The best advice i can give for your face, is to fix yourself internally. But there are ways to help externally as well. And i will never again in my life recommend the use of chemicals for acne. There's a girl who was developing chest acne, and instead of slathering on harsh chemicals, she used an organic coconut milk body cream and it got rid of it. This is because she was replacing the oil she washed away with fresh healthy oils, thus keeping the skin in balance and not causing it to want to overproduce oil. The video is in the body acne section, and it's titled One Girl's Success Treating Body Acne.

Internally, if you want to attack acne with a full force, you have to monitor everything you put into your body. Get rid of the refined crappy sugars (not fruit sugar), processed/ready prepared foods (with the exception of some organic varieties), crappy vegetable oils like canola, vegetable, corn, and cheap olive oils. An organic EVOO very likely a safe bet. As are expeller pressed oils like Apricot Kernel, Grapeseed, Sesame, Virgin Coconut, and a few others. But fried foods? Nope, unless you do it yourself using one of these oils and don't heat the oil beyond it's smoke point. You end up oxidizing and altering the fats in them, and this is not healthy.

You can also try eliminating gluten for a couple months, which would mean no bread. (unless it's organic gluten free). You can also try eliminating dairy for a couple months. Many users report great success doing this.

Table salt? Nope. You can find Himalayan Pink Salt at wal mart now, and this is an unrefined salt with no processing, which means no bleaching/high heat refining/or stripping away of the trace minerals. This is a night and day difference

You can also start doing things for your liver to help detox it. Things like consuming apple cider vinegar or detox teas/herbs. For apple cider vinegar, it needs to be organic and unpasteurized. Bragg's is the most popular and easiest to find. The easiest way i found to consume it is to use 8 oz of apple juice, 8 oz of distilled or spring water (can find these at wal mart by the gallon as well) and 1-2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. You can add some agave nectar or stevia to sweeten. If this seems too strong, you can dilute it further with more juice or water.

Burdock Root, Dandelion Root, Red Clover, Sheep Sorrel, and so many other herbs are great for making a detox tea with. These are excellent blood cleansers.

An easy way to get your raw greens in (which help dramatically with acne) is to make a fruit smoothie and simply add spinach or kale or whatever leafy green you prefer. There's a whole thread in the nutrition section discussing green smoothies.

Here's a great thread for you to scroll through over the next few days. It's loaded with great info for acne suffers.

Here's the green smoothie link:

Here's the girl who used the coconut milk body cream:

Ok so I just have to add that even changing your diet and the whole natural, holistic approach that he is recommending is not guaranteed to do squat for your face. I have done the whole change in diet etc etc (for reasons other than my skin) and while I will say that I feel FANTASTIC because of the way I eat (no grains, added sweeteners or anything very starchy basically, or anything processed, lots of veggies, healthy fats, good sources of protein etc etc the list goes on...) it has done nothing whatsoever for my skin. My mood and energy are great (other than when my acne gets me down =[ ) because of my diet but my skin is unchanged. So while a healthy lifestyle is great and advisable in general, don't do it just because you're expecting a miracle for your skin.

There's no easy answer. You're just going to have to give it time and see. One person's miracle cure may be another's poison.

You do know that with most retinoids may in all likelyhood cause purging. You have to expect the 'it gets way worse before it gets better' phase. Give it 3 months at LEAST before you make a decision. The first few months of being on a retinoid can be brutal because it is peeling the layers of skin which in itself causes irritation. It also brings acne up to the surface quicker.

In any event, its a slow and can be a frustrating process so you have to get your mindset right

Good Luck!!!

Every time I switched between retinoids, I had a week of bad skin. I used the silver Tazorac for three months and loved it, but because I still had 1-2 inflamed headless pimples, my doctor switched me to something else. I did break out again for a week, but then it settled down again, and was nothing like the terrible first month that you ever use any retinoid.