Oh the plight of smooth skin!

So I am really trying to take skin smoothing seriously...Mizuno's tutorial found here has been a great step in the right direction...its easy enough for anyone to follow...
but Im just finding as little as I do it, it comes out looking so fake...the skin smoothing is just a blurring of skin. How do I really airbrush skin so it retains the texture? Say if you had a girl with water droplets all over her stomach, or she rolled in sand...
You can't skin smooth that!?
If I may ask, what is everyone's way of keeping a balance, in a technical photoshop sense, of looking smooth, but undetected as far as the overprocessed look?
Thanks in advance

Well, I'm sure you're doing this already, but basically I do my skin smoothing on a duplicate layer, then reduce the opacity of that layer (anywhere between 20-80%) to allow some of the original texture to come through.

For this to work, I have to make sure I remove major blemishes on the original layer (using healing brush or whatever) before creating the smoothing layer.

This is a great resource too: http://www.photoshopsu​pport.com …-1/Skin_Varis_202-215.pdf

wow I just scanned that pdf...
so much more indepth than what Im used to...I guess it just takes practice and getting the routine down pat..
thanks so much

Another pro way to get custom control is Dodge & Burn. You work on a pixel level to smooth out the light and dark areas. I have an action that will set it up for you. PM me your email address if you want it.

Damo77 wrote in post #3640808
This is a great resource too: http://www.photoshopsu​pport.com …-1/Skin_Varis_202-215.pdf

Now that could be useful ...

Try www.portraitprofession​al.com. It will cost you a few dollars, but it's fast & does a hell of a lot more.