A bride-to-be feared she would have to walk down the aisle looking "like an alien" after a beautician tinted her eyebrows by accident - even though she is allergic to eyebrow tint.
Tamika Cleggett visited a new beautician four months before her wedding and booked in for her eyebrows to be waxed and coloured with pencil, but was horrified at the end of the session when she discovered her brows had been tinted without her knowledge.
Hours later, the 30-year-old felt her brows starting to become warm and irritated - and over the course of the next four days, her reaction worsened.
Eventually, the retail manager was hospitalised for two days and the build-up of fluid around her eyes became so severe that they "completely sealed" - leaving her blind for 24 hours and fearing she'd never see again.
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Tamika - who endured the horror back in 2016 - spent three weeks off work but thankfully made a recovery in four weeks, and was able to attend her wedding as planned four months later.
Now, the woman, from Perth, Australia, is speaking out about her ordeal to raise awareness that such severe allergic reactions can happen, and to urge everyone to do patch tests before such beauty treatments.
She said: "They tinted my eyebrows without my permission. I didn't think to mention that I was allergic to tint as I'd asked for just a brow wax and a bit of pencil.
"I was worried I would walk down the aisle looking like an alien. I would have cancelled the wedding and eloped.
"Everyone growing up has always said I'm a very photogenic and personable person and I suppose something like that where people will see me differently, that was kind of scary as well, not being myself and people thinking of me or looking at me differently.
"I wasn't in a good place mentally because obviously with my wedding and the unknown of if I'd be able to see again or have any scarring, it was daunting.
"My biggest fear was the unknown of what was going to happen next."
Tamika explained the feeling during the reaction was "the most painful thing" she had ever experienced, and left her terrified of what would happen to her.
She added: "It was definitely the most painful thing I'd ever experienced. It was an itchy reaction at first and I put eye packs on it but it didn't do anything.
"For at least four days it just kept on getting worse and worse and then the fluid build-up stopped. It dropped further down my face and that's what made me look a bit deformed.
"I was completely blind for 24 hours as my eyes were completely sealed. That was quite scary, especially because it was four months before my wedding."
The woman posted a video on TikTok explaining her ordeal, which has amassed more than 220,000 likes, comments and views.
And Tamika hopes that speaking about her experience will encourage others to be more careful with beauty treatments, and to speak up about their allergies before their appointments.
She said: "I wanted to raise awareness about what happened.
"To me it felt that time had healed and enough time had past and TikTok was an easier platform to do so, it reaches more people than what Facebook would do.
"Especially for young teens who are wanting to use more make-up or hair dye and I suppose to spread the awareness that some people can have allergies because I didn't know until I had a tattoo [henna] and then my eyelashes done.
"You just never know, just to give that extra caution to make sure that you do patch tests or if you go to a beautician that you actually sign something mentioning that you have allergies."
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