The shocking must read truth is that the most popular skin care brands targeted towards treating acne are damaging to your skin and make acne worse. Learning the truth will save you disappointment, money and a lot of time.

Many advertisements are aimed at making consumers (you) believe that if you buy their products your acne will vanish and you will have clear, smooth and radiant skin. Pretty models rub cleanser onto their cheeks then splash it off all the while beaming with joy at this so called miraculous product. When you're suffering from unattractive breakouts and red inflamed pimples, it's easy to be led astray and you constantly find yourself desperately buying each new pimple fighting product determined that this time it's going to work, only it never does.

Below is a review on some products in two of the most popular acne targeted skin care ranges.

Clean & Clear:

Continuous Control Acne Cleanser contains Vaseline and mineral oil which adds a lot of unwanted oil and works towards clogging your pores causing more pimples to form.

Other products you should never use from this line are; Continuous Control Acne Wash Oil Free, Deep Action Cleansing Wipes Oil Free, Deep Action Cream Cleanser, Clarifying Toner, Oil Fighting Deep Cleaning Astringent, Sensitive Skin Astringent, Moisturizing Mist, Invisible Blemish Treatment and Overnight Acne Patches.

All of these products contain potently irritating ingredients like camphor, peppermint and clove which work to make skin red and inflamed. Many of these products have a high percentage of alcohol which is also highly irritating and extremely drying towards skin, making your skin flake and peel adding to your problems. Alcohol (the only exception being SD Alcohol) not only irritates and angers the skin, but prolongs healing time.

Also any Salicylic Acid which these products contain is not effective in the least because of the low dosage and the incorrect PH level which renders this ingredient ineffective towards treating acne.

Clearasil:

Considering how long Clearasil has been around, you'd think by now it would have succeeded in curing somebody's acne. It's hard to understand why Clearasil is making such bad products, but it's a testament to their advertising department that they can still convince people to buy their merchandise.

All of their products are very bad choices when it comes not only to fighting acne, but for all skin in general. Many of their products contain menthol and alcohol which is harmful to the skin and which causes pimples to become red, angry and inflamed.

Here are a couple of examples:

Vanishing Treatment Cream Maximum Strength touts a 10% benzoyl peroxide which is a great ingredient for treating acne, however in the same product they use isopropyl myristate which causes breakouts.

Adult Care Acne Tinted Cream is one of the most highly irritating and damaging skin care products for acne. It not only contains alcohol but also has resorcinol, sulphur and isopropyl myristate all very irritating ingredients. This product clogs pores, is drying (in a very bad way) and causes redness and irritation and damages the skin.

It's a major cause of concern that the majority of skin care products that advertise treating acne not only have no effect on eliminating pimples but actually cause them to look worse. Finding an effective acne treatment is like finding a diamond in the rough, the search is a very expensive game of hit and miss.

Finding truthful and factual information on acne is the best first step you can take in clearing your skin. Rising above the hype and glitzy advertisements is hard, but needs to be done if you want great skin.