July 30th, 2025
Dr. Mulholland, Md
Eyelid surgery, or blepharoplasty, helps reverse the signs of aging around the eyes by removing fine lines, wrinkles, dark circles, and drooping eyelids. This results in a more alert and refreshed appearance. A smoother, tighter skin surface after the procedure makes makeup application easier and more effective, enhancing your overall look. One common question is, “How long after blepharoplasty can I wear makeup?” as makeup can impact the recovery process. This guide covers everything you need to know about eyelid surgery and makeup usage afterward.
How Does the Eye Region Age?
Before delving into post-surgery tips, it’s essential to understand how the eye ages and how blepharoplasty can correct these signs. As we age, the skin around our eyes loses elasticity, and the underlying muscles weaken. Fat cells beneath the skin diminish, creating empty spaces that lead to fine lines and wrinkles. This aging process affects not only the eyelids but also the under-eye area, impacting both appearance and vision.
Drooping eyelids, a result of weakened muscles and less elastic skin, can make a person look perpetually tired. In severe cases, the upper eyelid can droop so low that it impairs vision, a condition known as ptosis. This can make everyday tasks like driving, reading, and working at a screen difficult. Additionally, the lower eyelids can sag and sometimes curl outward, preventing proper eye closure. This can lead to eye irritation, dryness, and an increased risk of dirt and debris entering the eye.
The under-eye area is also affected by aging. Dark circles appear as the fat under the eye thins, making blood vessels more visible. Puffy bags form when fluid collects in the space under the eye, causing the area to swell over time. Blepharoplasty can help address these issues, rejuvenating the eye area and enhancing both appearance and functionality.
How Makeup Can Stress the Eye
While makeup can help conceal certain appearance concerns, it can also have adverse, counterproductive effects on the skin. Excessive rubbing and pulling of the eyelid region can accelerate the loss of elasticity, leading to wrinkles and sagging. The delicate eyelid skin is much thinner than other areas of the face, making it particularly susceptible to damage.
Tugging on the skin to apply eyeliner or using makeup removers with harsh chemicals can irritate and damage the eyelid area. For example, pulling the eyelids taut to apply eyeliner, pressing too firmly with a brush or sponge when applying eye shadow, or rubbing your fingers can break down collagen in the area. Similarly, removing makeup can be harsh on the skin, especially if the makeup remover contains alcohol or other damaging ingredients. These actions can contribute to accelerated aging of the delicate skin of the eyelids.
What is Blepharoplasty?
Blepharoplasty is a cosmetic surgery procedure that helps to reduce the number of different signs of aging around the eyes. In general, blepharoplasty can take 10 years off of your face. While the methods will vary slightly depending on the issue to be treated, in general, the process goes something like this.
First, the patient is placed under a general anesthetic. Then incisions are made along the natural creases of the eyelids to minimize scarring in the area. Then any excess fatty tissue is removed, muscles are tightened, and the skin is smoothed to reduce the signs of wrinkles. Any excess skin is then removed.
Under-eye blepharoplasty addresses other issues, such as dark circles and puffy bags, by removing excess skin and redistributing fat to restore youthful fullness under the eyes.
In general, the procedure takes 2-3 hours and starts at $6,999. This includes our comprehensive post-op skin Anti-Aging Skin Rejuvenation program. It typically takes around 7-10 days to recover from a blepharoplasty procedure.
What is Double Eyelid Surgery?
Double eyelid surgery is another cosmetic eyelid procedure that specifically treats eyelids without creases, known as monolids or single lids. While this is not a medical condition, some wish to treat it to make their eyes appear larger or to improve symmetry when one eyelid is monolid and the other is double. One of the commonly desired outcomes of this surgery is easier application of makeup.
How Long After Eyelid Surgery Can I Wear Makeup?
While applying eye makeup soon after double eyelid surgery or other eyelid procedures can be tempting, it’s crucial to wait a proper amount of time to ensure complete healing and minimize infection risks. Typically, the initial recovery period is around a week, but the area remains sensitive for several weeks.
It is generally recommended to avoid wearing contacts until the second week of recovery and to refrain from applying makeup for at least ten days following the procedure. However, waiting a few weeks is preferable to ensure thorough healing. Here’s why it’s important to wait for sufficient healing before applying makeup after eyelid surgery:
- Sensitivity and Irritation: The skin and tissues around the eyes are very delicate post-surgery. Applying makeup too soon can cause irritation and slow the healing process.
- Infection Risks: Makeup can introduce bacteria to the healing area, increasing the risk of infection. Waiting allows the skin to heal and reduces this risk.
- Optimal Results: Allowing the eyelids to heal fully ensures the best possible surgical outcome, free from complications that could arise from premature makeup application.
Invisible to the eye but very much there, your hands, makeup brushes, and the makeup itself host bacteria. With proper brush cleaning and handwashing, these bacteria generally do not cause issues for the eye; however, following eyelid surgery, such as blepharoplasty, the eye region is sensitive and prone to infection, especially if any incisions are still healing. These bacteria can slow down your healing and even cause an infection in the surgical area.
Bacteria
It is advised not to apply makeup with your fingers during recovery. Additionally, bacteria thrive in makeup containers such as mascara brushes and eyeliner tubes, so it is advised to toss these products every few months.
