Has anyone got any tips, or links to an good tutorials online? The ones i've tried, smooth it using a blur, but this looks really naff and leaves no texture on the skin nor tells me how to put texture back in,

Got cs4 if that changes anything…

Thanks!

Add the blurred layer then tweak the opacity so some of the original adds texture comes through

I use the clone tool and drop the opacity and flow right down using a soft brush

Doing it on a new layer and then adjusting opacity and masking is the pro way – means you can go back and edit without losing anything. Much more powerful. Smart blur is quite a good tool with different control.

how does dave cameron do it?

MNore's the point, where did you get a version of CS4 from that doesn't keel over when registered with a crack? 😀

For a quick, easy and effective way;

Crerate a new layer and filter > blur > gaussian blur. I set it so that the skin looks pretty blurry.

Then in the history palette, check the box to the left of gaussian blur – the history brush icon will appear there. Then select the previous history state (that is, the box above, which is probably duplicate layer.

Then select the history brush tool and get busy blurring. As above, I set the flow and opacity pretty low, and reduce the opacity of the layer afterwards to let some texture back in.

Go to TalkPhotography.com, sign up and view the tutorials.

Or if you don't want to sign up, look at this thread here, which inspired the tutorial.
TalkPhotography – Skin Beauty Treatment

i wouldn't use blur. try dust and scratches on a duplicate layer instead.
or more subtle would be clone stamp set to darken or lighten (try different opacities)
or the healing brush but keep the brush small as the texture goes if you use a big brush

Coffeking….if you're on a mac, i can drop you an email which may be of interest?

Thanks for the tips. Dust and scratches seems quite good.Also that thread on talkphotoography seems really good. Will give it all a try!! Thanks very much guys (and girls)!