You take care of your skin. You are proud of the products you have on your shelf, the attention you give your skin after a shower. You have all the right cleansers, exfoliants, and know how to avoid razor burn, excessively dry skin, and may have even found methods of making your hard water soft. Yes, you are the skin care guru...except why do you keep picking at your cuticles when you say that? Or nibbling at that tiny bit of dry skin on your lip? There may be room for one more lesson for you to learn.

Skin care is not always about what you put on before you go outside or what you absorb after taking a bath. Skin care is all about taking care of your skin, and that encompasses a great deal. Actions such as scratching, picking, and nibbling are all detrimental to your skin health and looks. But, you say, you are only picking off dry skin. There is no harm in that, right? Perhaps, but you have to be aware of the skin around that area before you start tugging or nipping at it.

Some people may pick at their cuticles or nibble at their nails (nibbling without actually chewing them off; we are already aware nail biting is simply no good for you). All the while they may claim that they have dry cuticles. Consider for a moment that you may not be entirely sure if you have dry cuticles since you continuously hinder their healthy growth by scraping and putting at so-called dry pieces.

Try paying much closer attention to what you are doing to your cuticles before jumping to conclusions. Is it winter time? A dry climate? Do you cut them back far too much and in an incorrect manner? Do you bother to use any cuticle cream or oil? Keeping an eye out to external forces as well as your own actions might be able to help you curb your habits. The same goes for nibbling on your nails; you can weaken them by constantly scraping away at their surface (or even under your nails), which means they are more likely to break or become scratched or discolored.

Lips need special skin care methods as well. Constantly licking and nibbling at your lips is doing them absolutely no good. A lot of people think that by licking them during dry times, such as hot summer weather or dry winter weather, you are adding moisture to them with your saliva, but the opposite is actually happening. Saliva will help to dry your lips out even more, and when you start nipping or picking at dry skin on your lips it can lead to peeling off healthy skin as well, potentially leading to a painful spot on your lip that can bleed or may have difficulties healing.

Picking at dry spots elsewhere on your skin or scratching at your face can lead to other problems. Picking at dry skin on, say, your elbow might mean potentially opening up a wound because there is a chance that the skin is not quite ready to come off and you are exposing skin that is not yet ready for the outside world. Scratching at your face can mean leaving bacteria that can cause acne (this is true for other parts of your body as well, such as chest and back) or other blemishes. You can also be adding oils to your face that do not need to be there.

There are safe ways of getting rid of dead skin aside from your teeth and nails. Pumice stones are good for feet because they evenly and gently slough off dead skin. Nail files and buffers can be used for toenails and fingernails, and there are facial masks and lip masks that can assist in clearing up too much accumulated dead skin. Monitor your habits and seek out more efficient skin care methods than the medieval pick and nibble.