Does this look OK? I've not had much luck smoothing out skin textures, so last night I started experimenting with different techniques and this is what I came up with.

Does it have any merit?

thanks for looking!

Because the face looks very natural (to me), I'd say you've been paying attention to your learning sources. Nicely done.

If you were to stop here (and I don't get the impression that's your intent), to me the very nicely retouched face looks a bit out of place compared to the rest of the image. It's like repainting a room... it's hard to stop with just one wall.

Would you like to reveal what process you used?

The skin looks pretty good. I have to agree with Danny that the face looks out of place with the rest of the Image, of course I dont know if you are done with it yet.

I did a tutorial on smoothing skin tones/textures here (http://www.okongraphics.com/tutorials/portraitretouch.html)
I hope this helps.

quick mask in Noko's tutorial, but then I did a lot of trial and error by selecting a color on the face and then doing FILL and then adjusting the opacity.

Next I proceeded with the clone tool and healing brush.

I am just now leaving the novice stage in PS and I don't understand a lot of the tuts I try to follow.

So I just try to wing it.

and yes, I will complete the whole photo. I was just experimenting with the skin, because I've not found a technique that 'works' for me.