Acne can be a difficult thing to define.  It’s not all the same by any means, and frankly most of us either see regular acne or we see occasionally in adults mostly something like acne conglobata which results in severe scarring.  However, the fact is that frankly, if you have a breakout, it could be one of many things, and the best acne treatments in general will address various possible problems.  For example, there are soft, closed comedones.  Generally these are not really red, but they produce bumps in the skin, and basically if you use a sanitary wash cloth and you apply a small amount of pressure, it will generally speaking come out.  Likewise, hard, closed comedones are generally seen as whiteheads, and they are not red or anything.  They are found around the eyes and they are more like sand.  You can get it treated using a dermatologist.  But it can also clear up on its own.  Finally, open comedones, are seen as blackheads, and micromedones are actually not visible to the naked eye.  Of course, you get the larger zits.  But these are the precursors of that in general terms and in some ways that you will not think about necessarily as much.