Composition: 96 % cotton, 4 % sparkle
Weight: 300 g/m²
Size: 7
Russian Jordan’s Carry
Kuukivi, which translates from Finnish poetically as “moonstone”, is a younger, cheaper and less fancy sibling of the Polish Loombera (well, at least I think so; there is no official website aside from the Facebook page and even Slingofest does not seem to know Kuukivi yet – I only assume that Kuukivi and Loombera are related because they are connected by the same person in charge, Aleksandra Glabus, and that they have shared fan groups on Facebook 😉 ). Otherwise, Kuukivi is as mysterious as it own name.
I tried to understand why Kuukivi is Aleksandra’s separate project; i.e. that it is a “budget” brand for that part of the babywearing public who cannot afford a Loombera. However, I do not see much distinction from its sister. The patterns are not that different (to be specific, Loombera’s forest animals “Skógardýr” resemble quite a bit to Kuukivi’s wrap fauna), there are not only low-cost all-cotton wraps (or almost-all-cotton wraps such as Bulik) in the brand’s portfolio and some of them are in no way “cheap” (for example PigCorn size 6 with tussah costs 189 Euro). I am not saying that there is something wrong with Kuukivi because of this; I just cannot find the right and well-founded “why” (like in case of, for example, the sibling couples Solnce – Yaro, Wild Slings – ROAR or Luluna – Loly Woven).
Back to Bulik itself – it is a very pleasant wrap; very soft and cushy, quite thick but it makes up for it many times because it is perfectly pliable. The metallic thread is really fine and hardly feelable at the first touch. I suppose it will have tendency to fray a bit but that is just a prize one has to pay when wanting a soft and smooth sparkly wrap. As to its tying properties, tying went smooth, it is not slippery, nor too grippy, it held in the carry without any problems, felt slightly elastic on my shoulders and wearing my 13kg Emilka was a piece of cake. The only negative (again, a prize one has to pay so that the weave is so soft a cushy) is that it is quite prone to pulls.
As to its looks, Linda and I, we call such wraps “dog’s balls” (and not only those with actual dogs in the pattern) which is a saying Czechs use to describe something very shiny or sparkly. Linda loves them, I – not so much. Actually the only (only moderately) sparkly wrap I own is our own “vhadru” Dekka-custom Elementy Peppa. However, I must admit that the sparkle combined with this beautiful shade of blue really suits these space-starry-shiny doggies.
Hereby we want to thank the owner of the wrap for the opportunity to test it!