Okay, we'll be going from  to   in Paint Shop Pro XI. This should be translatable to other programs.

Okay first things first. You have to crop your picture, sharpen, soften skin, all that preparation stuff. As always.

Next take a bright green color, I used #26fe61, and set it to Saturation (Legacy) at around 30-40% opacity. This is to brighten up the colors in your icon. If your icon is already very colorful, then you can lower the opacity. And, vice versa, if you icon is very bland, you may want to up the opacity just enough to make the colors stand out more. 

Now take a light blue color that has a hint of purple in it, I used #5479fa, and set it to Screen at around 35% opacity. This will make the icon a LOT less yellow in the end.

Now make a new Hue/Saturation/Lightness Layer. We'll only be working with the saturation area, NOT the lightness or hue areas. Now you can mess around with my settings since these are just what I used on this specific icon. The point is to just enhance the natural colors in your icon, tone down the blues a bit, and make the yellows, greens, and magentas brighter.
Master: +9
Reds: +6
Yellows: +23
Greens: +21
Cyans: +11
Blues: -13
Magentas: +15

Now, duplicate your base layer, drag it to the top and set it to Luminance (Legacy) at 100%. 

That's the end, but if your icon comes out a little darker than you want, try duplicating the top layer (the one set to Luminance legacy), dragging to the top, and setting to Screen at around 30% opacity. It'll brighten the icon more, but still keep the coloring.

Comments are loved, please let me know if this was a good tutorial or not. It's my second tutorial. Also, please show me your results, I would LOVE to see them. Credit is appreciated, but not necessary.

Okay, so I was playing around on Paint Shop Pro one day and I liked the effect i got. This is my first tutorial, so it may not be that great. Bear with me, mmkay? Oh, and comments are appreciated.

We'll be going from this  to this

Go to New Adjustment Layer>>Channel Mixer
Make sure monochrome is unchecked.
      Red: 112, -10, -1, 3
      Green: 1, 121, -1, 6
      Blue: -6, -1, 98, 1

Make a new raster layer set to Lighten at 81% opacity and fill with #a39ef8.

Duplicate your base layer, drag to top, and set to Multiply at 73% opacity.

Go to New Adjustment Layer>>Hue/Saturation/Lightness
      Saturation: 26
      Lightness: -11

Duplicate your base layer, drag to top, and set to Dodge at 24% opacity.

That's all! 5 easy steps!

Other results: