Mini & Lower Face Lift Cost in Perth: What's in the Quote

A mini facelift at Absolute Cosmetic in Perth starts from $10,990 per treated area, and an Ultra Mini Lift from $6,600, both excluding theatre fees. Four things make up the total: the practitioner’s fee, the anaesthetic, the day hospital facility fee, and follow-up care. The range widens with the extent of surgery and whether a neck lift is combined.

How much does a mini face lift cost in Perth?

At Absolute Cosmetic, a mini face lift starts at $10,990 per treated area, and an Ultra Mini Lift starts at $6,600, both before theatre fees. Those figures were current as of August 2026, and the written quote you receive at the consultation is the one that counts. Our facelift pricing page has the current schedule.

Why such a wide spread? Because these are separate operations, not three sizes of the same one. The Ultra Mini Lift is the most limited of them. A mini face lift goes further. A lower facelift, the one that properly addresses jowls and softens the jawline, sits higher again. Add a neck lift to a lower face lift, and you have introduced a second operative area. That means longer in theatre, longer under anaesthetic, and a quote that moves with it.

Two things about that figure catch people out. It is quoted per treated area, so a lower face and neck quote is neither the starting figure nor a tidy doubling of it. It also sits outside the theatre fee, and outside garments, creams and the medications you take afterwards. What you actually pay is worked through at consultation and written into a financial consent form before a date is set.

The word “mini” describes the extent of the dissection, not the seriousness. A mini face lift is surgery under anaesthetic with a genuine recovery period. If you are still working out which procedure applies, our comparison of lower face lift, neck lift, and mini facelift, and our guide to whether you are a lower face lift candidate, are better starting points than a price list. Procedure detail sits on our face lift page.

The quote, line by line

A facelift quote is several separate fees bundled into one number, and knowing which is which is how you meaningfully compare two quotes.

Line item	What it covers	What makes it move
Consultation	Assessment, planning, written information	Doctor consultations from $100 for facelifts. Nurse consultations are complimentary by phone, or $50 in person. Two consultations with Dr Murray are required before surgery
Practitioner’s fee	Planning, the operation itself, and post-operative care	Extent of the procedure, whether the SMAS layer is addressed, operating time, and whether procedures are combined
Anaesthetist’s fee	The anaesthetist’s attendance and the anaesthetic itself	Type of anaesthetic and how long you are under. Longer or combined procedures cost more
Day hospital or facility fee	Theatre time, nursing staff, equipment, recovery bay	Excluded from the published starting price. Driven by theatre time booked and whether an overnight stay is needed
Dressings and garments	Post-surgical dressings and compression garments	Excluded from the starting price. More areas means more garments
Pathology and imaging	Pre-operative blood tests where clinically indicated	Your medical history and age. Not everyone needs them
Post-operative reviews	Scheduled review appointments during healing	How many are included and over what period. Ask for this in writing
Revision policy	Any further surgery to adjust the result	Rarely stated upfront. Revision is a second operation with its own theatre and anaesthetic costs

Two rows are where the surprises live. The facility fee is excluded from most published starting prices, including ours, and it is not a small number. The revision policy is almost never volunteered, so ask before you book rather than after.

Informed financial consent is what protects you here. You should receive a written, itemised quote covering the all-inclusive figure before committing to a date. If a quote cannot be broken into the rows above, it is not a quote yet.

Anaesthetic choice changes the price

Anaesthetic is a meaningful line item, and the type used affects both the anaesthetist’s fee and the facility time you are billed for.

Local anaesthetic with sedation (sometimes called twilight sedation) keeps you sedated but breathing on your own, and generally suits more limited procedures. General anaesthetic means you are fully unconscious with your breathing managed, and is typically used for longer or more extensive surgery, or where a neck lift is combined.

The important point: this is a clinical decision, not a budget one. Suitability depends on the extent of the planned surgery, your medical history, airway, medications, and BMI, and is assessed by an anaesthetist. If a cheaper anaesthetic option is offered to reduce the quote, that is not the right reason to choose it. Ask who is providing the anaesthetic and what their qualifications are.

