FAQ Retouch
How do I remove blemishes without making skin look plastic?
Short answer: the plastic look comes from smoothing the whole face evenly, not from fixing individual spots. Use the Blemish Fix tool only on the actual blemish, and go easy on any general skin-smoothing brush elsewhere.
Why it happens
A blemish is a small, localized thing — a spot, a patch of redness. Fixing just that spot doesn't remove texture anywhere else, so it doesn't create the plastic look on its own. The plastic, waxy appearance shows up when a general skin-smoothing brush is dragged broadly across cheeks, forehead, and jawline at high strength: it blurs out pores, fine lines, and natural texture right along with any actual imperfections, and skin without any texture at all is what reads as "airbrushed" or artificial.
How to fix it in ZURAPIC
- Use Blemish Fix for actual spots — it's built specifically for small, localized fixes, not broad smoothing. Click directly on the blemish rather than painting a wide area around it.
- Keep the Strength slider low if you do use a broader tool like Skin Smoother or Pore Minimizer — around 20-40% keeps some real texture visible, which reads as skin rather than plastic. Full strength on either is the single fastest way to get the artificial look.
- Use a smaller brush and cover less area — resist the urge to smooth the entire face uniformly. Targeting just the areas with visible texture you actually want reduced (not every inch of skin) keeps the result looking like a photo of a person.
- Check at 100% zoom, not just the thumbnail view — over-smoothing is often invisible at a small preview size and only obvious once you zoom in to actual pixels.
Fixing a spot right now? Open Retouch in ZURAPIC and pick Blemish Fix instead of a broad smoothing brush.
Last updated: August 9, 2026