In this guide16 sections
- Key Points
- Can You Have Blepharoplasty and a Mini Facelift at the Same Time?
- What Does Each Operation Treat? Does a Mini Facelift Include the Eyes?
- Why Have Eyelid Surgery and a Mini Facelift Together?
- Is It Safe to Have Blepharoplasty and a Mini Facelift Together?
- Who Is a Good Candidate for Combined Eyelid Surgery and a Mini Facelift?
- Do You Need a Brow Lift or Neck Lift as Well?
- How Long Does Combined Eyelid Surgery and a Mini Facelift Take?
- How Long Is Recovery After Blepharoplasty and a Mini Facelift?
- How Long Do Blepharoplasty and Mini Facelift Results Last?
- What Are the Risks of a Mini Facelift With Eyelid Surgery?
- Are There Alternatives to Blepharoplasty and a Mini Facelift?
- What Happens at a Blepharoplasty and Mini Facelift Consultation in London?
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Blepharoplasty and Mini Facelift in London
- References
Key Points
- Can you have blepharoplasty and a mini facelift at the same time? Yes. For most healthy adults the two operations can be done together under one anaesthetic, with one recovery rather than two.
- They treat different areas. Blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery) treats heavy upper lids and under-eye bags. A mini facelift lifts the jowls, jawline and lower cheeks. A mini facelift does not include the eyes.
- Combined surgery is well studied. In a 2025 cohort of 380 facelift patients, 57% had blepharoplasty at the same time and none had a major complication[1].
- Risk rises a little with longer surgery. In a large US safety database, facelifts combined with other procedures had a higher complication rate than facelifts alone, so your health, smoking status and blood pressure matter[3].
- Recovery follows the slower operation. Expect around 7 to 10 days before you look presentable at work, stitches out at about a week, and full exercise at around 6 weeks.
- Not everyone needs both. A dropped brow, a loose neck or a drooping upper lid (ptosis) can change the plan, which is why a face-to-face assessment with the surgeon who will operate comes first.
Many people notice the eyes first and the jawline second, and ask whether one operation can deal with both. Combining blepharoplasty with a mini facelift is one of the most common pairings in facial surgery, because the two procedures work on separate areas and do not interfere with each other. This guide explains what each operation treats, whether it is safe to combine them, how long surgery and recovery take, and when a different combination makes more sense.
If you are still deciding, our guides to upper vs lower blepharoplasty and facelift vs mini facelift explain the choices in each area, and the full facelift page covers the bigger operation. Costs are confirmed in writing after your consultation.
Can You Have Blepharoplasty and a Mini Facelift at the Same Time?
Yes, in most cases you can. The eyelids and the lower face are separate surgical fields, so a surgeon can operate on both in one sitting without either procedure compromising the other. In practice it is common: in a 2025 retrospective cohort of 380 MACS-lift patients ↗ published in Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, blepharoplasty was one of the most frequent additions, performed alongside the lift in 57.4% of cases, and no major complications occurred[1]. The MACS-lift is a short-scar lift in the same family as the mini facelift, and the average operating time in that series was close to four hours, longer than most combined eyelid and mini facelift operations.
Being able to combine them does not mean everyone needs both. Your surgeon will assess your eyelids, brow, cheeks, jawline and neck together and recommend only what your face needs.
What Does Each Operation Treat? Does a Mini Facelift Include the Eyes?
A mini facelift does not include the eyes. It is a short-scar lower facelift for early jowls and a softening jawline, and it lifts the deeper SMAS layer through an incision in front of the ear. Heavy lids, hooding and bags under the eyes are not corrected by it, which is why a mini facelift is so often paired with eyelid surgery. A mini facelift also does not lift the brow, and it does not treat a loose lower neck, which is why a neck lift is sometimes added.
What does blepharoplasty (eyelid lift) treat?
