[Routine Help] I quit my very basic cleanse/moisturize routine cold turkey and my skin cleared up a week later, what was I doing wrong?

Beauty Tips For Body Care
After miraculously avoiding face acne in my teens (I only seemed to get it on my chest/back), I started to get more pimples in college, mostly concentrated on my forehead. I knew my skincare habits weren't the best so I started reading the sidebar and posts in this sub and decided I wanted to get more serious about taking care of my skin. I adopted steps 1, 4, and 5 from the beginner ScA routine:Cleanse with 365 Everyday Value Daily Facial Cleanser for normal to oily skin (Cetaphil knockoff)Moisturize and add sun protection with Beauty360 All Day Moisture Lotion for sensitive skin, spf 15 (Olay knockoff)That's it! I did this in the morning and at night, using only my hands (after washing them, of course). My skin looked progressively worse over the course of the next few weeks. When my family came to visit they asked me if something was wrong. They advised me to just stop doing whatever I was doing, so I did...and my skin cleared up in about a week. I don't want to jinx it or anything, but I am really curious as to what I was doing wrong and why my skin looks dramatically healthier when I don't try to cleanse or moisturize it, as cringe-y as that sounds. It feels like my skin is the angsty teen daughter I was a few years ago and I keep being like "let me love you!!" and she's not having any of it and rebels when I try to take care of her. Anyways, any ideas or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by aritarola