1. If you're a girl I suggest you take the pill. Either Diae (also sometimes named Diane 35 or Dianette) or Yasmin. Both are perfectly good contraceptives, but are also used for acne. I've been on Dianette for 3 years myself. It's a long-term thing. The effects won't start showing after quite a long time (at least 6 months I think) (read more about this pill here http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100000754.html

2. Use a very gentle cleanser. Currently I'm using Clarins Purifying Cleansing Gel for oily skin. I really like it, and have heard nothing but good stuff about the Clarins products, so I think I'll soon start using some of their other products as well. It's a bit on the expensive side, but worth it. If you don't want to spend that much money I also suggest Cetaphil for normal to oily skin. Very lovely cleanser as well and cheap. (available at drugstores, I used to buy mine at Walgreens for like 5 bucks)

3. TONE! I use a completely natural toner: rose water. I love it. I think it's good for all skin types. Witch hazel is also very good for acne skin. Tea tree oil toner is also a good option for those with oily skin, just make sure it's not too concentrated. Pure tea tree oil can also be used as a spot treatment btw. You can buy it at The Body Shop, or other health stores/natural food stores (such as Whole Foods)...
Another good toner is green tea. Make a cup of green tea, allow it to cool and apply to face with a cotton ball. Only do this at night though, because it can give your skin a weird color (but that will wash right off in the morning!). This really calmed my skin when my acne was bad, and made my face less red. Another good toner is apple cider vinegar, if you can stand the smell....it's pretty bad

4. Treatment/Moisturizer. Alright, I've read a lot of times that even oily skin needs a daily moisturizer. I don't do this, unless my skin feels really dry. I do use pure aloe vera overnight, which is considered a moisturizer. I see it more as a treatment since aloe vera has helped me A LOT. It soothes your skin, makes it more even toned and soft, dries up blemishes.....and FADES ACNE MARKS. seriously, best thing I've found for my scars. It's amazing how much they've faded. You have to use it every night though! I bought a huge 24oz bottle of Fruit of The Earth Aloe Vera (100% pure) at Walgreens for a few bucks and I've been using it for the past 6 months and it's still not empty!

THE FOLLOWING IS FOR PEOPLE WITH ACTUAL ACNE (moderate to severe):
If you are still in an active acne stage then you'll probably have to use a treatments from the derm (or a drugstore OTC treatment). I've tried them all and even though I love that I am now able to treat my skin with gentle, mainly natural products my skin would probably ot have gotten like this without the helps of some of the things my derm prescribed. I've tried them all: Differi, Acneryne, Benzaclin, Tazorac.... the Tazorac is awful at first, because it seems to make your skin worse and you get all red and shit. But it helped me A LOT, you realy need to keep on using it until you get past the bad phase though...which is very hard It also fades marks and scars. I also like benzaclin as a spot treatment (don't cover your entire face, cos it'll dry you out).
ANTIBIOTICS: yes, sometimes it's really necessary. I've been on a few kinds. Minocycline worked a little but my acne returned. Tetracycline didn't work at al for me. Doxycycline (I took Adoxa) worked great for me. I took it for
7 months I think, but after 4 months instead of 2 pills per day I only took one. I quit taking them 3 weeks ago and the acne hasn't returned yet luckily.......we'll see.... I suggest seing a derm if you have pretty bad acne (ot just blemishes, there's a difference between having some pimples and having acne....People are fast to say "oh god. i have acne" while in fact it's just some small breakout.)

5. MASKS: every other day (or less) I use a mask. I like The Body Shop Tea Tree oil mask, because it cleanses my skin and takes away any redness (it's amazing). Also: Queen Helene's Mint Julep mask. Really cleans out pores, reduces blackheads, shrinks pores... Also great as an overnight spot treatment.
I also like the Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay. This is a completely natural clay powder you mix with water or apple cider vinegar. You put it on and it dries and you can actually feel your face pulsate as the mask gets all the crap out of your pores. your face will be a bit red afterwards, but that fades in a few hours. Egg yolk is also a great mask. just take an egg yolk and put it on your face for 20 minutes. The story behind it is that it's full of vitamin A and for example, Accutane (very strong acne medicine) is a derivate of vitamin A so the egg yolk is like topical accutane. I don't know whether this is true, but the egg yolk calmed my acne a lot back when it was very bad, and it's good for your skin in general.

6. NUTRITION
I know there's no scientific evidence that diet matters when it comes to acne, but I switched to soy milk after I started to notice my skin would become worse when I had milk. and in fact, now, when I do drink regular milk, I will have zits the next day! so yea, try to find out for yourself what doesn't work well with your skin, every person is different. I also can't eat too much chocolate cos it does break me out.

7. Microdermabrasion: only when your acne isn't active any more! I started using the Olay Regenerist Microdermabrasion kit once my acne was practically gone. It evened out my skin tone, and helped fade marks and scars. I love this. Also very nice if you get flaky skin from the acne products.

umm....that's about it I think. Hope this helps someone!

wow, thanks, this is really great.

ive just started yasmin, i was hoping it would work a little faster than that though

I have always found that cutting out sugar (especially soda) improved my acne a lot. For me that's the number one thing that improves my skin.

hmmm. I don't think that really matters with me. I've been drinking only light/diet soda for years. (so sugar-free).