Blepharoplasty, also called an eyelid lift or eyelid surgery, removes excess skin from hooded upper lids and removes or repositions the fat pockets that cause eye bags under the eyes. Upper blepharoplasty uses an incision hidden in the natural eyelid crease. Lower blepharoplasty works from inside the lid, leaving no visible scar, or just below the lashes when loose skin needs removing too. Patient satisfaction is high: in a 2022 multicentre prospective study of 2,134 upper blepharoplasty patients ↗, satisfaction with the result was high at six months, patients felt they looked 3.3 years younger on average, and the results were stable between six and twelve months[2].
What does a mini facelift treat?
A mini facelift lifts the lower third of the face: early jowls, a softening jawline and the lower cheeks. The scar sits in the crease in front of the ear and curves around the earlobe, without the long hairline extension of a full facelift. It suits people whose changes are early and whose neck is still reasonably firm. If your jowls are marked or your neck is loose, a full facelift or a lower facelift may suit you better, and our guide to sagging jowls explains the options.
Upper, lower or both eyelids?
It depends on where the problem is. Hooding and a heavy fold over the lashes point to upper blepharoplasty, bulging fat under the eye points to lower blepharoplasty, and many people in their fifties have both. A hooded eyelid and a bag under the eye are separate problems with separate fixes, and treating both lids in the same operation as the facelift is usual rather than unusual.
Why Have Eyelid Surgery and a Mini Facelift Together?
There are practical and aesthetic reasons to combine them.
- One anaesthetic and one recovery. One period of swelling and bruising and one block of time off work, instead of two spread across a year.
- A balanced result. Rejuvenating only the lower face can leave tired eyes more noticeable, and rejuvenating only the eyes can leave heavier-looking jowls. Doing both avoids a mismatch.
- Usually less cost than two operations. One anaesthetic, one theatre booking and one set of aftercare appointments. Your price is confirmed in writing after consultation, and our blepharoplasty cost and facelift cost guides explain what is included.
Against that, a longer operation means more time under anaesthesia and a slightly higher chance of a complication, which is covered next.
Is It Safe to Have Blepharoplasty and a Mini Facelift Together?
For suitable patients operated on by a qualified surgeon, it is generally safe, but it is not risk-free, and combined surgery carries a little more risk than either operation alone. In a 2016 prospective analysis of 11,300 facelift patients ↗ in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, the overall major complication rate was 1.8%, and haematoma (1.1%) and infection (0.3%) were the most common. Combined procedures accounted for 57.4% of the facelifts, and carried up to a 3.7% complication rate against 1.5% for facelifts alone. Combined surgery and a BMI of 25 or more increased the risk of infection, and male sex increased the risk of haematoma[3]. That database covers all kinds of add-on procedures, not eyelid surgery specifically, but it shows why surgeons plan combined operations carefully.
The picture is similar in men. A 2018 prospective cohort of more than 5,800 men having cosmetic surgery ↗ found major complication rates similar to women (2.1% in both), but combined procedures were an independent predictor of major complications[4]. In a single surgeon’s series of 1,089 facelifts the haematoma rate was 0.9%, and male sex was again the significant factor[5]. See the differences between male and female facelifts.
How safe is the eyelid part of the operation?
Blepharoplasty has a low complication profile. A 2025 systematic review of 36 studies of lower blepharoplasty ↗ found no major complications causing ocular or visual disturbance, and most functional or aesthetic problems resolved with conservative management or revision surgery[6].
The complication people worry about most is loss of vision. It is very rare: a survey of UK and US aesthetic surgeons covering 752,816 blepharoplasties found visual loss in about 1 in 20,000 cases and permanent visual loss in about 1 in 30,000. It usually began within 24 hours, was most often linked to bleeding behind the eye, and high blood pressure was the most common risk factor[7]. This is why blood pressure is controlled before surgery, and why increasing eye pain or a change in vision afterwards needs an immediate call to the clinical team. See eyelid surgery risks and facelift complications.
