Portrait retouch--too much?

[Exposures]

I couldn't figure out how to do the skin retouching the 'correct way'. I did a lot of steps that are probably very 'backward'. I just do what works for me. And now I would like opinions on if the image looks too overdone.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

1. Used 'heal' on blemishes
2. Cloned wrinkles/bags under eyes
3. Cloned out stray hairs
4. Cloned in fat on cheeks
5. Pinched fat on right side of neck and used clone to touch up
6. Played with clone until I was happy with the face size
7. Played with clone until happy with shadow/hair fix
8. Copied top area of hair producing new layer
9. Used transform to stretch the top part of hair up
10. I copied the area (using feathering of about 2)
11. Used the eye dropper tool to match skin color and painted using 25-30% with paint brush
12. Chose a natural looking pink, set the opacity extremely low and added some pink to cheeks.
13. Set layer opacity at 85% to give a more natural look
14. Selected and copied whites of eyes and dodged until satisfied with color (using eraser to smooth edges)
15. Copied the iris layers and adjusted saturation until I was happy with the look. Set layer opacity at approx 75% to give more natural look
16. Selected lip area and adjusted saturation on BOTTOM LAYER allowing only a portion of the color to go through the overlaying face layer giving a much more subtle line.
17. Dodged teeth on low exposure
18. Used burn on bottom face layer and 'accidentally' burned only the eye make up area. it was an accidental click but I was happy with the results.
18. Crop and save

[Exposures]

thanks for the comment. Do you have any suggestions how to fix that? I'm still very novice.

[Scratch]

I think the chin area could use a bit more cleansing but otherwise I like it.

[PowerPix]

Originally Posted by Exposures

thanks for the comment. Do you have any suggestions how to fix that? I'm still very novice.

Sorry, I think you were meaning me....

I kept deleting my post because once I saw it I thought it might seem too rude.
I would just stay true to what the person really looks like. Overdone portrait retouches like this are more unflattering than flattering. The person might actually take it as an insult.

[Exposures]

Okay, I touched up the chin a bit as per the suggestions. Please be brutally honest. I value all of these opinions! No one has ever been soft on me...so bring it on! I can take it.

I just copied the chin area and transformed by pulling to the right. I blended edges with a soft eraser.

[Exposures]

Originally Posted by PowerPix

Sorry, I think you were meaning me....

I kept deleting my post because once I saw it I thought it might seem too rude.
I would just stay true to what the person really looks like. Overdone portrait retouches like this are more unflattering than flattering. The person might actually take it as an insult.

Oh NO! Not too rude at all. The person is actually me...it is for a newspaper/business card. I feel so ugly in pictures I thought I needed some help.

[agresbach]

not overdone at all i dont think. i think it looks very natural and well done. a lot of times people go overboard w/ portrait retouching and its very obvious it had work done. this i wouldn't even have guessed that you touched it up. good job!

[FormElement]

The background is the biggest killer. I swapped it out for a circular gradient and added some noise to it.

Then duplicated the base image, changed the layer style to overlay, ran a 1px high pass filter, masked the whole layer black, and painted the mask white at the eyes and hair highlights.

[agresbach]

Originally Posted by FormElement

The background is the biggest killer. I swapped it out for a circular gradient and added some noise to it.

Then duplicated the base image, changed the layer style to overlay, ran a 1px high pass filter, masked the whole layer black, and painted the mask white at the eyes and hair highlights.

MUCH better. the background jumped out at me as kind of blah too....didnt contrast well w/ you. much more flattering now to bring out your skin tones

[Refusionx]

The overall work is good, what I am seeing that stands out is all the smoothing that comes across as blur. for a newspaper with will fly but I would not send this to a magazine. try a program like portrait professional or a plugin like imagemonic Portraiture.
these will give you even skin tone and if you are really wanting to learn retouching
get world renouned retoucher Meghan Farell's video lecture. I think she has one of the best way to retouch.
I was turned onto this video when it first came out and I still preview it when I get rusty.
Photo Retouching in Adobe Photoshop