Hey guys I'd just like to share a personal regime which has finally cured my acne. I've suffered from light to moderate acne since I was 14 (now 26). After a particularly bad flare up I solemnly vowed to rid myself once and for all of the damn thing. I sat with a pen and paper and came up with a multi step regime and promised I would stick to it for a month and see what happened. 2 months in and I have now completely cleared my acne including black heads in my t-zone. I've been lucky and haven't ever suffered from cystic acne so skin texture was fine but I did suffer post spot hyper pigmentation which has improved dramatically and will hopefully also be completely cured in a few more months. All products I've used are available over the counter and lifestyle changes are minimal. I highly recommend any one with mild/moderate acne try this out and let me know how you get one.

First thing I did was draw associations with certain things I did which either made breakouts start, made them worse or made them better. I also trawled the internet for posts which educated me about acne. Both scientific and theoretical.

Step one was very obvious, stop squeezing or picking at my face. I'm very bad for squeezing small blackheads that no one else would possibly see unless looking directly at my face from close range. I completely stopped squeezing my face and tried to consciously stop touching my face with my hands. Only when I did this did I notice that I constantly was running my fingers over my face or touching it. I read somewhere the average person unconsciously touches there face hundreds of times a day. Similarly I began to wash my hands regularly so that when I was touching my face subconsciously I was doing so with clean hands and not introducing further grease or bacteria to my face.

Secondly I stopped drinking sugary fizzy drinks like coke and eating chocolate bars. No hard science behind this but there are plenty of posts on the internet linking fizzy drinks and sugar rich foods with acne. From my personal experience I found my breakouts were worse when I was working nightshifts and drinking one or more large energy drinks a day for a week at a time. Though it could be linked to the lack of sleep.

I previously washed my face twice a day with harsh exfoliating acne scrubs however read multiple posts on line which suggested that this was actually making my skin worse. I switched to clearasil ultra foaming wash morning and night. I use garnier pure mark fading scrub twice a week. This is a great product with salicylic acid to fix the pigmentation issue. I also use a Lancome mens microdermabrasion scrub once a fortnight.

I use panoxyl 10% cream morning and night. The manufacturer recommends that you start with the lowest concentration possible and only once a day but I went nuclear to guarantee I killed every last bacterium on my face. This cream is massively drying and for the first week or 2 you will look like you've got bad dermatitis but it encourages shedding of the top layers of marked skin and helps with the pigmentation marks. For me after 2 weeks I became resistant to the drying effect through my skin naturally adjusting and also I purchased a good non greasy moisturiser with vitamin c (boots no7 for men). Vit c is essential in collagen production and I assume applying the stuff directly to the skin is better than through diet alone.

Finally I try to drink a lot of water and for me personally I find that regular running or any intense exercise which encourages sweating is helpful. The sweating seems to help with pushing the dirt and grease out of the pores. I believe this as I use no special products on my back or shoulders and still found that most of my backne has cleared though I never really got it bad in the first place.

As I say I've had a complete clearance of acne which happened very quickly and 2 months in I genuinely haven't had a single spot in weeks. This could be attributed to one or a combinations of all my steps. I don't dare to stop doing one in case the spots come back.

So there it is. Give it a try and see if it works for you.