Izzy Anaya was tired of looking tired.
The skin atop her hooded eyelids had begun to sag and wrinkle. She looked perpetually exhausted and much older than her 43 years.
The Manhattan mom of two tried to fight the droop, routinely receiving Botox and filler injections to her forehead. She hoped the popular toxins would lift her eyebrow line and tighten the skin. But the treatments just weren’t doing the trick.
So, late last year, she called a cosmetic surgeon, forked over $10,000, and asked them to fix the problem — once and for all.
“I got blepharoplasty, and I feel like my face lost 10 years just by removing this little piece of skin over my eyes,” Anaya, a stay-at-home mom and lifestyle content creator, told The Post of the buzzy surgery.
Blepharoplasty, a newly viral anti-aging operation, is a facial rejuvenating process by which specialists remove the excess skin and fat that can develop both above and below the eyelid as a person gets older.
It’s a procedure A-listers such as supermodel Giselle Bündchen, 42, and Golden Globe winners Matt Damon, 52, and Jennifer Coolidge, 61, have been rumored to have undergone.
About an hour after going under the knife, Anaya’s doctor, Jordan Terner of Manhattan Plastic Surgery on the Upper East Side, sent her home with Tylenol and a recommendation of 48 hours of bed rest, during which she experienced minimal pain.
“It was a 20-minute procedure, and it got rid of all my wrinkles. It lifted my face without me having to get a facelift,” said Anaya, adding that she no longer has to wear eye makeup. “It’s amazing.”
In 2020, blepharoplasty, also known as “bleph” or “eyelid surgery,” ranked as one of the top five cosmetic procedures in the US, per the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
The site also listed the surgery as one of the most popular nip/tucks among patients 45 and over in a 2022 report.
A separate April 2022 study via global health care business consulting firm Maximize Market Research found that the market popularity of blepharoplasty is expected to grow from its current national value of $4.3 million to a staggering $7.9 million by 2029.
And on TikTok, its eponymous hashtag has garnered over 377.1 million views from folks considering the cut — which has become increasingly popular with both women and men since the pandemic.
“Interest in the surgery has increased since that time because people were wearing masks [over their mouths and noses], which draws more attention to the eye area,” said Eleanore Kim, an oculoplastic surgeon at the NYU Langone Eye Center.
“People were also on Zoom and using virtual meeting spaces,” she added, “so they were looking at themselves a lot more often and wanting blepharoplasty to rejuvenate the skin.”
But the benefits of the surgery aren’t strictly rooted in vanity.
Kim tells The Post that removing excess flesh around the eyes can prevent folks with hooded eyes from suffering peripheral vision loss due to the overhang. In cases where the droopy eyelid causes significant visual obstruction, the cost of the surgery is typically covered by insurance.
And although there are some risks that come with the surgery — such as chronic dry eye and partial blindness — Kim said it’s a “tried and true” operation with abounding perks.
For Paul Connell, clearer sight came as a bonus of his October 2022 blepharoplasty with plastic surgeon Mark Karolak in Wall Township, New Jersey.
“I can see better without those heavy turtle shells over my eyes,” said Connell, 48, from Edgewater, New Jersey, with a laugh. He chose not to disclose how much he paid for the procedure.
As an electrical contractor and recurring guest star on the “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” Connell, boyfriend of Dolores Catania, 52, underwent the procedure to reduce the intense heaviness that had begun weighing down on his eyes.
“Whether I was lying down, driving or watching TV, my eyes always felt heavy, and they looked really puffy,” he said.
“But when I got the surgery it was like a weight was lifted off my face,” Connell continued, adding that the operation also boosted his confidence both on and off-camera. “I have a fresher look, which is something I appreciate now that I’m over 40.”
And Barak Rotem, 48, who traveled from Texas to Tijuana, Mexico, for blepharoplasty on both his upper and lower eyelids in 2020, agreed that the surgeries, which, combined, cost him just over $4,000, have helped preserve his fresh-faced visage.
“I don’t want to age naturally,” Rotem, a Houston interior designer and fitness trainer, told The Post. “When people see me [now], they think I’m 35. Everybody should do this.”
And to haters who might argue that surgically altering one’s eyelids is a superficial waste of time and money, Anaya said, “Don’t be mad just because you can’t afford it.”
“If you had the cash, you’d be getting blepharoplasty, too.”
