My Acne Rollercoaster

Apologies for the lack of update; I've been overseas! My initial breakout has cleared up wonderfully, bar some relatively minor red marks that will presumably fade with time, and I'm not getting any new actives. 
 
I'm trying to keep my skin regime simple so it's currently as follows:
 
Morning
Nubian Heritage African Black Soap...

In my second entry, I posted two current pictures of the Retin-A (tretionoin 0.05%) breakout/purge I experienced 5 days into it.
Looking back now, that was nothing. This is what my skin currently looks like:

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It has looked the same for the last 5 days, more or less. Some of those are red marks. Some of...

My mother commented on how severe my face was looking this morning. It's red, raw, and bumpy as all hell. It honestly hasn't looked this bad in years. I recently read somewhere that with a Retin-A initial breakout/purge, you can expect 15 months worth of acne in the span of 3 months due to the accelerated cell turnover. I seem to have experienced...

So, last entry I talked about using Neo Strata's Ultra Smoothing Cream (10% glycolic acid) and Retin-A (0.05% tretinoin). However, reintroducing these two products together, after not having used either for over 1.5 years, turned out to be a tad harsh on my skin! My face is incredibly angry right now, and suffering from both chemical burns and some...

Morning
St. Ives Green Tea Cleanser
Neo Strata Ultra Smoothing Cream
Shiseido SPF 30+ Sun Protection Lotion
I'll add a foundation when I go out; it was MAC's Studio Sculpt SPF 15 for a while, but I've just started using the Bourjois Mineral Matte.

Night
St. Ives Green Tea Cleanser
0.05% Tretinoin Cream

This is actually my...

This won't be your typical before and after. This one's rather disheartening.

This first image was taken around August 2012. I have a silly strip on my nose (actually probably only the 3rd time I've ever used one in my life), but decided to take a photo just for fun. I apologise for the terrible instagram quality; years of acne may or may not...

2005-2008

I started getting mild acne when I was roughly 13 years old. It gradually became more moderate and persistant, but was limited to my 't-zone'.

During this period, I tried all the supermarket acne products (Clearasil, Cetaphil, Clean & Clear, Neutrogena, etc.) as well as your less run-of-the-mill brands (Mary Kay,...