'Big Brother Australia' star reveals facial scarring she said came from a TikTok beauty hack that gave her an infection and vision loss

• A "Big Brother Australia" contestant said she tried an at-home beauty procedure she saw on TikTok.
• Tilly Whitfeld said on Instagram that the procedure left her with an infection and scarring.
• She also said she temporarily lost her vision and was hospitalized.

A "Big Brother Australia" contestant said an at-home beauty procedure she saw on TikTok resulted in a hospital stay after an infection caused her to temporarily lose her vision.

Tilly Whitfeld, a contestant on Season 13 of Australia's version of the popular reality-competition series "Big Brother," is known to wear a blue clay face mask and wear heavy makeup on the show, which began airing in April.

In an Instagram post last Thursday, Whitfeld told her followers that this was because she suffered severe swelling and had large, red, broken welts across her cheekbones after trying to do at-home acupuncture. "I literally shoved needles deep into my skin," she wrote in the post.

Whitfeld shared pictures of the infection and said, "This is the result of attempting to remove scarring I inflicted on myself trying to replicate an at-home beauty procedure I saw on a TikTok video 2 months before big brother."

"Please please don't try any 'DIY' or' 'at home" beauty procedures," Whitfeld wrote in the post. "I ended up in hospital with temporary loss of vision in my eye due to swelling and was very sick from the infection, not to mention my face was somewhat unrecognizable."

In an edit to the post, she said that the dark pigmentation shows scarring deep below the surface of her skin.

Many of her followers offered support, leaving comments such as "You still brighten our screens and we love you for it," one person wrote. Another added, "You're an amazing human Tills, I adore you for having the courage and the love to share this. Bravo darling."

The Cut's Kathleen Hou suggested that Whitfeld might have attempted to give herself micro-needling. "Dermatologists agree that it's an effective way to help with acne scarring or hyperpigmentation, but it can be risky to do at home," Hou wrote. "Keeping the implements sterile and doing the procedure properly are big challenges."

As Whitfeld advised her followers: "Leave it to the professionals."