Last Updated on March 6, 2026 by Giorgia Guazzarotti
How to hide blepharoplasty scars is probably the last thing you thought you’d be worrying about after surgery. You wanted to look less tired, less droopy, more like yourself – and now you’re fixating on a scar that, spoiler, most people won’t even be able to find. Because the eyelid is genuinely one of the best places on the whole body to scar quietly. The skin is thin, it heals fast, and surgeons have got very good at hiding incisions inside the natural folds of your eye. Most blepharoplasty scars end up virtually invisible on their own. But if you’re left with visible scars, here are all the makeup and skincare tips you need to know to reduce their appearance.
Do Eyelids Scar Easily?
Good news: No, eyelids do not scar easily. Eyelid skin is thin and it heals faster than almost any other part of your body. The thick, raised, angry scarring you might be imagining (keloids, hypertrophic scars) is way less common here than on thicker skin like your chest or shoulders. Most blepharoplasty scars fade down to basically nothing over time without you doing very much at all. Said that, let’s talk about what you can do to minimise scar visibility even more.
How Easy Is It To Hide Blepharoplasty Scars?
Really easy, actually. With a skilled surgeon, you get natural-looking results with barely noticeable scarring. For upper eyelid surgery, the incision sits right in the natural crease of the eyelid, so the fold covers it completely when your eyes are open. Nobody’s going to find it unless they’re inspecting your closed eyelids from two inches away, which would be weird. The only time it gets a bit more noticeable is if you had a significant amount of hooded skin removed, which means a longer incision that travels slightly outside the crease. Still fades for most people. Still not a big deal.
For lower eyelid surgery, the appearance of these scars is even sneakier. The incision sits just under the lash line, hidden by your lashes on top and your crow’s feet on the sides. Your surgeon is literally using your existing wrinkles as camouflage, which is kind of genius when you think about it. And if they went with a transconjunctival approach (incision inside the eyelid, nothing on the skin), there’s no external scar at all.
How Long Do Blepharoplasty Scars Take to Fade?
Eyelid surgery scars take on average six weeks for the general recovery, up to a year for the scar itself to fully mature. In those early weeks it might look pink, a bit raised, more obvious than you’d like. Totally normal, tells you nothing about the end result. Phew! By twelve months most people genuinely can’t find the scar anymore. The annoying part is waiting out the middle bit when the appearance of scars is still a little visible.
How to Hide Blepharoplasty Scars With Makeup
Before you even think about applying makeup on the delicate eyelid skin that’s been through plastic surgery, wait! You need your experienced surgeon to clear you first, which usually happens around two weeks post-surgery. Once you’re there, here’s how to actually cover a scar properly rather than just smearing concealer on it and hoping for a youthful look.
Colour correction is the thing most people skip and then wonder why their concealer isn’t working. If the scar is pink or red, you need a green corrector underneath. Green cancels out red, basic colour theory. If it’s gone darker or more purple, go peach instead. Without this step you’re just layering skin-tone product over a colour that’ll push straight back through.
Concealer goes on before foundation, not after. Press it directly onto the visible scarring with a synthetic brush, then go over everything with foundation on top. Stipple with a damp sponge. Don’t drag! Dragging across a scar makes the texture more obvious, not less. If the scar is raised, put a slightly darker shade on the raised bit and your skin tone around the edges, blend them together: the shadow effect makes it look flat. Indented scar, do the opposite. Lighter in the hollow, use a concealer the same shade of your skin tone to blend out. Finish with a translucent setting powder and you’re done.
How to Minimise Blepharoplasty Scarring
POST-OPERATIVE CARE INSTRUCTIONS
Do what your plastic surgeon tells you. Seriously, the post-operative aftercare instructions exist for a reason. Keep the area dry for the first week, sleep with your head elevated, cold compresses in the first few days. No contact lenses, no rubbing your eyes, no exercise or alcohol until you’re cleared. And if you smoke, stop – it genuinely slows the healing process down by restricting blood flow to the tissue.
Sun protection is non-negotiable. UV exposure on healing incision sites drives hyperpigmentation and slows scar healing Wear SPF daily, especially under direct sunlight, wear sunglasses. Take this especially seriously if you have a deeper skin tone. Zinc oxide formulas are the gentler choice around the eye area during recovery.
SILICONE GELS
Silicone gels are basically the gold standard for surgical scars. They’ve been around for 30 years and there’s decent science behind them. They work by sitting on top of the scar and locking in moisture, which keeps the production of collagen from going into overdrive and creating thick, raised scar tissue. Simple idea, and it works well on most parts of the body.
On eyelid skin specifically though, the picture is murkier. A 2025 double-blind RCT tested silicone gel against plain Vaseline on 192 eyelids and found no meaningful difference between the two. There is an older study showing better results with a silicone-based cream, but that product was loaded with growth factors, hyaluronic acid and vitamin C, so we can’t say for sure it’s the silicones that did the job. The other ingredients probably played a part too.
So: keeping the scar moist definitely helps, a silicone-based scar cream or silicone gel sheets aren’t going to hurt anything, but Vaseline does the same job on eyelid scars for about £38 less. Use that while things are healing, and if you want to graduate to something fancier later, run it by your plastic surgeon first.
Still bothered at three months? That’s when laser resurfacing treatments are worth bringing up. Fractional CO2 for texture and height, pulsed dye laser for redness, both together for the best results. Just go to someone who actually specialises in this area. Eyelid skin is not the place to cut corners on who’s holding the laser.
The Bottom Line
Most blepharoplasty scars are a non-issue. The eyelid heals better than almost anywhere else on the body, surgeons hide the incisions in places your anatomy was already doing the work, and time does most of the heavy lifting. The people who end up unhappy are usually the ones who panicked at six weeks and decided the scar was permanent. It wasn’t, they just didn’t give the recovery process long enough to do the job. While you’re waiting, keep it moist, avoid direct sun exposure (wear your SPF!), follow your aftercare instructions and cover it with makeup if it’s bothering you. If it’s still there at three months and it’s genuinely visible, talk to your surgeon about laser. That’s really it. There’s no secret product, no miracle cream, no shortcut – just time, sun protection, and not poking at it.