I have cystic, hormonal acne and I heard that Mario Badescu products work well. I purchased this and the Buffering Lotion and the Buffering Lotion works SO much better at reducing my acne than this does. This one is messy, application is weird (you have to apply it with a qtip or something else you can dip into the sediment at the bottom of the bottle) and the ingredients are essentially calamine lotion and alcohol. It also did nothing for my acne. I know this works for many people, so Im guessing it works better for white heads and smaller breakouts, however cystic acne tends to respond better to sulphur- based products (this is definitely true for me) and the Buffering Lotion is sulphur-based.