i have beeen reading fashion magazines a lot especially the fashion ads that are in Vogue etc -
what i like or have noticed about the retouching is that they are all having a "Look" about them. i odnt mean they all look the same but after you look through the magazine you will see that the photos have certain elements similar to all of them and a certain quality about them.

1) I notice the skin colors are similar in many shots - a friend of mine said the skin coplors are done "by the numbers" he showed me about color sampler and adjusting via the curves the r,g,b channels to get something close but its not always close -
Does anyone know about these numbers or know how to achieve the skin color thats seen in the magazines

2) the "Look" i spoke about before - i know its also about the lighthing and camera used etc -
but i am after some ideas on how to achieve this "look" - its looks rich yet subdued -it has certain elements running through almost every image i see -

you thought on this much appreciated

You are asking the question that is probably the most addressed issue on this forum. If you go back no more than a month, and read all threads that deal with retouching, skin color, dodging/burning and other relevant topics, you will have a major portion of question answered. The remaining bit can only be answered by you, as you work through the many images that are posted for precisely these types of exercises.