Why one Perth quote can be thousands of dollars below another

Because the operations being quoted are often not the same operation, even when both are called a mini face lift.

The biggest single variable is depth. A skin-only lift tightens and redrapes the skin. A lift that addresses the SMAS (the superficial musculoaponeurotic system, the fibrous layer beneath the skin that supports the lower face) repositions the structure underneath. The second is more involved, takes longer, and generally holds its result for longer. Comparing the headline prices of those two procedures provides no useful information.

The other drivers are mundane but add up. Theatre time booked, and at which facility. The type of anaesthetic and who administers it. The operating time allocated. Whether pre-operative tests, garments, medications, and reviews are included in the figure or billed separately.

So when you read “how much should a lower face lift cost”, there is no clean answer. A price tells you nothing until you know what is being done for it. Ask what layer is being addressed. Ask how long the theatre is booked for. Then ask for the all-inclusive figure in writing. Where one quote sits thousands below another, the explanation is usually a smaller procedure, a shorter theatre booking, or costs that turn up later. Very rarely is it the same operation for less money.

Our article weighing surgical versus non-surgical facelift options covers the trade-offs, and for a more extensive alternative, see our post on deep plane facelifts.

Is a lower face lift covered by Medicare or private health insurance?

No. Face lift surgery performed for cosmetic reasons does not attract a Medicare rebate, and private health funds do not pay benefits for it.

The Medicare Benefits Schedule states benefits are not payable for surgical procedures performed primarily for cosmetic reasons, and procedures not listed on the MBS attract no benefit at all. Check current items and their criteria on MBS Online.

Health funds follow Medicare. Because private health insurance is built around the MBS, where Medicare pays nothing, a fund generally pays nothing either, including the hospital component. The Australian Government’s guidance on what private health insurance covers explains that services not listed on the MBS, such as elective cosmetic surgery, are covered only to a limited extent or not at all.

When facial surgery is performed for a documented medical reason, the assessment differs and depends on the criteria associated with a specific MBS item. That is a case-by-case clinical judgement worth raising with your GP. Payment plan options are on our payment plans page; if you use finance, work out the total cost over the full term rather than judging it on the repayment figure.

Costs that are not on the quote

The surgical quote is not the total cost of having a face lift, and the difference matters most if you are self-employed or travelling.

Time off work. Most patients plan to be away from work for about two weeks, longer for physically demanding roles or anything client-facing, since bruising and swelling are visible for a while. Our week-by-week lower face lift recovery guide sets out realistic timeframes.

Help at home and transport. Driving yourself home is not an option. A responsible adult has to take you and stay with you at first. If you live alone, or you have young children at home, this is harder than people expect, so line up practical help for that first week before the surgery date rather than after it.

Medications and extras. Post-operative medications, garments, and creams are excluded from the published starting price, so they are added on top.

Travel and accommodation for regional patients. The line item nobody mentions. If you are travelling from Geraldton, Bunbury, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Esperance or Mandurah, budget for accommodation in Perth around the surgery and for return trips for reviews, since follow-up is not optional. Initial consultations can often be held via Skype, FaceTime, or WhatsApp, which removes the need for a trip, but surgery and reviews take place in Perth. Our practitioners visit those regional centres, and all clinic locations are listed on our site.

How the cost compares with the non-surgical alternatives

Comparing a face lift with non-surgical treatments is only useful if you compare what each actually does, because they are not substitutes.

They are not doing the same job. Surgery repositions tissue and removes skin. A thread lift works by applying traction to soft tissue, which holds for a while before releasing. Energy devices target collagen and the quality of the skin itself, and nothing is repositioned at any stage. Treating a device as a minor facelift misreads what it does. Treating surgery as the only real option misreads everything else.

