When i take photos of an event and end up with say...50 photos on up, it takes so much time (sometimes i've spend 10 hours a day for 3 days).   I usually start with Lightroom for basic adjustments, the to photoshop for some layering and masking, then i usually just check out the Sunshine part of the Color Effex program..i can't spend time on trying out all the various things it offers, or i'd be forever editting.

I use Portrait Pro on some close ups. But one thing I'm starting to eliminate is the soft focus stuff. I think that is outdated. Even just a hint of it to me is old stuff. I'm going more towards very straight images now though i do like softened skin tones.

I do the cloning in photoshop. I do any vignetting in photoshop. Any blur (soft focus) say....for the backgrounds, in photoshop.

I do like the masking in lightroom where i can choose certain areas to change in any way i like. The sharpening tools in Lightroom 5 is pretty comprehensive.   I like the HSL in Lightroom too...especially how you just drag over any areas with the mouse to change it.

The Luminance (in noise reduction) is kind of cool for softening and i usually use a little of it in combination with the Clarity to soften something....but then, i can always use Photoshop for that kind of thing..it's really a toss up. The Lens Correction is nice..to rotate quickly something and also the cropping tool is pretty handy too for a fast precise crop to an 8 x 10 (that's REAL HANDY! because it's hit and miss with photoshop).

I always start with Lightroom, but finish up with photoshop. I really don't like spending a lot of time on photos like i used too.

I have Color Effex Pro too...their are just way too many choices! All 3 programs have alot of things that are very similar to each other. You could spend so much time going all over the place to see what effect this will have etc....so i just pick a few from each program.