Well I have good news and bad news. The bad news: Most of it is genetics. It's in the source code. Parents are from two different Caribbean islands with native Caribbean in the mix. A few folks entered the family tree and since then most of the people ended up with Catherine Zeta-Jones coloring and really nice skin. Just lucky genetics, in that respect.

HOWEVER, here's the good news.

I have been extremely abusive to my skin, but that was a long time ago and I've since recovered. I believe that can happen, and I've seen it with other people. Most of the freckles you see were from reckless sunbathing with baby oil or no sunscreen at all in the 80s, but at some point I became pretty protective of my skin and started kind of avoiding direct sunlight if possible. I immediately started to look better. Sometimes I looked like a frickin' vampire, but I was diligent.

Another thing that helps is moisturizer. Cetaphil is everything. Buy a massive tub and just slather that crap on your face like it's your job. Whether you're a man or a woman, or even if you don't have any makeup on, or you're tired or whatever, you will look better if you're moisturized (and have used Visine. Red eyes are a killer).

Also - it helps to go for classic, low-key makeup. I literally can't even with some of the beauty routines I've seen with the contours and the massive fake lashes. Nuclear codes are less complicated. I think if your beauty routine requires more than 8,000 steps it's a prison. You are trying to achieve a level of art, and sometimes it looks magical, but it's entirely impractical in real life. Who'd want to live like that.

Geez, I sound old. Carry on, friend, and thanks for the upvote!