I just recently read an article with a whole different approach. I no longer have "teenaged skin", so I can't tell you how well this works for zits and blackheads, but I do know it made my skin feel really nice.
Mix Castor Oil (this is the important ingredient) and a light oil like sunflower oil in a 1:3 mix (1 part castor oil, 3 parts light oil). You can increase the castor oil to as much as 1:2, but it may actually be too drying. Rub onto your face and gently massage it all over. The Castor oil apparently gets into the pores and dissolves the hardened oil in there which is trapping stuff underneath as well as catching and holding dirt. After a few minutes, hold a hot washcloth to your face. Don't rub! You are just sort of steaming and liquifying things a bit more so it will all rinse off. Then rinse with warm water and pat lightly with a clean towel.
Supposedly using soap and astringents dry the skin too much, setting up a vicious circle where it keeps producing too much oil trying to moisturize itself and you stripping the oil to try to get rid of the blackheads etc. It may take a short while before your skin realizes whats happening and pulls back on the oil production, but the people that use this method swear by it for all skin types.
Cleaning the body with oil instead of soap has a very long history- I remember seeing a special scraper in the Rosicrucian museum that was used in Egypt for scraping off the oils after applying them. It dissolves the old oils and lifts the dirt and dead skin, while leaving a thin layer of moisturizer behind