Who Is a Good Candidate for Combined Eyelid Surgery and a Mini Facelift?
You are more likely to be a good candidate if you are over 18 and in good general health with a stable weight, your jowls have softened but your neck is fairly firm, your eyelid problem is in the lids rather than a low brow, any blood pressure problem is well controlled, you are a non-smoker (or can stop all nicotine for four weeks before and after surgery), and your expectations are realistic. Surgery should make you look rested, not like a different person. See the ideal age for blepharoplasty and the right age for a facelift.
When should the two operations be done separately?
Staging makes sense if you have severe dry eye, uncontrolled thyroid eye disease or blood pressure, an active eye infection, or a medical condition that makes a long anaesthetic less safe, or if you smoke and cannot stop; see smoking and cosmetic surgery.
Do You Need a Brow Lift or Neck Lift as Well?
Sometimes, and this is the most common reason a plan changes at consultation. The brow, eyelids, cheeks and neck affect each other.
Brow lift or blepharoplasty?
If your brow has dropped, it pushes the upper lid down and makes it look heavy. Removing lid skin then leaves the heaviness in place. Lift the outer end of the eyebrow with a fingertip: if the heaviness disappears, a brow lift may be the better operation, and if the fold stays, the problem is lid skin. See brow lift vs blepharoplasty. The two are often combined: in a 2025 series of 28 women ↗ having a lateral brow lift with upper blepharoplasty, satisfaction was high, and the brow position improved significantly at a mean follow-up of 11 months[8].
Is a drooping upper eyelid the same as hooding?
No. Hooding is excess skin, while a drooping lid (ptosis) is a weakness of the muscle that opens the eye, so the lid edge sits too low. Ptosis needs its own correction, which Centre for Surgery can carry out, and it is usually assessed at the same consultation. Our guide to droopy eyelids explains the difference.
Neck lift or fat transfer with a mini facelift
A mini facelift does not meaningfully treat the neck, so neck bands, loose neck skin or fat under the chin point towards adding a neck lift, or towards a full facelift. Hollow cheeks and under-eye hollows respond to facial fat transfer, which restores volume rather than removing skin. See procedures that complement a facelift.
How Long Does Combined Eyelid Surgery and a Mini Facelift Take?
A mini facelift takes 2 to 3 hours on its own, and 3 to 4 hours when combined with eyelid surgery, fat transfer or a neck lift. Eyelid surgery on its own takes 1 to 1.5 hours for the upper lids, 1.5 to 2 hours for the lower lids, and 2.5 to 3 hours for upper and lower lids together, so adding all four lids will lengthen the operation. Your surgeon will give you an estimate once the plan is agreed.
What anaesthetic is used for a mini facelift with blepharoplasty?
A mini facelift is usually done under local anaesthetic, with or without sedation. When it is combined with other procedures such as eyelid surgery, we use TIVA (total intravenous anaesthesia), so you are asleep and comfortable throughout. For eyelid surgery on its own, upper lids can be done under local anaesthetic, while lower or combined eyelid surgery is done under TIVA. Our guide to local anaesthetic or TIVA for eyelid surgery explains the choice. You go home the same day, and after sedation or TIVA a responsible adult must stay with you for 24 hours.
How Long Is Recovery After Blepharoplasty and a Mini Facelift?
Recovery after a combined operation is one recovery that follows whichever of the two is slower. For most people that means about a week and a half before you look presentable, and around six weeks before every restriction is lifted. Your own timeline will vary, and your surgeon will give you written aftercare instructions.
What does recovery look like week by week?
- Days 1 to 4: Swelling and bruising peak at days 2 to 4. Your face feels tight, with patches of numbness, and pain is usually mild.
- Around day 7: Stitches come out. Many people are comfortable at the office at 7 to 10 days, using make-up to cover bruising.
