I'm trying to smooth out a lady's facial skin, but I don't have, nor can I purchase the EMA plugin right now.

I've played with the levels, tried layering a blurred clip on top with different blending modes, but so far it's not working. What's weird is, she looked GREAT in person while we were shooting, but the camera picked up a whole lot of wrinkles and pores.

The EMA (Electronic Make-Up Assistant) plugin works smoothing the dark areas of the luminance, and selective masking based on the color. Awesome tool, but we're over budget.

What's the workaround? Can AE do this?
We're running FCP 5.1 btw...

Ted, unless someone else has a suggestion I think you are on the right track with the layering idea. I just did a test.

Track 1 Video (make sure to color correct with 3-way first since you'll be copying)
Track 2 (actually about track 1, obviously) Copied video, overlay mode Screen, with Gaussian Blur (radius all the way up to 68), and set the clip's opacity to suit, mine is at 70%. That gives you a soft glow for the highs/mids. Copy this clip and put on track 3 and do overlay composite mode if you want to put a soft glow on the darker regions.