Blake Lively has revealed how her birthday was almost ruined - when she was attacked by bees the day before her big day.

The Gossip Girl star - who is married to Ryan Gosling - celebrated turning 27 on Monday August 25 - but revealed on her lifestyle blog Preserve how she was left in agony when a swarm of bees stung her all over her body in the middle of a photoshoot.

Blake wrote: "This felt terrible. Does your butt quite suddenly (and painfully) deflate when you turn 27? Because mine hurt like hell...

"Then my neck, back, legs and forehead. And oh my hands! They were shrivelling. It felt like I was being shot by dozens of tiny invisible darts. I felt like the Wicked Witch, melting, melting, burning, melting."

She went on: "I don't know enough about insects to say if they were wasps, honeybees or Mother Nature's miniature flying tasers. What I DO know, is that just moments before we were in the midst of a gorgeous fall fashion shoot. Now, I was a Monty Python sketch; running at top speed in no particular direction, whipping my arms and hands around like I'd just discovered they were growing out of my shoulders without my previous knowledge. There was a terrible sound piercing the air too... I was later informed this sound had emanated from my very own mouth.

"I was shaken. I was swollen. I had to stop what I was doing to recuperate and/or shrink."

The fashionista revealed how she tried to calm herself down after the trauma by decorating a vanilla cake to celebrate her birthday.

She revealed: "It wasn't until I covered the counters in coordinating candy sprinkles that I stopped to acknowledge: my butt will deflate more and more, my hands will shrivel and permanently prune, but I will never, ever grow up.

"It took a swarm of bees to remind me that a b-day is nothing but a number."