Thought of sharing a few tips of my own here.
If you are thinking of going to seek a beautician/doctor/dermatologist help, please spend some times learning more about acne and gather some information about that particular person. Some beautician/doctor/dermatologist are only interested in making a profit out of you instead of helping you. Like they would recommend and prescribe products/medications that you wont really need or not suitable for your skin. Mind you, I dare say that some of them are not even that knowledgeable. (I once had encountered a so called beautician who didnt even know bout Salicylic Acid when I asked her bout it when she was trying to get me to buy one of the products. She was like "Uhh..what is it?" Sorry matey but that's 100% confident points down the drain.)

You might wanna check on your skin hydration level (moisture level). Dehydrated skin would cause your skin to release/produce more oil,thus causing acnes. You'll be surprised to know that dehyration not only can happen to dry/normal skin as even combination or oily skin can be dehydrated.Try keep your skin well hydrated with hydration boosting moisturizers/serum/essence and you will minimize the outbreak/occurance of acnes. Drink a lot of plain water too.

The best bet for acne prone skin or those with mild acne case is to get a mild cleanser with salicylic acid (like the one offered by neutrogena ) which would exfoliate gently by removing dead skin cell on the surface of your skin. After that use a suitable toner.Oily skin especially would benefit from toner as toner would help to control oiliness/sebum. Like Jinyee said earlier, best not to use toner that contains alcohol as it would dry out your skin. You might want to try Euracin's toner, Neutrogena Alcohol-Free Toner or Neutrogena Skin Clearing Toner. Lastly apply adequate moisturizer to your skin and don't skimp on the moisturizer. For moisturizer choices, its really a matter of trial and error since everyone have different skin types and tolerance level.

** Its not adviseable to wash your face more than 2 times a day. If you really feel that your skin is oily/dirty in the afternoon, just splash on somewater and then rub dry gently with a cotton before applying moisturizer again)

If you can afford for facials,treatments and over the counter products (the expensive range products) by all means do give it a shot if youre finding that supermarket brands are not working for you/ irritate your skin. Biotherm, Shiseido
and Clinique do offer some acne/spot fighting products. But I'm not saying that these products are more effective than supermarket brands cuz at the end of the day it all come down to how your skin respond to the treatment/products youre using.
Another thing that people tend to forgotten is to stock on vitamins orally~ Vitamin C,E,A and Zinc would be helpful to those with acne. It's not adviseable to take Zinc supplements though as excessive intake of zinc can promote deficiency in other dietary minerals.One can obtain enough dosage of zinc through foods

I wonder if anyone had been to http://www.acne.org . This is a free site that offer free acne solution through their clear skin regimen. Do check it out for those with acne problems. I'm a bit skeptical about using so much benzoyl preoxide in that program though.

This post has been edited by Shadowguardian: Jul 13 2006, 09:56 PM

Nice and very imformative post Jinyee

Let me add my cent worth of opinion bout red marks and dark spots caused by acne. While I totally support Jinyee's advice on letting red marks heal on its own but I do believe that using spot/lightening treatment would help with those dark spots.
Most people have this misconception that whitening/lightening products would help them to achieve total paleness or simply a total "whiter" look like those faces in advertisment. In reality, lightning/whitening products help to even out skin tone, dispersing dark spots and thus making the face seem fairer and more even toned instead of pale white.
Lightening or whitening products may be used to hasten up the dispersion of dark spots. Some ingredients contain in lightening products such as mulberry, kojic acid and licorice can help lighten spots and evening out skin tone. However again it come down to the matter of suitability for the skin. Not all lightening products may work on your skin and yes some might cause rash and irritation but we cant deny that lightening products are all useless. Those ingredients are clinically proven =)

For more information on marks please refer to these links
Skin care physicians
http://www.skincarephysicians.com/acnenet/scarring.html
Acne.org
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php?showtopic=35143
SKin Care Health
http://skin-care.health-cares.net/skin-whitening.php

And also I would like to share a product review bout a popular cleanser used by many of my friends which I found to be quite harsh on skin actually (especially those with sensitive skin) The brand name is Eskinol Facial Cleanser range for acne. (originated from The Philippines) One thing for sure, I found out tat their acne cleanser range contains strong Denatured Ethanol (alcohol). Although it claims to be "effective against pimple causing bacteria" I found it would dry out your skin. Alcohol would dry out your skin by stripping of the natural moisture of your skin.Please try to avoid this product for those with sensitive skin.