Open wounds and eyes that can’t close – women warn about cheap bleph eyelid surgery

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.”