A Personal Blepharoplasty Journey: Decision, Cost Considerations, and Recovery Realities

Disclosure: This post is not sponsored. Ivonne Sanchez and IVONNE as a clinic are not receiving any payment, promotion, discount, or benefit in exchange for sharing this experience. It is shared for educational and transparency purposes for the IVONNE community.

Hi everyone,
It’s Ivonne Sanchez.

For a long time, I wasn’t sure how I would share this publicly. Plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery still carry stigma, and for many people these decisions feel deeply personal. I originally planned to keep this journey inside our private client space.

Before the consultation

Windsor Arms Hotel, Toronto

But the questions kept coming up in treatment rooms — thoughtful questions about aging, prevention, surgery, and how to make decisions without fear, secrecy, or pressure. So I’m sharing what I can publicly, and keeping the deeper documentation where it belongs: inside the IVONNE client portal.

On December 23, 2025, I underwent upper and lower blepharoplasty with a surgical team outside of IVONNE®. This is not a recommendation. It’s a personal account — shared because transparency helps people feel less alone when they’re researching and weighing options.

I work in this industry and operate a clinic focused on skin health, anatomy, and long-term outcomes. That perspective makes me very careful about how I talk about surgery. IVONNE does not provide surgical care, and nothing shared here should be interpreted as medical instruction.

Here’s what I can say without turning this into a “how-to.”

How I prepared my skin before surgery: In the six months leading up to my blepharoplasty, I was intentional about skin health and recovery readiness.

• Hydrafacial: Three treatments leading up to surgery, spaced two weeks apart, with the final treatment one week before surgery. Hydrafacial has published clinical data supporting hydration and barrier support, which is why it made sense for me as part of preparation.
• Microneedling: Performed monthly for approximately six months prior to surgery, with the final treatment completed one month before my procedure.
• Home skincare (six months prior): AnteAGE MD with growth factors, exosomes, and cytokines; AnteAGE Eye Cream; AnteAGE MD Brightening Cream.
• Antioxidant support: AlumierMD EverActive C&E.
• Barrier support: AlumierMD Recovery Balm.

I’ve documented how I decided on timing, spacing, and when to pause certain treatments inside the private blog. Those details require context and shouldn’t be copied blindly.

What I planned after surgery: Once healing allowed, my plan included Hydrafacial Platinum with the Hydrafacial Pep9 booster and Eye Perk add-on. After receiving clearance for more corrective treatments, I returned to Hydrafacial combined with AnteAGE stem-cell-supported microneedling.

Immediately post-surgery, skincare was extremely limited. During early healing, the only products my skin tolerated were AlumierMD Sensicalm and AlumierMD Recovery Balm. Everything else — even products I normally use without issue — was too much.

On decision-making: This was not an impulsive choice. I treated it like a long-term investment, not a quick fix. Comfort with the surgical plan and team mattered more than proximity.

A note on cost: This was a significant financial decision. What was included, what wasn’t, and when everything became “real” financially mattered. I’ve shared the full breakdown privately, where cost can be discussed responsibly.

Why Toronto: Choosing a Toronto surgeon wasn’t about geography. Ottawa has skilled surgeons. For me, the deciding factors were specialization, a conservative aesthetic, and alignment after multiple conversations. The exact questions I asked — and why they mattered — are documented privately.

Recovery reality: The hardest part wasn’t pain. It was dependence. The grogginess, swelling, sensory intensity, and limitations on basic tasks are rarely described accurately online.

There was a moment where I thought, “Why did I do this?” Not because anything went wrong, but because healing is intense in a way that’s hard to understand until you’re inside it. That moment passed.

If you’re considering blepharoplasty, you probably want the parts people avoid saying out loud:

• What it really felt like day-by-day
• What surprised me most
• How support actually works when you want solitude
• How long I stayed close to the surgical and nursing team — and why
• What helped, what didn’t, and what I would change
• Whether I would do it again — or recommend it to anyone
• The full cost breakdown

That level of detail — including detailed photos, healing progression, and the unfiltered journal — lives inside our private client portal.

10 Weeks Post-Surgery: Before and After

March 2026 — 10 weeks post-surgery

Recovery Progress

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Let’s keep these conversations open, honest, and grounded — with the right information in the right place.