Open wounds and eyes that can't close - women warn about cheap bleph eyelid surgery

Warning: Graphic images and descriptions of surgery

"Everyone made it out to be so easy, but my face felt like it was on fire and there was a horrible smell of burning skin," says Nikita Morgan, as she describes her eyelid surgery.

She decided to get a blepharoplasty, or a "bleph", removing skin from just above the eyes - after seeing videos about it on social media. Even though she was given a local anaesthetic, Nikita felt extreme pain.

Oculoplastic surgeons - doctors specialising in surgery around the eyes - say a concerning number of patients are reporting problems from cheap bleph surgery, typically carried out abroad.

They have told the BBC the demand for this procedure, which normally costs thousands of pounds in the UK, has increased as part of a wider aesthetic trend to tighten, smooth and lift the face.

Surgeons say complications have been linked to clinics across mainland Europe, Africa and Asia, and, when they occur, the lack of aftercare puts a burden on the NHS.

As well as Nikita, we have spoken to dozens of people who have experienced problems - including one woman who had to tape her eyes shut to sleep because too much eyelid skin had been removed, while another feared she was losing her sight.

UK surgeons have also told us they have seen patients unable to close their eyes properly after treatment abroad.

Nikita, from Dublin, wanted to make her eyes more defined, but could not afford upper eyelid surgery in Ireland that she was told would cost more than €4,000 (£3,400).

Then the 31-year-old discovered on TikTok that she could get a bleph with Dutch company, Faceland for €750 (£650).

She described its clinic in Düsseldorf as "like a conveyor belt, just one in, one out constantly".

The company says it has performed more than 2,950 bleph procedures on UK patients at its clinics in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland since October 2024.

It says it offers "safe and quality" treatments and told us "less than 1% of procedures have led to a complaint", although this does not include everyone who needed revision surgery.

The majority of patients who spoke to the BBC about problems with their blephs had been to the company's clinics - but we do not know how many complications in total have occurred at Faceland.

Nikita, who went for her bleph in November 2025, says she did not realise how invasive the procedure would be, believing it to be like "getting your lips or Botox done", she says.

She was injected with local anaesthetic, but when the doctor began cutting delicate eyelid skin, she felt pain she had never experienced before.

"I went into shell shock, it was horrible," Nikita says. "When she was stitching me I could feel the needle going through my skin."

Faceland says all patients have consultations and sign consent forms before procedures, to ensure they are "well informed and well prepared".

It added that Nikita's doctor had said Nikita was "very anxious and uncertain" during her procedure "which can influence the perception of pain".

Within hours, a "traumatised" Nikita was boarding a plane home. Flying on the same day of surgery is not advised by medical experts as well as Faceland, but she saw lots of people doing it on social media.

"I was struggling to see," says Nikita, "if I looked up, my stitches would bleed so it was like I was crying blood."

She really regrets flying on the same day as her surgery and advises others not to.

In the past three years, videos about blephs posted by UK social media accounts on four leading platforms were viewed nearly 150 million times, BBC analysis has found. This figure is five times greater than the previous three years.

Many people report positive results in their posts, and a lot have been treated at Faceland.

One woman told us her droopy eyelids had been restricting her vision and causing her headaches. She was not eligible for NHS treatment and could not afford to go private in the UK, but now she says, after going to Faceland, her issues have been resolved.

The company's website claims it is changing the market by focusing on "affordable, accessible and high quality care". Treatments are carried out by accredited medical doctors who receive internal training by Faceland in surgical procedures, it says.

Surgeons in the UK told us upper eyelid surgery typically takes about three hours, including preparation, surgery and post-operation care. But Faceland patients we have spoken to say they spent less than an hour at the clinics.

Faceland says allowing practitioners to perform a higher volume of treatments helps significantly lower costs.

Eight days after her Faceland bleph surgery, Laura, not her real name, made her first of four visits to A&E because her eyelid wounds had reopened.

Her procedure at the company's Amsterdam clinic in June had seemingly gone smoothly, but problems began when she took her stitches out back home in the UK, something many patients do when they have treatment abroad.

The crescent shaped cuts above her eyes which had been held together by the stitches came apart, exposing raw, red wounds which became infected. This should hardly ever happen if a practitioner has been properly trained, UK surgeons told us.

