[Character's face is blue/purple until I change the complexion?]

It usually means you're missing a head texture. Check in Data\Textures\actors\character\[rest-of-path] and look for femalehead.dds and similar files (the exact path will depend on what body mod you're using). If they aren't there, they don't load and cause this issue. You can reinstall whichever mod you're using for body types (or install an extra one) as a possible fix, otherwise you may have load priority issues in your textures (if using Vortex).

[Mod category amnagement?]

Does category management help Vortex with managing load orders in any way, or are they purely esthetic?