Option	What it addresses	How long it lasts	Indicative cost over five years
Mini or lower face lift	Excess skin, jowls, jawline definition, repositioning tissue	Years, though ageing continues	One-off surgical cost, from $10,990 per area excluding theatre fees
Thread lift	Mild to moderate laxity, temporary repositioning	Typically 12 to 18 months	Repeat treatments across five years, so several rounds
RF microneedling or HIFU	Skin quality, texture, early laxity. No repositioning	Maintained with sessions every 6 to 12 months	Ongoing maintenance sessions indefinitely

Run the arithmetic on repeat treatments over five years, and the gap between surgical and non-surgical narrows more than people expect. That is not an argument for surgery. It is an argument for choosing based on what your face actually needs, then working out how to pay for it.

Is a lower face lift worth it?

That depends on whether what it does matches what is bothering you.

A lower face lift addresses loose skin, jowls and a jawline that has lost definition, by repositioning tissue and removing excess skin. Where that is the concern, no device replicates it, and results are measured in years rather than months.

Skin quality is the gap. A lift moves skin rather than resurfacing it, so texture, fine lines, pigmentation and sun damage are all left where they were. Volume is the second gap. Where the mid-face has hollowed, tightening will not fill it back out. Both of those call for something separate, whether laser resurfacing or fat transfer, and both are usually discussed alongside a lift rather than as a replacement for one.

Ageing continues afterwards. A lift sets the clock back on tissue position; it does not stop it. Outcomes vary, and documented results are in our before and after gallery. Our post on what a lower face lift is covers the procedure in more detail.

What you are also paying for: safeguards and process

Part of what a Perth quote covers is a regulated process designed to slow the decision down, and it is worth understanding what you are getting.

A GP referral before your first consultation. Required for cosmetic surgery. We have explained why the GP referral comes first, and a body dysmorphic disorder questionnaire also forms part of the assessment.

Two consultations, then a cooling-off period. Two consultations with Dr Murray are required, followed by a mandatory seven-day cooling-off period before surgery can be booked. Once a first consultation is booked, you receive a pre-consultation video covering the procedure, its risks, and complications.

Written informed financial consent. An itemised, all-inclusive figure is discussed at consultation and set out in a financial consent form before you commit.

An accredited day hospital. Surgical procedures are performed in our licensed day hospital at the Nedlands clinic, which was the first day hospital in Western Australia to achieve accreditation to the Cosmetic Standards.

A review schedule. Follow-up appointments during healing are part of the care, not an optional add-on, and they are worth confirming in writing.

Use the cooling-off period rather than waiting it out. Read the written information, and seek a second opinion.

Risks and the possibility of revision

Face lift surgery carries real risks, and each has a potential cost and a clinical consequence.

Bleeding and haematoma (a collection of blood under the skin) can require a return to theatre. Infection is possible. Scarring occurs by definition, and how it settles varies from person to person. Nerve injury affecting facial movement or sensation is usually temporary but can rarely be lasting. Asymmetry between sides can occur. Delayed healing and skin necrosis are significantly more likely in people who smoke or vape, which is why we ask patients to stop well before surgery.
Revision surgery is realistic rather than remote. Sometimes it is wanted because the result settled differently than hoped. Sometimes it becomes appropriate later, and significant weight loss afterwards is one common reason, which is why reaching a stable target weight beforehand is recommended. Either way, revision is a second operation with its own practitioner, anaesthetic and theatre costs.

Ask for the revision policy in writing before you book. Our risks and complications page sets out the full picture, and it is discussed with you before you consent.

