I’ve an old rig that why I’ve to stay “low” on the complexity of my scenes.
Then, the background is only a picture.
On my system it’s the usuable limit.
Hope to be at the level of “focused critiques”.
Your advice will be welcome on textures, lights, and composition.
There is definitely potential there. Human skin is one of the hardest things to pull off. We all see it every day, and we know how it looks (even if we don’t know why). I agree that translucency and SSS would help a lot, as would toning down the lower lip (it doesn’t seem to fit the rest of the face to me), but a hell of a lot better than my first go.
You may want to consider one of those “less is more” scenarios.