---
title: "How to retouch portraits with Face Refinement and Beauty Tools in DaVinci Resolve"
author: "Cutsio Team"
date: "2026-05-15"
lastmod: "2026-05-15"
category: "DaVinci Resolve Advanced Workflows"
excerpt: "DaVinci Resolve Photo page includes face refinement, Ultra Beauty, and AI Blemish Removal for portrait retouching. This guide covers eye sharpening, skin smoothing, lip color, and complete beauty grades."
tags: ["DaVinci Resolve","Face Refinement","Beauty Tools","Ultra Beauty","Blemish Removal","Portrait Retouching","Skin Smoothing"]
---

## How do you retouch portraits with Face Refinement in DaVinci Resolve Photo page?

Face Refinement in DaVinci Resolve automatically masks different parts of a face — eyes, lips, skin — and provides individual controls for each. You can sharpen eyes, remove dark circles, smooth skin, and color lips without manual masking. Open a portrait in the Color page or Photo page, apply Face Refinement from the Resolve FX library, and the AI detects facial features instantly.

![Face Refinement](https://images.blackmagicdesign.com/images/products/davinciresolve/photo/powerful/face@2x.jpg?_v=1775273297)

The Face Refinement tool detects facial landmarks and creates automatic masks for the skin, left eye, right eye, left iris, right iris, left eyebrow, right eyebrow, upper lip, lower lip, and teeth. Each region has dedicated controls. For eyes, adjust Sharpen to enhance iris detail and Brighten to remove dark circles. For lips, adjust Saturation and Hue to change lip color. For skin, adjust Soften to smooth texture and Brighten to even skin tone.

## How does Ultra Beauty work for high-end skin retouching?

Ultra Beauty separates skin texture from color for natural, high-end results. Unlike traditional skin smoothing that blurs the entire skin area, Ultra Beauty analyzes the frequency layers of the image — separating fine texture from color and tone. You can smooth the texture layer for softer skin while keeping the color layer unchanged, preserving natural skin coloration.

Apply Ultra Beauty from the Resolve FX library. The controls include Amount for overall effect strength, Texture Smoothing for fine detail reduction, and Color Preservation to prevent color shifts. For a natural beauty look, use low Texture Smoothing values (10-20%) and moderate Amount (30-50%). For a high-fashion editorial look, increase both for noticeably smoother skin.

Ultra Beauty can be localized using a power window or Magic Mask. Apply Ultra Beauty to the face only, leaving hands, hair, and clothing with their original texture. This creates a professional retouching result where only the skin is refined.

## How does AI Blemish Removal work alongside Face Refinement?

AI Blemish Removal targets specific skin imperfections — acne, spots, discoloration — while retaining natural skin texture. Apply it before Face Refinement or Ultra Beauty. The Blemish Removal handles the spot correction, and the Face Refinement or Ultra Beauty handles the overall skin texture.

The strength slider controls the intensity. At low values (10-20%), it removes minor blemishes without affecting surrounding texture. At higher values (50-70%), it removes more visible imperfections but may begin to smooth skin texture. For the most natural results, use Blemish Removal at low strength for spot correction and Ultra Beauty at low strength for overall refinement.

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