A Horrible Flavor Oil Allergic Reaction

[Noodle]

Today I made a batch of lip balm. One of the flavor oils that I was working with was cherry from BCN. I ended up spilling a bit and it got on the palm of my hand. I was in such a rush to resume what I was doing because hot balm hardens quickly. I just wiped my hand with a paper towel and started pouring. Right away the palm of my hand started itching like crazy and felt hot. But I tolerated it and finished pouring 48 tubes of balm. This took a few minutes, and by that time the discomfort was almost unbearable. I looked at my hand and it was hivey, red, and VERY swollen. I could barely move it. I ran it under cold water for a good two or three minutes. Then I washed it with plain shower gel base because I did not want ANYTHING to aggravate it further. The itchiness stopped immedietly which was a great sign. I popped a benadryl and an hour later it was all cleared up. What the heck happened??? Needless to say, I will NOT be sampling this balm on my lips. I will let DH try it. Has anything like this ever happened to you?

[RobinInOR]

Youch, how scary for you! I've dumbly tried putting a small drop of flavor oil on my lips, straight from the bottle. Not a nice feeling at all. Flavor oils are pretty concentrated, and I can see where undiluted oil could cause a problem, but it sounds like you had quite a reaction. Have you ever been allergic to almonds or cherries or other related stuff?

[Noodle]

I absolutely love cherries. However, when I was pregnant with my daughter a few years ago, I had a horrible reaction to bing cherries and had to go to the doctor's office. I thought that it was an isolated incident. I have worked with many cherry fragrance oils. I never tthought that something like a flavor oil would affect me this way!