1. First of all we need to make a selection of the skin. A variety of ways to do it exist. I used my favorite Mask Pro with its color palettes and Magic Brush. But the simplest Adobe Photoshop quick mask would do as well. Just leave the detailed parts like eyes, eyebrows, nostrils, and the lips uncovered by the mask. And don't forget to make a copy of the original image before the job.

2. Staying in the layer with your selection (if it's done with a filter like MaskPro) Press Selections>Load selection.

3. To make the transition between the smoothed area and the original surface not so visible we shoud soften the edges. Go to Selections menu again and press Feather. 5-10 pixels would be enough.

4. Now we start the smoothing process itself. In the Filters menu press Blur>Gaussian blur. Then choose the settings best suiting your photo (it mainly depends on the sharpness and resolution of the image). In my case was enough.

5. The skin now looks too unnatural. To improve this we go to Filters>Noise. In the opening dialogue be sure to choose Universal and check Monochromatic option.

6.The final step - reduce the opacity of the layer with the mask for the original detail and texture show through the smoothed layer. The opacity should be about 80 per cent for women and 60 for men. But again, the best way is to look at the image and find the best value.