I've suffered for about 20yrs and I've become somewhat obsessed with trying to find a cure.
I came across the low carb diet and how it helped acne, if you google it you will find out about how the insulin spikes are connected to acne, people also don't realise how much sugar they are eating and its not just the sweets etc, things promoted as healthy are packed full of sugar, anyway I saw a definite improvement cutting the carbs, had already cut biscuits, cakes, sweets etc with no effect. However still suffered breakouts, I cut dairy for a few weeks with no change, I now have cut gluten, Ive been suspect of an intolerance for a while and been tested for coeliac with negative results etc, I've not eaten it for a while but was never very strict with it, so would still eat it while out or not worry about the hidden stuff in jars etc. I had quite a lot of it over a 3 day period and had a very bad reaction, I had runny nose, cough, 2 ulcers in mouth and sensitive sore tongue, I'm convinced now that my body doesn't like it.
I've now cut it out strictly for two weeks now and my skin have really improved, I'm currently clear apart from the massive eruption that appeared on my nose yesterday! But I'm going to persist with low sugar and gluten free and if this doesn't work I don't know what I will do next, its really getting me down and is ruining my life :-(
At the moment my skincare routine is very simple and maybe that's helping too, putting all these lotions and potions has never worked for me and in fact I believe makes things worse as your skin reacts to it, over producing oil etc, I stopped moisturising at night a while ago and have recently stopped using anything to wash my face in the morning, I just splash with warm water and pat dry and I'm seeing a reduction in the oilyness, so at the moment what's working is:
Morning, wash face with warm water only and pat dry, moisturise with lavera balancing cream, apply mineral makeup.
Evening, wash face gently with a small amount of Dr Organic Manuka Honey face Scrub, no moisturiser, apply duac to any active spots and any I can feel under skin.
If I can afford it I sometimes use Suki Lemongrass exfoliant, its brilliant but quite expensive, skin feels lovely after using it.
I do use sudocream but I would not use this on spots you can feel under the skin as it will help them come through and turn them into a whitehead, I would use my duac cream for this and have prevented them coming to the surface this way, I will use sudocream on a spot that is already forming a whitehead to help it come through without squeezing the skin or on a healing spot to help with the redness.