[MENTION=5159]Lexicon[/MENTION] is definitely the best source of info on the forum for good quality and cheap products. (Also, I think I am going to try to talk to my doctor about that defferin stuff Lexi, and if that doesn't work out well then I'm just going to have to face facts that I'll need Retin-A the rest of my life. I think my face is starting to become immune to that neutrogena day moisturizer already.)
It is REALLY hard not to try starting new things all at once, but try to take it one step at a time. Use a google calendar app or something like it and plug in 2-4 week step-downs. The best habits are free ones really... you can start with actively working on not touching your face, or putting your phone directly to it. (I got a great but stupid looking thing for $1 from a flea market that's basically a giant old 90's phone with a headphone jack that has helped me to keep from smushing my phone to my face while in the car). Start to pin your hair away from your face, and wash your pillowcases (or, be lazy like me and have 2-3 pillowcases and just rotate them and wash them all at once), and clean your phones and objects you touch. Also, the face is impossible not to touch.. I find I just got into the habit of washing my hands before I touch my face and it helps a lot. Genuinely good hand washing helps a TON and is the cheapest health habit you can get yourself into. When I became a nurse I started washing my hands no shy of approximately 100-175 times a day during my shift. I didn't really adjust my face-to-hand ratio and my break outs definitely decreased. So, I say instead of trying to fight it entirely, just try your best and wash your hands for the rest.
Then find something you like that exfoliates. Lexi mentioned a CVS brand scrub she likes. Even though it harbors bacteria, I like to use cheap walmart microfiber cloths as they are the only things I've found that scrub all the junk off of my face without completely irritating my skin.. and it's cheaper than having yet another product to lug around, and I can use the cloths for my body if I start having oil on my shoulders, or neck, or back.. so I just bought 7-10 bar cloths and I use it once and throw it in the whites to bleach/wash with my other whites.
Then get a decent oil-absorbing mask (my personal recommendation is the Zinc and Sulphur masque
Zinc and Sulphur Masque - balance acne prone and oily skin - $24.95 from here because it's cheap, lasts a long time, and works super well) and do your normal routine + use this mask each evening for a couple weeks to help calm your skin down.. so you only end up needing it once a week. When my skin gets out of hand (like when my routine gets messed up, or I have a particularly stressful totm for whatever lame reason my body thinks of) this has worked. I learned it from this lady on youtube and I really like her videos... 2:12 and on..
Then get a gentle cleanser and wash your face with it twice a day. I save these areas until last because these things are what tend to mess your skin up. You know your baseline. You know how you react to things. (Also, I might add, while the mask might irritate and need changing, the cleansers, moisturizers, and medicines are usually the ones that need tweaking the most.. so starting with those things above for a baseline is best.) I really did use plain soap on my face for a long time because my face was so oily.. when I am compliant with my masque routine of 1-2x a week though, the gentle face cleansers do work. It takes getting used to to not feel squeaky clean (which is as deliciously bad as an 800 calorie coffee abomination from starbucks) I found. The biore balancing cleanser suggested by Lexi has been really amazing, and although I wish it was more portable, it definitely gets the job done.
Then move to the moisturizer which I think the skin gets more finnicky about because based on the weather, the place you live, and all of that it changes. I found that the humidity here was even worse than my old house's, and so a lightweight moisturizer is more than enough. I also find when I add straight Retin-A I needed so much more moisturizer just to keep my lips and face from peeling like crazy. The moisturizers and the medicines are what need to played with the most.. so you really need your baseline (the cleanser and up) to be solid first so you know where you're at, what you look like there, and if it truly improves or not. Sort of a vicious do-it-right-or-do-it-1000000-times thing. So, I'd identify a lightweight (like the C&C touch of moisture moisturizing gel), a medium weight (like Neutrogena Retin-A infused/equate version of this day cream or the Neutrogena rapid clear lotion), and a heavyweight one (Lexi recently recommended a heavier moisturizer) and have all three at your disposal as you need them. It's easy to put on a light weight, feel your skin dry and go back and put on a medium weight.. and when you know all three introduced to your skin don't break you out it's alright to move on.
After all of that, you'll know how your skin functions as a unit. When everything is solid (or as solid as life allows), you'll know things. I didn't know I broke out more during TTOTM until I did all of this. I never healed old break outs, so it just looked like I broke out all month long all year long. I also thought I had combination skin--but nope, I have oily skin I was just drying it out with stuff. My skin was not perfect, and still broke out, but it did improve vastly and it wasn't so embarrassing .. and break outs still happened like in an instant when I deviate from my routine. Like scary fast. 26 hours and I have a massive zit on my nose fast. Or my cheek just grew a boil somehow even though I haven't had a cystic acne episode in years. It happens.
I'm FINALLY (about 8-12 months later) able to go to the doctor and ask for a medicine. I did it all the wrong way the first time around.. and I've been back tracking to fix it since then. Turns out a lot of my problems were being caused by bad habits, and while my acne isn't fixed, it is easier for me to treat now. I know if 6-8 weeks later there's no change that it is the medicine.. not that I used medicine + some weird face mask or some new moisturizer.
I've been going bananas trying to get this program set up like this.. and this was the best I came up with, and it really did work. It sucked, but it worked.
The health and beauty thread (beast though it is) has lots of recommendations for cleansers and moisturizers.
Also, for blackheads.. The only true thing I ever have found that gets rid of existing ones is extraction from a good dermatologist or licensed professional that rocks at doing those sort of things. You can prevent new ones, but the existing ones will just stay buried in the skin and no amount of sticky paper or cheap black-head-scrubs will get rid of them. They only seem to pluck out the tiny not-as-bad ones + scrape the surface off of deep ones. So once you have a routine established well, it'd be best then to go back in and get rid of black heads with some professional help.
Good luck, sorry it's so long! TLDR: Listen to Lexicon, watch that girl's video in particular, and don't try any of that nonsense like oil pulling (if it doesn't work for you you'll regret it for months) and lemons-and-sugar-on-your-face-stuff.