This was a huge undertaking- model's skin was covered in fine hairs and larger pores, that made the smooth texture I was going after difficult. This was the best I could do. I am wondering if in the future I should ask the makeup artist to wax the model's face, but she advised me the model may be offended! I just wasn't sure how much prep was usually involved with commercial imagery of this nature and if that was a bit much to ask- it would have certainly helped me out in post!
Well there are some techniques to work with small hairs on face, some of them uses "Dust & Scratch" filter that could be helpfull here (?). It's damn hard skin to work with for sure, unfortunately "After" looks out of focus (before too, but not that much). Have you tried use Dodge & Burn only there?
This is a combination of frequency separation, dodge & burn, as well as toning, brushing, the focus is on the lips. I haven't tried using the dust & scratch filter, am wondering if it is effective on larger hairs (40 megapixel image)- will have to give it a try. Thanks!