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Embarassing...
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My friend had pretty bad acne on her face (and maybe other places, I'm not sure) and nothing she tried help. She tried Proactiv and it actually made it worse. She finally went to the dermatologist and got some sort of medicine (in pill form) and now her skin is perfect. I'll try and find out the name of the drug.
Differin does work quite well, but I have had better luck with Noxzema than with Clean & Clear. The Noxzema wash in the blue jar works the best IMO. I use it only when I get a blemish and use Noxzema Triple Acting cleanser on a daily basis, as well as the antiblemish pads. But since I've hit twenty acne is one thing I rarely have to worry about anymore thank god.
Differin and Clean & Clear
When I was your age, I had horrible acne. It was on my face, neck, back... ugh it was awful! I started using Differin and Clean & Clear and in about 4 months, my skin cleared up.
Now, you need to understand, the reason why you have acne is because you're 15 years old and still going through puberty; your hormones are going crazy. Once you are fully developed and your hormones even out, your acne will subside (most likely when you're 17 or 18).
EDIT: Also, you gotta shower every day! Use a loofah on your back; doing so will help strip away the dead skin.
When it comes to skin care, ask a gay guy.
Differin does work quite well, but I have had better luck with Noxzema than with Clean & Clear. The Noxzema wash in the blue jar works the best IMO. I use it only when I get a blemish and use Noxzema Triple Acting cleanser on a daily basis, as well as the antiblemish pads. But since I've hit twenty acne is one thing I rarely have to worry about anymore thank god.
I don't feel I can advise people to take Accutane, because some people have evidently had some serious issues when on it. But I'm just as sceptical of people who claim it has caused depression as I am of the drug. Having **** my pants on several occasions and put it off, I took it a couple of years ago. After a month had no problems other than modestly dry lips. It made my eyes dry for a few days a couple of weeks after starting it, but I didn't get nose bleeds (and I'm the kind who often does anyway), dry skin or sore joints. And no suicide either, which was nice.
I gradually cleared up over the first four months of a five month course. But then about six months after finishing I noticed I was getting a few too many spots for my liking again. My acne was never that bad to begin with (just persistent I'd tried most of the major topical creams and oral antibiotics, which worked temporarily at best), and it was even lighter when it returned.
Apparently there's no empirical proof, but I don't believe in all that crap about diet causing acne. A better diet can help a good diet will benefit you in other ways, and those benefits will in turn most probably help your skin a bit but I really doubt a bad diet causes acne. Look at the muck your porcelain-skinned friends devour. I tried cutting things out of my diet in some slim hope, but it made no difference.
As for antibiotics, I had patchy success with topical ones on my face, but no success with my back. Oral ones worked for six months before acne came gushing back. Other oral antibiotics failed to work after this, and frankly this bothers me. I don't like the idea of a sizeable branch of medical treatment being rendered useless to me for several years for six months of clear skin. I don't know many antibiotics I'm now immune to (or for how long), but I certainly would recommend oral antibiotic treatment of acne for this very reason.
The stuff people have written about not over-washing is good advice. Your skin has a layer of oil (grease/sebum) which holds vitamins and protects and repairs your skin. The body knows it's vital and will pump it out as often as you completely strip (and by strip I mean use harsh soaps or scrub until your cheeks are red) it off your skin. The trouble is your hormones are all over the show at the moment and distracting your glands by thinking about sex and such as they're trying to work out how much oil to pump out. You end up with too much and it blocks the pores. Bacteria in the pores then develops into the puss-type stuff.
The idea of the antibiotics is to stop a particular strand of the bacteria growing on your skin so the puss can't form. Accutane manages to regulate the amount of oil you make, which is the other half of what makes a pimple. Accutane's real trick however is that it manages in many cases to make this a permanent fixture after you've stopped taking the drug. It's some serious stuff, but it works for a lot of people when a lot of other things don't.
Like I say, I wouldn't want to advise someone to take it because it could turn out to be a really unpleasant experience for them if their body doesn't adapt to the side-effects well. On the messageboards of acne.org people keep logs of how it's working for them and what side-effects they're experiencing. Read some of them and make your own decision. It may be one of the many risks you have to consider taking over the course of your life.
I spent years tentatively trying different things, and wished I'd gone to a dermatologist a lot earlier. So, I guess that would be my advice.
I gradually cleared up over the first four months of a five month course. But then about six months after finishing I noticed I was getting a few too many spots for my liking again. My acne was never that bad to begin with (just persistent I'd tried most of the major topical creams and oral antibiotics, which worked temporarily at best), and it was even lighter when it returned.
Apparently there's no empirical proof, but I don't believe in all that crap about diet causing acne. A better diet can help a good diet will benefit you in other ways, and those benefits will in turn most probably help your skin a bit but I really doubt a bad diet causes acne. Look at the muck your porcelain-skinned friends devour. I tried cutting things out of my diet in some slim hope, but it made no difference.
As for antibiotics, I had patchy success with topical ones on my face, but no success with my back. Oral ones worked for six months before acne came gushing back. Other oral antibiotics failed to work after this, and frankly this bothers me. I don't like the idea of a sizeable branch of medical treatment being rendered useless to me for several years for six months of clear skin. I don't know many antibiotics I'm now immune to (or for how long), but I certainly would recommend oral antibiotic treatment of acne for this very reason.
The stuff people have written about not over-washing is good advice. Your skin has a layer of oil (grease/sebum) which holds vitamins and protects and repairs your skin. The body knows it's vital and will pump it out as often as you completely strip (and by strip I mean use harsh soaps or scrub until your cheeks are red) it off your skin. The trouble is your hormones are all over the show at the moment and distracting your glands by thinking about sex and such as they're trying to work out how much oil to pump out. You end up with too much and it blocks the pores. Bacteria in the pores then develops into the puss-type stuff.
The idea of the antibiotics is to stop a particular strand of the bacteria growing on your skin so the puss can't form. Accutane manages to regulate the amount of oil you make, which is the other half of what makes a pimple. Accutane's real trick however is that it manages in many cases to make this a permanent fixture after you've stopped taking the drug. It's some serious stuff, but it works for a lot of people when a lot of other things don't.
Like I say, I wouldn't want to advise someone to take it because it could turn out to be a really unpleasant experience for them if their body doesn't adapt to the side-effects well. On the messageboards of acne.org people keep logs of how it's working for them and what side-effects they're experiencing. Read some of them and make your own decision. It may be one of the many risks you have to consider taking over the course of your life.
I spent years tentatively trying different things, and wished I'd gone to a dermatologist a lot earlier. So, I guess that would be my advice.