In case it helps anyone else- I just wanted to report my success with antibacterial soap (Protex in my case, but Dial Gold is the same formulation pretty much) in conjunction with Retin-a cream.

I am a 18 year old female and my acne started about 18 months ago. I began to get pustules and some cysts which always left some depressed scarring that took ages to fill in and I was getting little icepicks as well. Differin helped for a few months and then the pimples came back. I switched to Retin-a but it didn't really make much difference but I kept on using it anyway. A derm gave me accutane but I couldn't manage the side effects (depression and anxiety). Benzoyl Peroxide was too irritating and made my skin more inflamed. Doxycycline upset my stomach too much so only managed a few days of that. Birth control pills made me moody.

When I went to college my acne became severe. One morning, with nothing left to try, I used some antibacterial soap on my face and followed it up with a non-comodegenic moisturiser. By that evening my skin felt much smoother. Each day my skin got better and better until within a short period of time my skin was clear. I can't believe that after hundreds of dollars spent on doctors and various medications the answer for me was an inexpensive antibacterial soap from the supermarket.

I am still using the Retin-a cream (it is helping with the scarring) and I assume it is helping to keep my pores unclogged. But for me- knocking back the bacteria on my skin was a critical part of the solution.