I could never drink diet soda... it tastes horrible to me. But still, it's very bad for you... it has unnatural chemicals in it. So I think it's probably not good for your skin even though it doesn't have what regular sodas have. Replace all your soda with water and you'll definitely see an improvement in your skin.

hmm... yea. I've heard this a lot and it kinda pisses me off cause when my sister got diabetes my whole family switched to light products, because you have to and if we want to make a dessert you need some sort of sweetener, yes, we drink water but sometimes we like having some soda so then you drink the ones with sweeteners.
And I'm so used it cause I've been doing this since I was very youg, so when I order a diet drink somewhere eeryone's always "that's bad for you blablabla". so basically people are telling me all diabetes patients are gonna get cancer cause of the sweetener or whatever. ugh. I'm so sick of this.; It's been years people tell me this shit. Diet is already hard enough for diabetes patients so I dont wanna hear it any more.

but yea. I do need to drik more water. I have these periods where I drink loads of water, and then I quit and switch to soda and crap.

i thought you could only be on dianette for about 2 years I had to come off of it for that reason. I have Yasmin now, we'll see how that goes :-/

clarins is fabulous! it saved my skin <3

I use Clarins purifying cleansing gel, purifying toning lotion and hydra-matte day lotion. My skin was totally clear after 3 months of use.

bare escentuals makeup is fabulous - when i put it on my skin looks flawless. the only problem is it looks orange

After 4 and a half years on Dianette, when my doctor mentioned that the reason use is limited to a two year maximum is due to the risk of liver tumours and the unproven link to infertility (thanks a lot negligent GP), I swapped to Marvelon, which has been pretty good for my skin. I just stopped doxycycline after three years on it and my skin has gone a bit downhill, but I'm working on it.

I LOVE quinoderm- but only once a day (in the morning), because any more then that and my skin peels off ridiculously quickly. Then I use Garnier Pure-A moisturiser at night, because its the only moisturiser I've found that doesn't make me break out. I'm wondering however, if antibiotics worked so beautifully on my skin, if the good/bad bacteria balance on my skin isn't a bit off... in which case if I put some of one of those probiotic drinks on my skin, it might help fight the bad bacteria! I'm going to try that one this week, so watch this space to see if I just end up smelling rank with spotty skin....

Incidently, I have just tried the probiotic drink on my skin experiment, and I currently smell like rancid milk. It may need some work (and some time to see if it works) before I can flog it to the world...

I don't think this will help people with serious acne, but wheat grass has really helped my skin. I take two or three teaspoons a day of this stuff called Kyo-Green. I just get a bit of hormonal acne during my cycle and since I started taking the wheat grass I don't have as much trouble with my skin as I once did. It helps with hair and nails too.

diane made my skin amazing.

LOVE THAT STUFF

Clarins stuff is a little pricey for me to use all the time, but it's really great (and not tested on animals...important factor for me)

I use Lush stuff every day. It's amazing I cleanse with Aqua Marina, tone with Eau Roma Water (rosewater and lavender) and moisturise with Imperialis. No Lush products are tested on animals, and the ones I listed (and many more) are vegan. I don't know what I did before I discovered Lush <333

I had to switch over to Yasmin a couple of years ago and my skin has been just as good as when i was on Dianette.

I find the most important thing for me is to keep my skincare routine really simple. My skin seems to love it when i cleanse and moisturise with oils. I used to cleanse morning and night with olive oil which was really good, but i prefer to use Jojoba these days as it is easier to remove and is very similar to our skins natural oil. I use the jojoba twice a day to cleanse and then moisturise with it at night. I also use an spf cream during the day and rose water to tone. Sometimes i'll make up a green clay mask. This seems to keep my skin happy and i only have breakouts when i get bored of it and try a new product!

SAME HERE!

In addition to simply getting older and starting to finally grow out of my seemingly endless acne stage, getting clarins products was the final thing that really improved my skin. I think a big reason why my skin was so bad all throughout high school and beyond was because I was using crappy drug store acne products which dry out and irritate the skin really bad. I never realized that my skin was dry and needed moisture, and that those stupid acne products were doing more harm than good. I just assumed that moisturizer=bad for oily/acne prone skin.

Taking a look on the price of it, I'll bet your wallet was totally clear as well.

Pantothenic Acid (Internal) and Tea Tree Oil (external), kids. You can dilute the Tea Tree with a bit of water if it's too strong.

thanks for those tips!

I've been taking yasmin for almost a year now, and i assure it does help. I never had a really really bad skin, but i did get spots and redness and my nose and forehead got easily oily and shiney now i cant even remember when i've had a pimple the last time! i mean i do get these little spots sometimes and my face is not made of silk but it's so much better and i love how i dont have to stress so much of my foundation.

Also, the tea tree mask really helps. I wouldnt use it too often though, it's pretty rough stuff i think

You know what other thing helps? Sauna. When I still lived with my parents I went to sauna twice a week, now I try to keep up with once a week. It's relaxing and lovely, it's a national thing for us Finns..and yes t's very good for your skin.