Temu slammed by shopper over croissant-shaped lamp – after she realised what it is actually made from

Sometimes things aren’t what they seem when you shop online – a dress might arrive at your door in a colour you weren’t expecting or perhaps a size too big.

But when Neta Murphy ordered a croissant lamp as a gift for her sister from the affordable Chinese shopping site Temu, she was stumped by what she discovered.

After returning home from work on a particularly hot day, Neta walked into her bedroom to find ants crawling all over the lamp.

‘Why the f*** would ants want a fake croissant?’ Neta questioned in her viral TikTok video, which has since amassed 1.3million views.

She explained: ‘The ants were going in the hole, so I just poked a bigger hole.’

The young woman ripped open the lamp to reveal the insides flaking away and covering her in crumbs as though it was a real croissant.

To test her hypothesis that the lamp was really pastry covered in resin, Neta decided to taste it.

‘I guess there’s one way to truly know’ Neta announced before chowing down on a chunk of the lamp.

The verdict? ‘It’s literally f*****g food,’ she exclaimed.

Viewers were left stunned by Neta’s edible discovery, with some demanding that Temu explain themselves.

One viewer commented: ‘NO THEY DIDN’T JUST SHOVE A LIGHT INSIDE A CROISSANT AND THEN COAT IT IN RESIN. I CAN’T.’

While another jokingly said: ‘I’ve got to check my cat lamp I got from Temu.’ A third added: ‘Did she just eat the Temu croissant lamp?’ 

But one TikTok user had an explanation for Temu selling a croissant covered in resin as a lamp.

Some TikTok users expressed their shock that the lamp was made of a real croissant – while others made jokes about ordering from Temu

‘I think it’s real croissant because it’s supposed to be a copy of the Yukiko Morita lamp,’ the user said. ‘She uses real bread and pastry like croissants. The bread is hollowed out but preserved with anti-fungal coating.’

Japanese artist and former baker Yukiko Morita was shocked at the amount of unsold bread going to waste and started coating the left-over loaves in resin to make lamps.

She eventually opened her business Pampshade to sell her bespoke artwork online; a trendy croissant lamp made by Yukiko Morita sells for £92. The croissant lamp sold by Temu costs just £8.99.

This is not the first time a shopper has made a grim discovery when opening their Temu order.

Kelly Kaye, from New Zealand, purchased nautical themed tiebacks for her curtains but was horrified when her Temu order ‘turned up stinking of shellfish’.

Cutting open what she thought was a decorative plastic starfish, Kelly realised she was handling the rotting corpse of the sea creature.

Kelly Kaye opened her nautical themed curtain ties and was hit with the ‘stinking of shellfish’

One user commented: ‘TEMU be wild with this’ to which Kelly replied: ‘Wild is right. A croissant is one thing, but a real starfish…’

Braving the stench, Kelly filmed the patterned insides of the real starfish and took to TikTok warn others about ordering from Temu. The disgusting clip has been seen by more than 9.8 million people.

One user wrote: ‘I don’t know what you expected. It’s Temu!’

But another argued that Kelly should have expected to receive a real starfish and said: ‘Why did you think it was fake? Dried starfish is a thing. In my seaside country they sell dried starfish all the time.’

A third user commented: ‘Temu be wild with this’ to which Kelly replied: ‘Wild is right. A croissant is one thing, but a real starfish…’

MailOnline has approached Temu for comment.