- Weeks 2 to 3: Light walking and gentle cardio from about week 2. Contact lenses can usually be worn again at 2 to 3 weeks.
- Week 6: Full exercise is usually allowed, as eyelid restrictions run longer than after a mini facelift.
- Months 1 to 3: Swelling settles and the contour becomes clearer. Scars fade over 6 to 12 months.
Our blepharoplasty recovery and facelift recovery guides go week by week for each operation, and sleeping after a facelift has practical tips.
How long do I have to sleep sitting up after surgery?
Sleep on your back with your head raised on two pillows for at least the first week. Keeping your head above your heart helps swelling drain, and the eyelids swell more than almost anywhere else on the face. Avoid sleeping on your side or front while the incisions heal.
When should I contact the clinic after surgery?
Call straight away for increasing eye pain or pressure, a sudden change in vision, rapid swelling on one side of the face or neck, a fever, or a wound that is opening. These can be early signs of bleeding or infection.
How Long Do Blepharoplasty and Mini Facelift Results Last?
Both last for years, though neither stops ageing. Upper eyelid results typically last 7 to 10 years and often longer, lower lid results often longer still, and a mini facelift lasts for years but generally not as long as a full facelift, because it lifts less tissue over a smaller area. We avoid quoting one number, because skin quality, sun exposure, weight stability, genetics and smoking matter as much as technique. See how long blepharoplasty lasts and how long a facelift lasts.
What Are the Risks of a Mini Facelift With Eyelid Surgery?
The risks are those of each operation together. For the eyelids: dry, gritty or watery eyes (usually temporary), asymmetry, scarring and, less commonly, a lower lid pulling away from the eye (ectropion). For the mini facelift: haematoma, temporary numbness around the ears, infection and, rarely, nerve injury or skin breakdown, mainly in smokers. Short-scar lifts have a good record: a review of 557 short-scar MACS-lifts ↗ reported one major complication and a minor complication rate of 6%[9]. Under-correction is the specific risk with a mini facelift, because advanced laxity may need more than a mini lift. Our guide to blepharoplasty abroad explains why eyes that will not close fully are the main danger of cheap surgery.
Are There Alternatives to Blepharoplasty and a Mini Facelift?
There are, though none match surgery for the amount of correction.
- SmoothEye laser: A non-surgical option for mildly loose eyelid skin, with a subtler, shorter-lived result; see SmoothEye laser eyelid tightening.
- Brow lift or a lift alone: A brow lift treats the cause when a dropped brow weighs on the lid, and a lift alone is enough if the eyes are fine.
- Thread lifts and fillers: Centre for Surgery offers dermal fillers to restore volume, but we do not offer thread lifts. Neither gives more than a modest, temporary lift, and neither can remove excess eyelid skin or fat. See thread lift vs FaceTite vs facelift.
What Happens at a Blepharoplasty and Mini Facelift Consultation in London?
At Centre for Surgery you see the GMC-registered surgeon who would operate, at our CQC-regulated hospital on Baker Street. They examine your eyelids, brow, cheeks, jawline and neck, check your eye health and medical history, take photographs and recommend a plan. You can start with a virtual consultation, but you will always be seen face to face before surgery, and a two-week cooling-off period is recommended. See our pre-consultation checklist, preparing for facelift surgery and finance options.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a facelift include blepharoplasty?
No. A facelift treats the lower face and neck, while blepharoplasty treats the eyelids. They are separate operations that are often done in the same session. A facelift does not remove eyelid skin or eye bags, and a brow lift is a third, separate procedure.
Is a mini eye lift the same as blepharoplasty?
People use “mini eye lift” for several things. Surgically, the closest match is an upper or lower blepharoplasty, sometimes with a small brow lift. Non-surgically it can mean laser tightening of the lids. Neither is a facelift, and your surgeon will explain which you need.
Can rhinoplasty and blepharoplasty be done together?
