madhubala772: Comprehensive Skin and Facial Enhancing

This is this photo I will be working with.

(click for full version)
First thing we will do is fix the skin, but before we start, select the eyes, nose, and other detailed parts of the photograph. Do not always select the lips if you want them to have a smooth texture on them.
Go to Select>Feather and feather the selection 4 pixels.

Copy the selection and paste it as a new layer. Name the layer “Details”. Keep this layer on top unless noted otherwise.
Go back to your original layer. Duplicate it. Save the original underneath. It will be your reference as you edit your working layer.
OPTIONAL ( Go to Filters>Blur>Surface Blur and apply it with a Radius of 10 and a Threshold of 10. )
This filter will make the skin smoother but sometimes it makes it look unrealistic. Skip if skin smoothness is not something you need to fix.
Go to Image>Adjustments>Autolevels.

Now with the smudge tool, adjust minor errors or things that are causing asymmetry. Use smudge strength up to 30% but not over.

Make a new layer. Here we’ll fix the bags underneath her eyes.
Make 3 brush strokes under the eye. On the edges put a medium tone you’ve picked up from surrounding areas. (If hair is in the way, pick it up from the corresponding area on the other eye) In the center put an ideal tone that you can pick up from the cheek.

Smudge the central dot upwards forming an upside down triangle. You’ll have to use a higher smudge strength than you did before.

Mix one side of the triangle with one of the dots. Don’t do it too drastically or it will look unnatural.

Smudge the last dot with the other side of the triangle back and forth until it is blended.

In my example, one of her eyes was a little smaller than the other like it was slightly winking. To fix this I went in the details layer and selected only the eye I wanted to fix, and hit Control-T and then chose warp mode from the top panel and pulled it down so it would look more open.You can do this for any flawed detail, but remember to do it on it’s own layer on top of the working layer.

Before I deselect, I go to Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen to fix the blur that results from warping.
Make a new layer on top of everything, including the “Details” Layer.
Call it “Eye Fix”.
This will make the eyes pop out and look prettier. Zoom in and with the eye dropper select a color in the iris of the eye that looks the most bright/colorful. (Not the lightest) On the new layer color in the iris with this new color. You don’t need to color it in perfectly, just keep it inside the iris and it should look fine. Set this layer’s Blend mode to Screen.

Make a new layer under details but over the layer that fixed the skin under her eyes. Name this layer “Skin Texture”. Because we smudged and blurred and edited, the skin looks too photoshopped and has lost it’s texture. Cover the skin you want re-texturized with a neutral color such as #a5e290 (a light green.)
For parts that need more subtle texture, use a softer, blurrier brush. Use the Noise filter on this thread with 60% noise with an uniform distribution (Gaussian makes the skin look too flawed). It will look really wierd at this point. Change the blend mode to screen and the layer opacity to anything between 10-20% I used 18%. This is subtle but effective in restoring texture.
Now you need to have an idea of how you want to balance the makeup. Look for references if you’re not familiar with cosmetics. The face I am using has moderately dark eyes and rosy lips. The look is very natural, however I want her to pop out. I want her eyes to be the central point, so I’ll darken them and add contrast to that area of the face, while giving the lips a more faded honey color. If you want to add blush, make sure its very faded and swooped up backwards from the apple of the cheek. Most of the time, fake blush is not nessesary.
Color the lips with surrounding skin color on their own layer. Different colors can be applied using different blend modes. “Color Burn” produces lips like this:

“Soft light” produces the type of lips I was going for:

I also made a “Lip Hilights” layer and dabbed the lips with more of the surrounding skin tone and filtered it with Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. This is generally not necessary but I wanted a lighter nuder color.
To create the smoky dark eyes effect, use a relatively thick 25% black brush on the top of the eye up to the eyebrows. Smudge the outward ends upward toward the eyebrow. Smudge the inward ends back and forth to blend.