Verified answer

Unless you're prepared to spend days on a single photo, warping and liquifying, you're probably not going to like working on the shot angle. Just accept how it was shot.

For the "waxy" appearance, you should use the Info palette to see if the regions actually have color (i.e. they aren't 255/255/255). If so, try using the Curves adjustment to tone down the highlights.

If many of the pixels are pure white, that means there is no detail that can be recovered. You will have to guess at the colors and paint/fill them in (preferably using another layer in a blending mode like Multiply). This might also not be worth your time if you are not comfortable choosing skin tones (which can be quite difficult for the inexperienced).