I've suffered from adult acne for 6 years. I went all throughout highschool and after without any acne aside from the occasional hormonal pimple. At 24 that all changed, seemingly overnight.

I just turned 30 and have managed to finally get things under control I'd say 85% of the time. I still get occasional hormonal pimples and small pus filled pimples if I touch my face too frequently in a certain area.

At 24 my acne was so out of control and cystic. I ended up using my mom's prescription wash called Prascion. It worked great for about 6 months and I was sooo clear, until it stopped working. Then I was back to pizza face and cystic painful zits. I went a couple of years not washing my face, washing my face and scrubbing, bought a clarisonic (AWFUL for sensitive, acne prone skin in my case atleast) used proactive which dried my skin and flared up more, prascion again (which worked for a couple months again). After a ton of trial and error and a ton of money down the drain I think I have finally found what works best for my dry, yet oily, sensitive, adult acne skin.

1-Wash face twice a day (morning and night) with clean wash cloth, luke warm water. No scrubbing, just swiping wet washcloth along face twice, then rinse. Barely pat dry on CLEAN , dry towel. NO rubbing face no matter how nice it feels.

2-Strivectin lotion (for wrinkles/stretch marks) tiny amount rubbed between palms, then gently patted with palms accross face.

3-DO NOT pick your face. When I am stressed I will get in there and start picking at my face. When I do this, 100% of the time I end up breaking out.

4-DO NOT TOUCH your face.

5-Keep your hair back and away from your face as much as possible.

6-DO NOT sleep on your face. SLeep on your back. I always get zits if I sleep on the side of my face even if the pillow case is clean.

7-Eat right, drink a ton of water. Whenever I have gone on diets and didn't eat enough, I almost always would end up with bad skin within a week. My skin is clear by eating basically whatever, just not too much junk, I don't drink any milk.

8-Ladies, the ONLY foundation I am able to use which doesnt cause a breakout (aside from those small pus filled ones now and then-which I am totally ok with) is Cliniques Acne Solutions liquid makeup. Applied with Clinique's Foundation Brush in small strokes as if you're painting it on. A THIN LAYER, it's pricey but you barely use much at all so it's worth it. no powder or anything on top of this, just oil blot ur nose now and then and if u blot any other parts of your face only do it once a day and BARELY press the paper against your face. You dont need to soak up ALL the oil, your face actually needs it and if you do it too frequently you may end up dried out and extra oily to compensate.

Hope this helps someone out there. This is what works for me right now, hopefully it stays this way.