I shampoo with dandruff shampoo when I can because I heard it’s better for your skin and I wash my face with Biore and I take an antibiotic called Minocin which really helps alot and I drink a lot of water and in the past have switched to a benzoyl peroxide based cleanser such as OXY.
I’m a fan of Neutrogena Men Face Wash. 2% salylcitic acid, and all that.
Of course, I only get zits when I wear hats or helmets frequently, but this face wash prevents them from popping up.
I cannot recommend the regimen from acne.org enough. Plus, it’s cheap and simple.
I tried all sorts of stuff when I first started to break out. Anti-biotics, proactive etc. They all made very little difference. Then I moved to FL (from New England) got a sunburn and became relatively pimple free. Now, so long as I get outside every few weeks I do pretty well. and the bonus to this method is that your corpse will be pimple free when the skin cancer catches up to you.
A lot of my work involves customer support for an acne product (previously mentioned in this thread). So, here’s my two cents.
Stay off of Accutane. If you’re not heavily pimpled, there’s really no need. My close friend was on it and has serious acne, and couldn’t stand it. Do you like the idea of regular blood tests to look for organ failure and lips that bleed so much you look like you have lipstick on?
Find a preventative regimen, and stick with it. Acne takes weeks to show up on the skin. I see a lot of people fail because they’ll use a product for a week, then switch.
Make sure you try discontinuing use of any makeup, moisturizer, etc. – I’ve seen people have problems even with oil-free stuff just because their skin was sensitive. It’s not forever, just see if it helps it clear (4-6 weeks).