Why choose Dr Murray for Facelift procedures in Perth

The practitioner. Medical Director Dr Glenn Murray (AHPRA registration MED0001196978), MBBS, FRACGP, MIT AI (Health) Cert., is a registered medical practitioner and Specialist General Practitioner, holding specialist registration in general practice, with around 30 years of experience in aesthetic medicine. He performs mini face lift procedures and offers SMAS, deep-plane and laser-assisted techniques, and leads a multidisciplinary team across five Perth clinics. Director of Nursing, Stephanie Murray (AHPRA registration NMW0001544535), leads the nursing team and oversees clinical standards. Verify both registrations on the AHPRA public register, and read more on our team page. Dr Murray’s profiles are on RealSelf, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Professional memberships. Dr Murray is a member of the Australian College of Cosmetic Surgery and Medicine, the Cosmetic Physicians College of Australasia, the European Academy of Aesthetic Medicine and Surgery, the International Master Course on Ageing Skin and the International Board of Aesthetic Medicine and Surgery. The full list is on our memberships and awards page.

Where we treat. Five full-time Perth clinics: Nedlands, Joondalup, Perth City at Raine Square, Applecross and Innaloo. Face lift surgery is performed in the accredited day hospital within our Nedlands clinic. Our practitioners also visit Mandurah, Bunbury, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Karratha and Esperance, with Busselton opening soon, and we offer Skype, FaceTime and WhatsApp consultations for patients outside the metropolitan area. All clinic locations are listed on our site.

How consultations work. A GP referral is required before your first consultation. Two consultations are required, followed by a mandatory seven-day cooling-off period before surgery can be booked. You receive an individual assessment, a discussion of the risks, the recovery and the alternatives including non-surgical options, written information to take home, and an itemised financial consent. We encourage every patient to use the cooling-off period properly, read the risks and complications information, and seek a second opinion before deciding.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a lower face lift cost in Australia?

There is no national figure worth quoting, because the extent of surgery, the anaesthetic, the facility and the city all move it. In Perth, a mini face lift at Absolute Cosmetic starts from $10,990 per treated area, excluding theatre fees. An Ultra Mini Lift starts from $6,600. Adding a neck lift to a lower face lift puts the total higher again. Prices current as of August 2026.

How much is a mini facelift in Perth, WA?

From $10,990 per treated area at Absolute Cosmetic, excluding theatre fees, post-surgical garments and creams, and post-operative medications. An Ultra Mini Lift starts from $6,600. An all-inclusive written figure is provided at consultation, and doctor consultations for facelifts start from $100.

What is the difference between a mini face lift and a lower face lift?

The difference is the extent of the dissection and what is repositioned. An Ultra Mini Lift is the most limited, a mini face lift addresses more, and a lower face lift focuses on jowls and jawline definition more comprehensively. Which suits you depends on how much laxity you have, assessed in person.

How long does a mini face lift last?

Results are generally measured in years rather than months, which is the main practical difference from thread lifts and energy devices. Longevity depends on how much was repositioned, particularly whether the SMAS layer was addressed, plus your skin quality, genetics, weight stability and sun exposure. Ageing continues afterwards.

Is a face lift covered by Medicare?

No, not where it is done for cosmetic reasons. The Medicare Benefits Schedule says benefits are not payable for procedures performed primarily for cosmetic reasons. Private health funds are built around the MBS and follow it, so in practice they do not contribute either. Facial surgery done for a documented medical reason is a separate question, assessed against the criteria attached to a specific MBS item.

How much time off work do I need after a lower face lift?

Around two weeks is what most patients plan for. Physically demanding work, or anything client-facing, usually needs longer, because bruising and swelling stay visible for a while. Recovery varies between individuals. Our week-by-week recovery guide sets out what to expect, and your own timeframe is worked out at consultation.

Is it worth getting a lower face lift?

It depends on the concern. For loose skin, jowls and a blurred jawline, a lift does something no device replicates, and the result lasts years. It does not improve skin texture, pigmentation or lost volume, so if those are your main concerns, the money is better directed elsewhere.

Individual outcomes vary due to factors including genetics, diet, age, exercise, lifestyle, weight and overall health, and no result can be guaranteed. All invasive surgery carries inherent risks and requires a recovery period and specific care regimen. This article is general information and does not constitute medical advice or establish a doctor-patient relationship. Content is intended for audiences aged 18 and over.