues. The complaints stem around them not being transparent about pricing, not delivering items on time and lack of replies to emails among other complaints. It does seem for the most part (there was one review about them slimming a client that wasn’t asked for) the photos/work was fine, it just was issues with everything else surrounding this company. The Studio Haven closed at the end of January 2025.

Soul Haven Boutique was a boutique that made gowns for photoshoots (mainly maternity) and body cages for boudoir that started in February of 2020 and eventually was shuttered later the same year. Allegedly there were issues with this company – mainly construction – but it was so long ago that I can’t find any reviews to back those claims stated to me.

Empress Ember opened in October 2022 and features only boudoir clothing selling mainly to boudoir photographers to keep in their closet for sessions. They sell pasties, body cages and body suits that have been adorned, most often with jewels, pearls and appliques for up to $650 a piece.

Now, onto the “tea” so to say.

Back in February I was made aware of a post circling Facebook that was highly detailed of a complaint from a client of Empress Ember’s.

To summarize: this person placed 3 orders with Empress Ember for around $2K. Items were missing, beads fell off before being worn, charms barely sewn on, rhinestones in the packaging from shipping that had fallen off the garments and appliqués were peeling off in the first two orders. EE asked them to send the items back to be repaired and they did so having faith they’d make things right. They sent final item while still having the old items and the final item was also falling apart. The client filed a chargeback for $1500, I have not heard if that went through or not.

I’m not going to include all 40+ images but here are some key ones from the post:

In the comments of this post, others echoed this person’s experience and also stated they had issues with their sizing, especially on the higher end. Most of these pieces are sold stating they can range in sizing and if the item were stretched for the larger size the beading that was barely held on would fall off.

I meant to mention the above in a post on the Substack but didn’t and opted to wait and see if anything else came to the surface regarding this company before deciding what to do with it all.

Shortly afterwards another negative review popped up regarding Empress Ember. The client purchased a body cage in August and reached out on New Years Eve to pay the shipping invoice since the item was being sent to another country. They paid for it on the 1st of January and reached out multiple times to get the tracking information. It never came. They ended up requesting a refund for the amount paid for the cage and shipping ($607.81). I do not know if it has been refunded.

But wait! There’s more!

There’s another review that’s come to light from someone that has spent $2K with the company and states that their pieces are also falling apart. This bodysuit in particular has glue stains on the back from when they glued the pieces to the front, the bodysuit crotch snap is glued over so it is not usable and the piece is tough to get into and things are falling off of it.

Recently someone else posted about how all 6 (!) piecesthey have purchased by them have issues – stones falling off, gluing coming undone, gems coming out of their clasps etc. The client was told to glue it back on and then when she pushed for a return due to the damages was told there was no refunds and it was claimed to be their rules. They then removed them from their group. The client filed for a chargeback and Empress Ember states they will be fighting it.

In the comments someone figured out that the one piece (Dapper Dandy, the iridescent piece) was used for a shoot before being sent to this client which may be why there were issues with this piece.

Moving away from the clothing but sticking with the theme of shitty customer service, there’s another review that has been posted from someone who bought neon signs from them after they had a sale when closing down their boudoir studio.

This photographer spent $750 for three neon signs with shipping included. There were a lot of delays with shipping and Empress Ember blamed the cost of shipping, illness, child issues, pet death etc. Finally the neons arrived but missing one of the items that was paid for. Lindsey claims that the separate neon was shipped separately but as of the posting it hadn’t arrived.

I am not even going to touch all the other complaints I’ve seen out there from boudoir clients and about their Facebook Group.

I wouldn’t be surprised if more issues come to light with this post. If you want your story told message me!

So… I guess this is a buyer beware when shopping with them!