It literally blew up in her face. A UK woman’s attempt to poach eggs using a viral TikTok hack backfired horribly after the experiment egg-sploded in her face, leaving her with ghastly burns. Her recorded public service announcement warning other home cooks against the practice currently boasts over 120,000 views on the video platform.
“I’ve literally burned my full face and my neck off,” described Chantelle Conway in a July 4 clip detailing her experience with the time-saving TikTok shortcut, in which online epicures allegedly poach eggs to runny perfection by sticking them in the microwave for 90 seconds.
The accompanying footage shows the Farnworth, England, native lying in bed with horrific Freddy Krueger-esque burns on her face. The fiasco occurred on July 2 after the 25-year-old home cook cracked a raw egg into a cup of boiling water and placed the nosh in the microwave for 10 seconds, the Sun reported. Conway didn’t think twice about the poorly hatched poaching method, which she had been utilizing for two years since “it was just a quicker and easier way of doing” it, the mother of two told Kennedy News.
Unbeknownst to her, it was a recipe for disaster. “It was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life, and I’ve had two natural childbirths.” Things went awry after the amateur chef dipped a cold spoon in the boiling water to remove the egg, sparking a reaction that caused scalding liquid to shoot all over her “face and neck.”
“It was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life, and I’ve had two natural childbirths,” described the pained parent, who was home alone with her 18-month-old daughter, Heidi-River Ball, at the time of the freak accident. She added, “It felt like someone had a blowtorch on my face constantly, and I was convinced my whole face had burnt off.”
In order to alleviate the agony, the quick-thinking Conway doused herself with cold water, which medics later said spared her from suffering third-degree burns. The badly scalded gal then called her ex-partner Mark Ball, 34, who arrived at the house an excruciating hour later, whereupon he drove her to the Royal Bolton Hospital.
Upon seeing how much pain Conway was in, medics immediately administered her morphine and put the patient in a jelly face mask for two hours. This further prevented the scalding victim from experiencing life-threatening burns.
Unfortunately, the healing process over the next few weeks wasn’t exactly a picnic. The mother’s face began to blister and burst, before eventually sloughing off in big swatches, the Sun reported.
“I’m coming to the end of it now and my burnt skin is shedding off like a snake,” lamented Conway. “I’m not in much pain now, but it’s very itchy and the inside of my nose and lips are still very raw.”
And the wounds are more than just physical as the burn victim claims her 5-year-old daughter “hates” her croissant-like countenance. “She told me the other day she doesn’t like my face like this, and it breaks my heart,” said Conway, who says she worries “what the baby thinks, as well, like if she’s scared of me or doesn’t recognize me.”
Conway has since detailed her agonizing recovery in a series of videos in an effort to dissuade other potential egg microwavers from following suit. “It was silly of me to do it, and I just want more people to know what can happen, so it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” said Conway, who has reportedly sworn off huevos entirely in light of the face-melting ordeal.
She said, “I get flashbacks, and it’s put me off cooking. I’ll never have an egg again because I’m so traumatized.” Indeed, this isn’t the first time the microwave hack has left someone with grievous injuries. Another UK girl had to be hospitalized in 2019 after her “minute huevos” exploded in her face, searing her skin off like napalm.
For a better, less face-scorching egg-sperience, we recommend consulting The Post’s roundup of the most ingenious egg hacks on TikTok.