Retouch Basics

Watching over some images from CathleenTarawhiti in order to enter her ongoing contest for book covers,
I realized that some of us are in fact forgetting the most important of it all, that is treating the model with some respect.
Most of the times people simply blur the image and then paint hair, change colors, blend other images... the works!
But, are we really "seeing" the natural beauty in the model?
Well, this time I went a bit further (truth is I usually do all this stuff but rarely post it...)
Of course I could have gone further if this was a fully retouching job (like treating her hair better) but I didn't even
have to come this far for the works I have in mind...
Let me tell you right now that I don't even consider myself as a retouching specialist. Haven't even used any tricks
like using fancy skin textures.... All I did was basic color and tone correction and the texture is the natural from
the image. The rest was just lighting, shading and painting a little makeup.
So, if I could do it you can, too...

All was done using photoshop CS6 and the model Shanon I got from CathleenTarawhiti

Hope you like it and think a little about this...
Thank you!