I'm using a prescription strength tretinoin creme. I have been for a little over two years now. I've always had mild acne, but my main problem was the constant scarring left behind from my acne. While I would say that tretinoin has an effect on diminishing the appearance of scarring and helps to even skin texture, I would say its best used as a prevention from new acne forming and too keep blemishes few and far between. I had a long period of trial and error when using this product, definite red face days and weeks as i globed this stuff onto my face. I would say that this product is a great tool, but the greatest benefit from using tretinoin has been the formulation of a system and the development of skin care routine. I dont mean using a million products and overthinking how to layer them, but after a lot of trial and error, I've ditched the harsh benzyl peroxide cremes and salysilic acid for a mild cera ve cleanser, or another favorite, a Castile soap, and i wash my face in the am and pm like I would brush my teeth. I probably should wear sunscreen because my skin is noticeably more sensitive to the sun, but i apply my favorite cera ve moisturizer everytime i wash my face. One of my biggest breakthroughs in the early days of tretinoin was mixing it in with my moisturizer. I found that i can tweak the ratio of moisturizer to tretinoin ratio if i find that I'm waking up with flaky red skin, adding more moisturizer, but still keeping up the regimine. I just put the amount of Tretinoin I deem necessary and mix it around in my palm with my index finger and then apply iberally to my face. I was very skeptical of how effective this product would be and really almost gave up several times. I'm glad I didn't, and i even scale back the use of this product in the summer time, but my biggest lesson from my journey with tretinoin was finding a routine that I was comfortable with and making skin care a habit. Be gentle to your skin, be very patient... you may feel like totally giving up at some point because you cant see the results, but the changes will happen with persistence and this is an effective tool in your skincare regimine. *I use .05 creme* Insurance covers most of it and i pay like $50 for a tube that last almost half a year