I had cystic acne as a teen and antibiotics did nothing for me. Finally tried Acutane, which helped, but I would not recommend using this is if you plan on becoming pregnant.
The biggest change for me came when I stopped trying to dry out my skin with astringents, soap, and acne topical creams. Dryness and lack of nourishment plugs pores and makes for unhealthy skin.
I started using mild cleansers (Burt's Beeswax Apricot Scrub) and dabbing organic olive oil or coconut oil on pimples -- even cystic ones. It was really hard mentally to make this change from drying my skin out to oiling it. The oils have anti-bacterial and healing properties that are better than Neosporin. Buy good stuff, cold-pressed, organic, no preservatives.
Like Kim, diet changes also helped. For me, curbing my intake of heavily processed foods made a big difference.
__________________ Kristin, Max and Teddy
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