The first time this happened, Laura, who is in her early 40s, says she called Faceland's emergency helpline several times, but could not get through. Desperate, she rushed to A&E.

"When I closed my eyes for too long the tension would cause my wounds to open up again," she says. "I was scared to go to sleep and was in constant agony."

In the days after, Laura was communicating with her doctor from Faceland and, on several occasions, she offered to fly back for assessment.

"I was crying, literally begging: 'You can't leave me like this'," she says.

But Faceland told her the best course of action was seeking treatment local to her.

Laura was referred to an NHS eye specialist who said "excessive skin" had been removed.

How did Laura feel about the NHS picking up the cost of fixing her cheap surgery?

"I feel guilty... People will think 'it's your own fault', but I would never have gone had I known what could happen."

Faceland says it cannot comment in detail about Laura's case because she is pursuing legal action against the company.

As a goodwill gesture an independent complaints committee that works with Faceland offered Laura €175 (£150), which she has rejected.

UK surgeons tell us that, when they have seen patients with blepharoplasty complications over the past 12 months, those people have, in most cases, been treated abroad.

The most common issue following overseas procedures has been people not being able to close their eyes properly, according to a survey for the BBC, to which 63 members of the British Oculoplastic Surgery Society (Bopss) in the UK and Ireland responded.

"Removing too much skin from the eyelid is dangerous because it leaves the eye exposed to the elements," explains consultant ocuplastic surgeon, Colin Vize, who is on the Bopss executive committee. "Correction can be difficult and expensive."

He likens eyelids to "a pair of curtains". When you open them there needs to be a pleat, so when you close them there is enough skin to cover the eyeball.

Other issues from overseas procedures reported by the Bopss members include scarring, uneven eyes and wounds opening up.

Surgeons say they also saw patients with complications after having been treated by unregistered UK practitioners, including blepharoplasties that had been carried out in living rooms.

On Christmas Day 2024, Caryn Harte woke up struggling to see.

It was days after her bleph surgery at Faceland's Amsterdam clinic, her swollen left eye was weeping blood, and the wounds above both eyes had started to open.

"I was terrified I was going to lose my sight over a bit of excess skin," she says.

Caryn went straight to A&E, seeing no point in calling Faceland because it was too far away.

Doctors later reassured her she would keep her vision, but her face was badly infected. She was prescribed antibiotics and required hospital check-ups.

The BBC has seen emails that show Caryn contacted Faceland twice, to report what had happened, and that she received a short reply 12 days later. A few further emails followed, but Caryn says she has not heard from the company since.

Faceland maintains it "did not leave her without support or follow-up during the aftercare process".

It says it is sorry if patients felt insufficiently supported by its teams or experienced complications.

Like Caryn, Laura and Nikita, patients we have spoken to who have had cheap eyelid surgery abroad say limited aftercare is their biggest complaint.

"Aftercare for the typical bleph should be available to a patient 24/7," says Vize. "If your surgeon is hundreds of miles away, the ability to provide care with a sense of immediacy is impossible."

He also warns that patients should be aware that in some cases lower costs may mean lower standards.

A week after her surgery, Nikita removed her own stitches. She worked out what to do by watching TikTok videos.

"It makes you feel weak, like you're pulling something out of your skin," she says.

Faceland says patients are advised to consult its doctors about when to remove their stitches and are given information on how to do so. Nikita says she did not receive an aftercare pack or instructions.

The company also says patients can come back to a Faceland clinic to have stitches removed, but no-one we spoke to had done that.

Patients removing their own stitches is "a recipe for disaster", according to Vize, who says stitches should be taken out by a surgeon or a nurse to reduce the infection risk and the chance of wounds splitting open.

Nikita is mostly happy with her results, aside from a small scar, but she wants other people to learn from her experiences and fully understand the risks.

"If I'd had the money or if I hadn't listened to the spin on TikTok, I probably would have gone somewhere closer to home and not rushed into it," she says.

Nearly two years on, Caryn still has issues with her left eye, including some blurry vision and scarring.

Meanwhile, Laura fears she may have scars above both of her eyes for life.

"I tried to fix a problem that didn't really need fixing, and I've come back with a bigger problem that I need surgery for, and I can't afford that," she says. "It's pretty devastating."

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