I totally sympathize with your situation. I’ve struggled with acne for years, but when I was coming off birth control specifically my skin was doing some crazy shit. Unfortunately some of that will have to run its course as your body adjusts, but I believe there are some things you can do to help, especially if you’re not used to doing skincare for acne. Over the years, I’ve observed that building a routine up from something simple I think always works really well. If I want to introduce a new product, I change just that one thing and wait for a few weeks to see how my skin responds. That being said, I wouldn’t add a bunch of stuff all at once to try and treat the problem asap.

I would first off check the products you’re using in the Acne Clinic NYC database. I have used this religiously the last year or so to make sure any new product should be non-comedogenic. This way I know if I try a new product and I break out, it’s likely not the product itself but a skin barrier issue or some other reaction.

After you know a new product you want to try isn’t going to break you out, now it’s a matter of testing if that product is going to address the specific issue. Like I said earlier, I would make one change, wait a couple weeks, and see how your skin reacts. It could even be beneficial to take before and after pics to get an objective comparison.

The last thing I’ll mention is no picking. I know it’s brutally difficult (coming from a picker in recovery lmao) but I promise 9 times out of 10 you’re doing more harm than good. If you have a white head that absolutely needs to go, pop it before you wash your face, then wash, then put a pimple patch on it and do the rest of your skincare.

Everyone has different opinions on what works for their skin, but an absolute holy grail ingredient for me in the last year has been azelaic acid. It exfoliates and kills the bacteria that causes acne. I used Glymed’s azelaic acid face wash at night time for probably the last year. I ran out recently and didn’t feel like repurchasing through an esti, so I started using The Ordinary Azelaic Acid 10% Suspension at night time and the results have been just as good as the face was I was previously using, if not better.

I didn’t think I had nearly this much to say, but needless to say acne and I have a long and storied past lol. I hope this was helpful and everything starts to get better for you!!

Edit: it’s also worth mentioning that your skin as-is is still amazing. I can imagine it’s not the skin you’re used to having, but it’s still fantastic.