Yes, they can be combined, and some people do this to refresh the face in a single recovery. Both are precise operations, so the plan depends on your health and on how long the combined operation would take. Our guide to combining blepharoplasty and rhinoplasty explains the trade-offs.
Is upper and lower blepharoplasty worth it?
For most people with genuine hooding and eye bags, yes. Treating both lids at once gives an even, balanced result and one recovery instead of two, and satisfaction after upper blepharoplasty is high in large studies[2]. It is not worth it if a dropped brow is the real problem.
What is the average age for blepharoplasty?
Most patients are over 40, though younger people with hereditary hooding or eye bags are suitable too, and we operate on patients in their 70s who are otherwise well. See eyelid surgery in your 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s.
Can you get eyelid surgery more than once?
Yes, though a second operation needs care. Skin cannot be removed beyond what the eye needs to close fully, so a repeat is planned conservatively and only when enough tissue remains. Centre for Surgery performs revision blepharoplasty for people who need a second operation.
Why do I look older after blepharoplasty?
Usually it is temporary swelling and bruising, which can make the eyes look puffy and tired for the first weeks. Occasionally, if too much fat has been taken from the lower lids, the eyes can look hollow, which is why a conservative approach matters. See blepharoplasty scars for how healing progresses.
Blepharoplasty and Mini Facelift in London
If you would like to find out whether eyelid surgery and a mini facelift are right for you, a consultation with one of our surgeons will establish what your face needs and what would be sensible to combine. Find out more about mini facelift surgery and eyelid surgery at Centre for Surgery.
Phone: 020 7993 4849 | Address: 95–97 Baker Street, Marylebone, London W1U 6RN
Contact us to schedule a consultation
References
- Sommar P, Law J, Ongena J, Verpaele A, Tonnard P. Use of ancillary procedures in combination with the MACS-lift for facial rejuvenation: a retrospective cohort study. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 2025;50(2):582–591. doi:10.1007/s00266-025-05143-w ↗
- Domela Nieuwenhuis I, Luong KP, Vissers LCM, Hummelink S, Slijper HP, Ulrich DJO. Assessment of patient satisfaction with appearance, psychological well-being, and aging appraisal after upper blepharoplasty: a multicenter prospective cohort study. Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2022;42(4):340–348. doi:10.1093/asj/sjab389 ↗
- Gupta V, Winocour J, Shi H, Shack RB, Grotting JC, Higdon KK. Preoperative risk factors and complication rates in facelift: analysis of 11,300 patients. Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2016;36(1):1–13. doi:10.1093/asj/sjv162 ↗
- Kaoutzanis C, Winocour J, Yeslev M, et al. Aesthetic surgical procedures in men: major complications and associated risk factors. Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2018;38(4):429–441. doi:10.1093/asj/sjx161 ↗
- Costa CR, Ramanadham SR, O’Reilly E, Coleman JE, Rohrich RJ. The role of the superwet technique in face lift: an analysis of 1089 patients over 23 years. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 2015;135(6):1566–1572. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000001296 ↗
- Gimenez AR, Rohrich R, Borab Z, Fisher S, Fagien S, Rohrich RJ. Safety and complications in lower eyelid blepharoplasty: a systematic review. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open 2025;13(9):e7102. doi:10.1097/GOX.0000000000007102 ↗
- Mejia JD, Egro FM, Nahai F. Visual loss after blepharoplasty: incidence, management, and preventive measures. Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2011;31(1):21–29. doi:10.1177/1090820X10391212 ↗
- Aliyeva A, Sari E. Lateral pretrichial subcutaneous brow lift with upper eyelid blepharoplasty. Scientific Reports 2025;15(1):30063. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-16196-x ↗
- Verpaele A, Tonnard P, Gaia S, Guerao FP, Pirayesh A. The third suture in MACS-lifting: making midface-lifting simple and safe. Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery 2007;60(12):1287–1295. doi:10.1016/j.bjps.2006.12.012 ↗
