something wrong with my skin?

all my life I have had dry skin never really needed to worry about zits. And now i'm getting zit after zit. Do i need some kind of special kind of face wash for my dry skin? I think the pours of my skin are clogged up. the skin of my nose feels dry but rough a little bite oily. I normally take a cotton ball and rubbing achole. was i cleaning my face wrong? do i need to use the wash that has coal in it or use something else?  When i got zits as a teen (very rare) they were under the skin never coming out. So what do i do?