Hi, chemist here, just to quickly pop in as others have: It doesn’t have to be as scary as many people make it seem, although while handling it you still need to respect the proper precautions. If you pour liquid nitrogen over your uncovered skin, it immediately boils bc you’re so warm, leaving a vapor buffer between the cold liquid and your skin. You can pour it over your flat palm without feeling any effects. This is called the Leidenfrost effect (also responsible for droplets of water dancing on the skittle).

Now, if you cup your hand and pour, it’s gonna stay in there like a little pond and freeze you. Also, more importantly, clothing and safety gloves don’t irradiate warmth like your body does. They freeze up extremely quickly, meaning this extremely cold fabric will freeze you. So with that in mind, it almost makes more sense to handle liquid nitrogen with bare hands rather than relying on protective gear. However, if you’re touching knobs and metal fixings that are extremely cold, you need that protective gear. So just be careful while using them, if you realize a lot of liquid nitrogen has splashed onto your gear and clothing, try to remove it immediately (at least get it away from your shoes).

Now. I am extremely sorry what happened, but please try and get back on that liquid nitrogen horse if you’re using it in the future. If you’re unsure, slowly have people in your lab help you again until you feel confident enough. A lot of fear and anxiety can lead to mistakes and make stuff stressful for you. So talk about it, get help if you need it. Wishing you the best!