Blepharoplasty, or eyelid surgery, is one of the procedures people ask me about the cost of more than almost anything else, and I understand why. It sounds like it should be simple. It’s not really, but once you understand how we look at it, it makes a lot more sense.
Here’s a quick test I get patients to try at home. Raise your eyebrows up two or three millimetres with your fingers. If your eyelids suddenly look better, that tells me something important, you probably need a brow lift as well as the eyelid work, not instead of it. If your eyebrows are sitting in a perfectly good position and it’s just the eyelid skin that’s heavy, then eyelid surgery on its own is generally what’s needed. And if you lift your brow and the eyelid problem disappears completely, then it’s actually your brow that needs the surgery, not your eyelid at all. That’s the add-on question I have to answer before I can even start talking through options, because eyelid surgery isn’t a procedure you assess in isolation. It’s periorbital rejuvenation, meaning I’m looking at the whole area around your eyes, not just the lid itself.
What is blepharoplasty and what does it actually involve?
Blepharoplasty is surgery to the upper and/or lower eyelids to remove excess skin, muscle and fat, and it’s priced differently depending on how much of that periorbital area needs attention. For the upper eyelid, the simplest version is a skin-only blepharoplasty, where we just remove the excess skin. That’s a fine option if your eyelids are hanging down over your eyes, but cosmetically it may not give you the result you desire. What we usually do instead is take the skin, a strip of muscle, and the two fat pads, the medial and the lateral fat pad, and use that to recreate the eyelid crease in the upper lid.
The technique we use for each area depends on your anatomy, and the lower eyelid is where people are usually more surprised by the complexity. There are three eye bags down there, not one, and the technique matters just as much as the diagnosis. We pull the eyelid forward and remove the three eye bags through an incision inside the eyelid, not on the outside. Cutting on the outside can leave you with ectropion, where the lower lid pulls away from the eye, and that’s genuinely difficult to correct once it’s happened.
Why does blepharoplasty cost vary so much between patients?
Blepharoplasty cost varies because no two patients need the same combination of treatments, and pricing follows exactly what your particular eyelids and surrounding area require. If you’re hollow underneath the eye as well as bagged, that’s a different conversation, one that might include fat transfer to lift and support the cheek and fill in that hollow area, or nano fat injected directly into the tear trough to soften it from within. If the skin itself is loose, we have to think about that separately again, because loose skin doesn’t respond to fat pad removal, it needs its own solution, which is often laser resurfacing. That can be done just around the eyes with an erbium laser, or as a full-face treatment if you want to rejuvenate everything at once rather than just the eye area.
So by the time I’m quoting you, I’m not quoting “eyelid surgery,” I’m quoting your eyelid surgery, built from whichever of these elements you actually need.
How do you work out the price for something this individual?
We work out blepharoplasty pricing the same way you’d price a house renovation, room by room, based on what actually needs the work. If the carpet’s fine but the walls need a coat of paint, you just do the walls. If the carpet’s worn out too, you do the carpet as well. It’s exactly the same logic with a face. You don’t pay for a full periorbital rejuvenation if all you need is upper eyelid skin removal, and you don’t get a partial fix priced as a full one if your case genuinely calls for fat transfer, tear trough work and laser on top of the surgery itself. At Absolute Cosmetic, that means every quote is built at consultation once I’ve actually assessed your eyelids, brow position, cheek volume and skin quality together, rather than off a single flat number for “blepharoplasty.”
How do I know if I need eyelid surgery or a brow lift instead?
Do the two or three millimetre eyebrow lift test with your fingers in the mirror first, because that tells you which structure is actually causing the problem. Eyelid improvement on lifting the brow points to needing a brow lift, either alongside eyelid surgery or, if the eyelid completely resolves, instead of it. No change at all when you lift the brow means the eyelid skin and fat are the issue on their own. It sounds almost too simple to be useful, but it’s a genuinely reliable first indicator, and it’s usually the first thing I check in consultation anyway.
What’s included in the cost of aftercare?
Aftercare and recovery are priced separately because good aftercare is a real, ongoing cost, not a token add-on, and it matters more than most people expect going in. At Absolute Cosmetic you’ve got a 24 hour, seven day a week, 365 day a year emergency after-hours line, and nurses you can get on a video call with to check in. We also book you in for a proper run of reviews, typically day one, day two, one week, two weeks, three weeks and four weeks post-surgery. Good aftercare is expensive to provide properly, but it’s what stands between a smooth recovery and a missed complication.
You can see the kind of results these different pathways produce in our before and after gallery.
Treatment pathway: from least to most invasive
- Skin-only upper blepharoplasty – removal of excess upper lid skin alone. Suitable for older patients with significant skin overhang, but limited cosmetic refinement.
- Skin, muscle and fat pad blepharoplasty – our standard upper lid approach, removing the medial and lateral fat pads and recreating the natural crease.
- Internal lower blepharoplasty – removal of the three lower eye bags through an inside-the-lid incision, avoiding the ectropion risk that comes with external cuts.
- Fat transfer or nano fat to the tear trough and cheek – for patients who are hollow as well as bagged, restoring volume rather than just removing tissue.
- Erbium laser, targeted or full-face – for loose or crepey skin that surgery alone won’t tighten, done either around the eyes or across the whole face.
Every step above carries the general risks of any surgical or laser procedure, including bruising, swelling, infection, scarring, asymmetry and, in the case of poorly performed external lower lid incisions, ectropion. Your individual risk profile is something we go through properly at consultation, not something a blog post can responsibly cover for you.
FAQ
How much does blepharoplasty cost in Perth?
There’s no single fixed figure, because your price depends on exactly which combination of upper lid, lower lid, fat transfer or laser treatment your eyelids actually need, so it’s confirmed at consultation once Dr Murray has assessed you.
Do I need a brow lift or eyelid surgery?
Try raising your eyebrows two to three millimetres with your fingers in the mirror. If your eyelids look better, you likely need brow work either with or instead of eyelid surgery, and if nothing changes, the eyelid itself is the issue.
Why don’t you cut on the outside of the lower eyelid?
External lower lid incisions carry a real risk of ectropion, where the lid pulls away from the eye, a complication that’s very hard to fix and becomes increasingly common with age.
What if I’m hollow under the eyes as well as bagged?
That combination usually calls for fat transfer or nano fat to rebuild volume in the cheek and tear trough alongside the eye bag removal, rather than eye bag removal alone.
Is aftercare included in the surgery price, or is it separate?
Aftercare is a distinct and genuine cost, covering 24/7 emergency support and a full schedule of nurse reviews at day one, day two, one week, two weeks, three weeks and four weeks after your procedure.
How long is recovery after blepharoplasty?
Most patients experience swelling and bruising for around the first week, are back to normal activities within 7 to 10 days, with full healing and scar refinement continuing over the following months.
This article is general information only and does not constitute medical advice or replace an individual consultation. Blepharoplasty is a surgical procedure that carries risks, including but not limited to bruising, swelling, infection, scarring and asymmetry, and outcomes vary from patient to patient. A GP referral is required before any cosmetic surgical consultation in accordance with AHPRA protocol. To find out what your own blepharoplasty would involve and what it would cost, book a consultation with Dr Glenn Murray at Absolute Cosmetic.