Pressure
The pressing and pulling of makeup applications, from eyeliner to brushes, can apply pressure to the skin. This can cause incisions to stretch and reopen, leading to wound weeping, infection, delayed healing, and more noticeable scarring.
Irritation
With the skin being sensitive during recovery, applying makeup after eyelid surgery too quickly can irritate the area, causing physical discomfort like itchiness, tenderness, and burning on the eyes.
Post-Surgical Makeup Tips
Ideally, a patient will wait 2-3 weeks after the procedure and obtain their surgeon’s approval before applying makeup following blepharoplasty. When you begin to apply makeup again, there are some tips to make the transition as gentle as possible.
Start Gentle
With the eye region being more sensitive post-surgery, starting with gentler, non-comedogenic, water-based cosmetics will help you transition back to skincare and makeup. Avoid products with strong pigmentation, as these products can stain the skin and require a harsher makeup removal process. Likewise, avoid makeup with glitter, as the fallout can cause eye irritation and get stuck in the healing incision.
Once you feel confident that using gentler products does not cause you any issues, you can slowly transition back to standard cosmetics.
Keep Things Sterile and Clean
As previously mentioned, your recovery eyes will be more prone to bacterial infection, so you might want to use new or thoroughly cleaned applicators, such as brushes and sponges, when applying makeup after double eyelid surgery and blepharoplasty. Bacteria can also accumulate in the makeup pans themselves from residual brush dipping and finger swatching, so avoiding older, heavily used makeup while recovering is a good idea.
Take Care When Removing
Prolonged makeup wear, especially sleeping with makeup, is not recommended, even for the eyes, let alone for those recovering from a procedure. Thus, removal of makeup after double eyelid surgery is important, but fresh or sensitive incisions and skin can make the process difficult. Using gentler, water-based makeup will make removal easier; thus, a gentler makeup remover is also advised to avoid harsh chemicals, skin drying, and excessive rubbing.
Re-Learn your Technique
As is the goal for the procedure, following your eyelid procedure, your eyes will be smoother, tighter, and shaped differently from their previous form. For example, makeup after double eyelid surgery will now utilize an entirely new crease on the eye.
This may cause the way you apply makeup to change slightly, allowing you to discover new looks, techniques, and processes.
Other Recovery Tips
Besides recovery tips for cosmetics and eye makeup, other tips help you recover more easily and quickly from eyelid surgery. Firstly, it is very important to properly rest your eyes and keep them free of strain during recovery. This means reducing activities that place greater strain on the eyes, such as watching television, extensive use of computer and cell phone screens, or reading pages with small print. While this can make for a bit of a boring recovery, it is an important part of the process and typically only lasts a few days.
When it comes to sleeping, it’s important to keep your head elevated with pillows for at least two weeks following eyelid surgery. This will help prevent swelling, pressure, and fluid collection in the eye area. Additionally, side sleeping is strongly discouraged to prevent direct pressure on the recovery area. If you are a side sleeper, using airline pillows, a “husband” pillow, or other means to prevent rolling in your sleep is advisable.
Protect Your Eyelids From Sun Exposure
Protecting your eyelids from sun exposure is crucial to preventing sun damage and pigmentation. The skin around the eyes is delicate and more susceptible to the harmful effects of UV rays. Using a broad-spectrum SPF around the eyelids can help shield the area from these damaging effects. Additionally, wearing sunglasses with UV protection not only guards your eyes but also the surrounding skin, reducing the risk of sunburn, dark spots, and premature aging. Taking these precautions can help maintain the youthful appearance of your eyelids and enhance the longevity of your surgical results.
Can I Get Blepharoplasty Again?
One question we get at our clinic is if blepharoplasty can be performed more than once.
In general, eyelid surgeries last five to seven years before the natural signs of aging begin to show again in the area. Blepharoplasty can absolutely be performed again as needed; however, it is important to consult with your surgeon, as alternative procedures may be necessary in addition to or instead of eyelid surgery. For example, the cause of the drooping eyelid may, in fact, be a drooping brow rather than the eyelid itself, and thus a forehead lift/brow lift may be the more appropriate surgical course of action rather than further blepharoplasty.
When it comes to lower eyelid surgery, the procedure generally lasts much longer and rarely ever needs to be repeated.
Interested in Eyelid Surgery?
If you have concerns about your eyes, whether it’s the shape, size, drooping, or wrinkles, our clinic and skilled team of surgeons can help treat you. Toronto Plastic Surgeons Wellness Centre is well-known for its careful and pristine work in blepharoplasty and double-eyelid surgery and has performed thousands of procedures within its 25+ years of practice.
When you choose Toronto Plastic Surgeons Wellness Centre, you’re putting yourself into the hands of a clinic that prides itself on high expertise, professional conduct, and the utmost concern and care for our patients.
If you want to know more about eyelid surgery or have any questions about makeup application during the recovery period, feel free to schedule a consultation with us today or call us at 647-723-3739 and speak with a member of our team.
Dr. Stephen Mulholland, Md
Dr. Stephen Mulholland has been practicing plastic surgery for over 20 years. He is one of Canada’s most renowned and best plastic surgeons in Toronto with his wealth of experience, artistry, and humbleness towards his patients.
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