Attached Link: How-to-Create-Your-Own-Beauty

I really think the best is to use a shader script such as by face_off or Dimension3D. I love D3D's Perfect tan but you can use a shader froma a free character and just load in different textures if you like.

And of course with Poser it is ALL about the lighting.

Can anyone point to a good starters tutorial?

All I can think of is http://www.sharecg.com/v/25244/PDF-Tutorial/How-to-Create-Your-Own-Beauty-3.5