Yeah, I had mild cystic acne for most of last year. The many types of zit creams and cleansers I tried didn't make any difference (Proactiv was especially the worst sh*t ever; turned my face into red sandpaper). Then I started using this mask you can make out of mixing crushed, uncoated aspirin with honey, and now my skin is totally clear and most of the red scars have faded significantly after a couple of months. The aspirin contains beta-hydroxy acid, which is different from acne products with A-HA because it's oil soluble. You can look up exactly what it does, I'm not sure. Either way, it's the cheapest and only effective thing I've tried.