Yazmin Oukhellou Facelift – Nine Surgeries, £65k, and Zero Apologies at 31

More succinctly than any caption, the picture she shared conveyed the story. Two blackened eyes. Her face was framed by bandages. a chin strap that kept everything in place while the healing process quietly permeated the bruised tissue. Beneath is a compression vest. Above all, it’s the look of someone who has done this before, knows exactly what will happen next, and doesn’t really want to be talked out of it. Three days after surgery, 31-year-old Yazmin Oukhellou, who had just left an Istanbul clinic, felt compelled to let people know that she trusted the procedure. The internet had opinions, as it usually does. She also had one for them.

She released a video titled “One for the haters” following a predictable outpouring of criticism from individuals who felt entitled to comment on the medical decisions of a stranger. Her age was questioned in some comments; one user noted that she was “only 30,” as if that disqualified her from any procedure she might choose. Some said she had gone too far, done too much, and altered too much of what already existed. Yazmin reportedly responded directly to the comparisons to Katie Price, another British celebrity who has been the focus of ongoing public criticism regarding cosmetic surgery, stating that she was unconcerned by the comparison and had no intention of ceasing.

Yazmin Oukhellou

Beneath the troll discourse and the before-and-after fascination, the Yazmin Oukhellou facelift story is really about how British celebrity culture has changed over the past ten years in relation to cosmetic surgery. In the context of TOWIE, a show that has always existed at the nexus of aspiration, appearance, and conspicuous self-improvement, it is not wholly surprising that a woman in her twenties and early thirties, whose public platform was initially based on her appearance, would spend eight years and £65,000 methodically reshaping her face. The level of transparency Yazmin has brought to the process is a little more unusual. She hasn’t acted as though the procedures didn’t take place. She hasn’t provided ambiguous non-answers regarding “a little work.” Depending on your point of view, the bruises, bandages, and day-three recovery selfies she shared can be interpreted as either admirable honesty or as something more nuanced about the incentives of a social media economy that rewards disclosure.

Her most recent procedure, performed at Serene Cosmetics in Istanbul, involved a 360-degree liposuction, a neck and jaw lift, and a temporal lift, also known as a fox eye lift, which gives the outer eye a sharper, upswept appearance. Over the past few years, Istanbul has emerged as one of the most popular destinations for medical tourism in the field of cosmetic surgery, attracting patients from all over Europe and beyond with a cluster of skilled practitioners and cheaper costs. According to Yazmin, who has been traveling for eight years, the clinic is her only reliable choice. Only the long-term results will determine whether that loyalty is well-placed; the outcomes of the more structural procedures she has now undergone typically take months to fully materialize.

Observing Yazmin’s public cosmetic journey gives the impression that her perspective has changed significantly over the last two years. She disposed of ten years’ worth of accumulated facial filler in September 2024, calling her former face “puffy” in a way she had not previously acknowledged, and began what seemed to be a different kind of project: less filling, more lifting. This could be a reaction to her surgeons’ advice, a genuinely evolved aesthetic preference, or just a trend spreading throughout the cosmetic surgery community. For several years, the industry has been moving in this direction, with doctors increasingly advising patients to use more structural interventions rather than excessive fillers. It’s difficult to determine whether Yazmin came to this on her own or learned it from the larger discussion surrounding cosmetic surgery.

Her justification for doing it early—that skin reacts better to lifting before it has begun to loosen considerably—has some clinical support, but it is also the kind of reasoning that can be used to support nearly any procedure timeline. At the very least, it is a logical stance. Additionally, it is a position that benefits from the presumption that you will age in a fairly predictable manner and that the procedures performed now will blend in seamlessly with subsequent procedures. It doesn’t always operate that way. As is always the case, three days after surgery, it’s still unclear what the outcome will look like.

It’s evident that Yazmin Oukhellou, who is 31 years old and has undergone nine surgeries, has made the decision that the opinions of strangers on Instagram have no bearing on any of this. The bruises go away. She seems to have concluded that the commentary is merely noise.