So I think I have myself wrapped around the axil here.

I was under the impression that using the Layer option would do the trick but I guess I was wrong. I have created TWO masks that I THINK go into the Transparency plugin(s) and then load the make up PNG layer into the Diffuse, correct? I'm getting nothing like I expect, instead the black of the mask is rendering to the edge of the face. I've tried it with and without the mask! I've tried the mask inverted to see if it was my brain messing up on me. Nothing is working!

Please help!

Thanks so much Richard

This is how I set up masks for makeup or other multi-texture shaders. I don't use the layers, because I forget about them and I'm used to using masks to combine them on one layer. I collapsed the nodes because they were actually for glowing tattoos so they wouldn't make sense, but the idea is the same. Your mask needs to be black and white. Where the black is, goes in the first closure and the white goes in the bottom.

I'll try to come up with a sample for layers and post them. Remember, layers don't work on firefly.

OK, when and if I'm ready for Cycles I'll save this set up. For now this was for Firefly and Superfly PoserSurface and PhysicalSurface.

Here's how I set up the top layer. the bottom was just a simple diffuse. It worked with either the poser surface node to the cycles node set up as shown. I didn't try the other one. The transparency is the black on the mask. Also, make sure you change the color chip on the transparency node to white or it won't work.

for firefly, you can use masks, but it can be a little more complicated, depending on your shader. You would need to use a blender node for each of the sockets you use that have a different value for the 2 portions of the shader. Set the blending to 1 and plug your map into it.

For the physical surface and layers, set the transparency to 1 and plug your mask in it. White will be where the top layer shows.

And just for the fun of it, I made a quick shader with the physical surface node in the top layer and tried both the poser surface and then the cycles root nodes in the bottom and they worked too. so you can miss and match. But as I said this only works with the superfly render engine.

Thank you so much RedPhantom! Very much appreciated!

If you want a ready-made Firefly shader for three layers with lots of Blender nodes have a look at my Poser-Shader-For-S.E.Asian-Shields ShareCG freebie from 8 years ago. It included a generic three layer shader.

But remember to put on your peril-sensitive sunglasses before looking at the shader network...

Well I never, it appears that I also included a generic two-layer shader in that !

BRAIN EXPLODES lol OMG!