The Acne Cure [Hardcover]

For one, the book provides some useful information on general skin care (but far better is available elsewhere), has a comparatively effective topical control regime and a positive attitude about treating acne. It's also a far better alternative than roaccutane or anti-biotics as it is harmless to your long term health and if used correctly, has no nasty side effects.

Now for the negative points.
Firstly, my biggest problem with this book is that it presents its self as a "cure" which it simply isn't. (This is even admitted on page 2, where you'll find an acknowledgement that the topical regime given in the book is not technically a "cure" as there may still be recurrences).
A genuine cure would be to eradicate all traces of acne, permanently, without the need for continuous use of any kind of acne control/prevention measure or medication.
That is something this book cannot offer you. Why? Because while it explains how acne its self forms and how to treat it topically, it doesn't explain WHY you actually have acne in the first place, or the differences between you and someone who doesn't. The whole program operates on the paradigm that the cause of acne is at the skin and that it is there the treatments should be concentrated. In reality, this isn't the case. The primary causes of acne are internal imbalances. Acne is kind of like the boils from a fever, or the "pocks" from chicken pocks. The skin may be where the symptoms of the problems become visible, but it's not where they start. With that in mind it makes perfect sense as to why however sophisticated the regime or products you use are, they are rarely more than partially effective and will never actually cure acne. They only help to minimise the (visible) symptoms, but do nothing to actually rectify the causes.
Admittedly the book does provide some advice on nutrition, diet and lifestyle in the chapter titled "Taking care of your skin from inside," which is a start, but it doesn't even attempt to explain what the problems might be or how to address them and is so clearly secondary to the topical regime as to be rather pitiful.

As for the regime its self, well it's rather fiddly and time consuming and requires the use of various different topical agents, most of which have to be imported as they are not available in the UK, or at least, not in the correct concentrations, making them expensive as well.
The products which are used are a selection of acids and anti-bacterial agents which if used in the wrong concentration, cause reddening, drying and flaking of the skin, so you also need to experiment with different concentrations to avoid this. It goes without saying that, being a topical system, it is only marginally effective and only so when applied continuously.

If it all came to a close here, I'd consider giving it 3 stars, but the remainder of the book is filled with information which ranges from irrelevant and misleading to just plain wrong.
The book also advocates (admittedly only extremely difficult cases) tacking antibiotics or Roaccutane to treat acne. I can speak from personal experience about the former and say they are (unsurprisingly) only marginally effective and temporarily so at that. They also cause potentially damaging side effects which take time to reverse.
As for Roaccutane, just type that word into a search engine and see what you find, then decide if you still want to take it. Oh, and lets not forget, neither of these drugs do anything to help cure you.

So, in summary: If you want to genuinely and permanently CURE your acne, look elsewhere for a something that shows you how to rectify the primary causes, which are internal. If you want a reasonably effective but rather time consuming and heavily U.S. biased topical regime that you will have to apply continually for years to come, buy this book!

What can I say. It does reduce the amount of breakouts somewhat, but there are NO dramatic or long-term results. This more or less prevented my acne from worsening, but didn't really cure existing acne or do anything to my overall skin's health.

Mediocore book, really. Disappointed.