“Ocular Damage and Chemical Burns” — Bath & Body Works Freshener Allegedly Explodes, Injuring Woman

A Bath & Body Works customer who purchased one of the popular retailer's car air fresheners claims that one of the fragrant pods overheated in her car and blew up in her face, resulting in "ocular damage and chemical burns."

Kyndal Bret (@kyndal_bret) documented her stay in the hospital as a result of the explosion in a viral clip that's accrued over 24.9 million views on the popular social media platform. Numerous folks are urging her to sue the store for damages and the "fat" emergency room bill incurred as a result of the explosion.

"POV: a bath and body works car air freshener overheated and exploded in your face so now you have OCULAR DAMAGE AND CHEMICAL BURNS" a text overlay in the video reads as Kyndal is recorded patting her eyes with a handkerchief.

The video then cuts to her showing the ceiling of her vehicle, which is covered in splotches. Another overlay pops up on the screen explaining what these stains are: "not to mention.. IT LITERALLY BLEACHED THE INTERIOR OF MY CAR

The clip transitions back to her in what appears to be a hospital bed, again, covering her face with a handkerchief.

In a follow-up video, she responded to a comment made by another user on the app who quipped: "I bet your face smells good though"

Kyndal retorted with a lip-sync of someone else saying, "I'm smiling but it ain't funny," adding in a caption for the video that she's planning on visiting the doctor again for further evaluations.

Commenters in response to the video speculated that there is a potential lawsuit brewing between Kyndal and Bath & Bodyworks: "if there IS a lawsuit going, isn't there like a thing where you can't talk about it until it's gone to court right??"

This seems to be the case, according to another user on the platform who wrote that she more than likely took down another video further explaining the accident and presumably, the extent of her injuries: "Ya i think thats why her explanation vid had to come down. Protect that bag"

For others, they were just happy to see that Kendal was tending to whatever injuries she sustained in the accident and wished her a speedy recovery after the air freshener blew up into her grill: "everyone saying sue, like yes get your bag girl, but more than anything I hope you're OK and didn't lose any senses or function!"

This isn't the first time that an air freshener was linked to an in-car explosion. The BBC reported a driver who sprayed their vehicle with excessive aerosol freshener found themselves in a heated situation after they sparked up a cigarette after using the freshener, which resulted in a combustion that saw their whip go up in flames.

Another incident involving car air fresheners occurred in Thailand, Newsflare reported in 2022. A canister of the sweet smelling fragrance erupted after being subjected to high temperatures which were probably only exacerbated from being inside of a vehicle on a hot day, creating a greenhouse effect.

Unlike the explosions referenced in the aforementioned media stories, Bath & Body Works' car air fresheners appear to operate differently than aerosol cans.

The chain sells holders for its car air fresheners, which come in pods.

From the sound of Kyndal's story, it seems that the freshening material in her pod was heated to such an extent that it boiled over and exploded in her face after marinating in her vehicle, which resulted in the injuries she says she sustained.

According to one TikToker who responded to her video, it seems like Bath & Body Works may've known that this product was capable of doing this for a while: "I used to work there and this has been happening for yearssss"

Distractify has reached out to Bath & Body Works for further comment.