Don't be too harsh on your face. If you have sensitive skin, cleaning it too much, or using harsh cleanser could only irritate it. Try using a really gentle face wash, one meant for sensitive skin. It doesn't even have to say it's made for treating acne. And use a REALLY light moisturizer on your face and neck before you go to bed. Also avoid rubbing your face. When you're drying your face, pat dry, don't rub dry. If you have bangs or something, try pushing them out of your face before you go to sleep. And try to get a full night's sleep. That's when your skin does it's most err...healing? that's not the right word. Try to make the room you're sleeping in as dark as possible. If you have an alarm clock where the numbers glow, try turning it away from you. Your body gets better sleep when its dark. Better sleep, better healing. That might not make any difference in your skin, but I know that when you're frustrated with acne you want to try everything that could help.
Also, go outside. Vitamin D is good for your skin. Just don't get sunburnt.

You might want to occasionally use a face mask too. Mary Kay has a good one, either for oily or acne-prone skin (I forget which it said). It's called Formula 3 or something. I just remember it as the purple one. But definitely don't use this every day. Once a twice a week, maybe.

Of course, your skin might be completely different from mine. But this is what works best for me.

Cut out gluten and dairy and see if it helps

If you get acne around your mouth and chin particularly, it's sometimes made much worse by a sensitivity to flouride in toothpaste. Rinse it off immediately if you any of it gets on the skin outside your mouth and it may make a difference.

Fill up a half-gallon bottle of water and drink it every day. That really helped me with my acne.

OH AND ONE MORE THING, DONT FUCKING EAT CHOCOLATE ICECREAM!!

I ATE BEN & JERRYS ICE CREAM AND IT WAS SOO AMAZING BUT I GOT PIMPLES IN LESS THAN 4 HOURS!

trust me pimples arent a big deal, I have friends who have pimples but thats not what i focus on
i mean its there and you could see pimples but i dont think about their pimples, i think about the conversation more.
dont worry, I had a skin deasease that went up to my face and i had to do a presentation but i didnt care
I had a pimple between my eyebrows on my first date but i didnt care

pop them once its ready and while its still SMALL.
I had a really small tiny micro white dot on my moustache area, i squeezed it and TONS of OIL pushed out!!
it looked like the ketchup pump being pushed and instead of ketchup it was PIMPLE OIL!!!!!
if i kept it longer it has the POTENTIAL to grow to a huge pimple that will leave a scar.

use head and shoulders original i heard it works because of the zinc!

Hang tuff dude.

I still have significant acne at 27 so I don't understand these people saying, "Oh, you know, just wash your face with water twice a day and you'll grow out of it in a few years." I assume they have been blessed with good genetics to be privileged enough to presume the answer is so simple for everyone, and I must have horribly out-of-whack hormones that I lack the health insurance to treat properly.

The typical strategy is the 1-2-3-4 approach: cleanser, toner, treatment lotion, moisturizer. Most kits sell you the first three and you have to buy your own moisturizer. Either the cleanser or the toner (sometimes both, but that's pretty harsh) contain salicylic acid and the treatment lotion is benzoyl peroxide.

I have tried the kits from Proactiv, AcneFree, Max Clarity, and Clinique. I find that Proactiv's cleanser is the best because it has just the right amount of scrubbiness to it, but Neutrogena's Rapid Clear-Up or whatever it's called (Rapid something) toner is the most effective. It's sold individually and not in a kit. However, it's very harsh and shouldn't be used every day for a prolonged period of time. I haven't really noticed any preference of benzoyl peroxide lotion.

For moisturizer, I like either Garnier Fructis's Moisture Rescue gel-creme (it's green, comes in a jar, about $8.50), or Clinique's same thing gel-creme that is pink and sold in a jar but often comes in a little tube with their free gift packages (NOT Clinique's yellow moisturizer, toooo greasy, meant for old ladies). These two products, which are more or less the same thing, are great for oily skin because the consistency doesn't make you feel greasy. In the summertime I use Jergens Gradual Tanning face lotion with SPF and surprisingly it doesn't make me break out significantly. Proactiv also sent me a small tube of some good stuff that was designed to fade discolorations, but it smelled faintly like pee and the main ingredient was uric acid...use at your own squeemishness.

Max Clarity's kit served me well for a little while and I didn't get any major big pimples for a while using it but would still get 1-2 small little whiteheads daily. Their instructions for use are a little different because they tell you to only use the cleanser, lotion, and a moisturizer in the morning, and the cleanser and toner (no moisturizer!) at night. It's all foam, no scrubbiness in it, so I usually switched out the cleanser with St. Ives's acne-fighting scrub (the one with the orange label) at night time to get my make up off thoroughly.

Clinique was fine but not impressive and not worth the cost (it's like $40). AcneFree is only $20 and always comes with coupons, but it's also kinda eh.

For a while I tried only using St. Ives and some moisturizer to see if maybe I was over-treating my skin, since St. Ives should be sufficient for a "normal" person my age, and I didn't get any big pimples with that strategy, but always smaller breakouts. Alas I am not normal. St Ives is nice and cheap though ($3.99) and it's worth buying a tube of the regular stuff (green label) and using it in conjunction with an acne cleanser that has no scrubbiness to it. You might also want to get one of those motorized brushes if you use a cleanser without scrubbiness because you do need to exfoliate somehow.

I also have a tube of Retin A that I apply to zits at night, and occasionally dab the clay mask that came with my last AcneFree kit on pimples that especially need some drying out. I have several tubes of Clean & Clear's Popped Pimple Relief (blue pen-like thing) that I always try to treat accidentally popped pimples with. Throughout the day I'll use one of those tubes of spot treatment (generic Clean & Clear basically) if I'm not going to be seen by anyone for the rest of the day. Generally salicylic acid treatments will dry things out quick (and sometimes excessively) and benzoyl peroxide gets in deep and is slightly more gentle.

I've heard of dabbing hydrogen peroxide on whiteheads with a Q-tip and was trying that for a while. It would get rid of them fast, but then I also read that it causes scarring, and at my age my skin is already starting to not heal as quickly and the last thing I need is more blemishes so I stopped.

I've heard that eating foods high in zinc is good for your skin. Pumpkin seeds are high in zinc, and sunflower seeds slightly less so. Drink as much water as possible. Avoid touching your face with your hands, or anything that's dirty (eg. shirt sleeve). If you must touch your face, use the inside of a clean napkin (not a tissue, as they often have lotion on them, and preferably the inside as it's less likely to have been in contact with things). Avoid greasy food and chocolate.

Well, that's about all I can think of, and I do all of this and have still been fighting acne for over 10 years, so good luck.

Clean your pillow case, covers, and towels.
If you have trouble not touching your face then try washing your hands a couple times a day.
Wash your face when you come home from school. Wash your hands before washing your face.
Hair products like hair spray can run onto your skin and cause breakouts. (I had problems with my hair spray making my skin oily)

Hm. Well, a good cleanser/toner/moisturizer is a good start. I like the olive oil toner/cleanser from L'octane but honestly everyone's skin reacts to different products differently. I would experiment a bit.
My acne wasn't that bad either, but it was very persistent. I tried everything, even topical treatments and chemical peels but they didn't work. It turns out my acne was caused entirely by my hormones. So if eating healthy and washing your face regularly doesn't change anything, I would recommend seeing a dermatologist... Cause it's better to get it looked at now than getting it treated later and risk getting scars =/

don't touch your face, keep hair out of your face.. hmm stay away from pollution =_=, clean pillows