When can you start putting makeup on the nose after rhinoplasty?

Thanks for your question. Every plastic surgeon has their own instructions for postoperative procedures for patients to follow. In this case, I recommend that you follow up with your surgeon to see what they would advise given specific circumstances of your operation.

After facial surgery, patients always want to know ‘when can I wear makeup to try to hide the bruising and the scars?’ It definitely depends on what surgery was done and how you are healing. After a rhinoplasty you will have stitches under the nose (on the columella) and a splint across the top of the nose to control the swelling. These remain in and on for about a week- while those are around you could put makeup under your eyes to cover any bruising that comes from breaking the nose. After the splint is off and the stitches are out you can put makeup on the nose, but just not where the stitches came out right away. A couple days after the stiches are removed the tiny holes in the skin seal up and then you can put makeup across there too. The problem with wearing makeup too early is that there can be contaminants and irritants in the products that can get into the incisions and cause infection. The wounds have to be totally sealed before they can tolerate being covered with cosmetics.

Applying makeup 3 months following rhinoplasty surgery should not pose a problem, as long as you are careful to avoid using too much pressure. In fact, once the splint is removed about a week after the surgery, some light makeup can help camouflage bruising. Plastic surgeons have their own recovery protocols, so it's best to ask your surgeon what he or she recommends.