VAN ALPHEN, Bertus Johannes (21 De Rietvink, RM Heiloo, RM Heiloo, NL-1852, NL)
| C L A I M S 1. Applicator for containing and applying a relatively small amount of a lip product (5), at least comprising a thin flexible sheet-like support (1 ) with a surface with a lip product area (4,6) which is designed to comprise the lip product (5), characterized in that the thin sheet-like support (1 ) at least in the lip product area (4,6) comprises a fine gauze material (8), said gauze material (8) at least partially covering the thin sheet-like support (1 ) and being connected thereto over substantially the entire circumference (7) of the gauze material (8) and being loose from the support (1 ) for the remainder thereof, thereby forming a lip product space for accommodating the lip product (5). 2. Applicator according to claim 1 , characterized in that the fine gauze material (8) comprises plastic filaments (9,10). 3. Applicator according to claim 2, characterized in that the filaments (9,10) are substantially freely moveable relative to each other. 4. Applicator according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the fine gauze material (1 ) is a woven gauze material. 5. Applicator according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the fine gauze material (8) is connected to the support (1 ) along the entire circumference (7) of the gauze material (8). 6. Applicator according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the sheet-like flexible support (1 ) comprises a mouth end portion (2) and an opposite positioned holding end portion (3), and said sheet-like flexible support (1 ) comprising on at least one side thereof the lip product area (4,6) carrying an amount of lip product(5), said lip product area (4,6) being located on said support (1 ) near the mouth end portion (2) thereof in such a manner that at least a substantial part of at least one lip of a user can be brought into con- tact with said lip product (5) in said lip product area (4,6) by taking the support (1 ) between the lips at the mouth end portion (2), said support (1 ) being dimensioned such that it can be grasped manually at the holding end portion (3) thereof which during use is located outside the mouth of the user, said sheet-like flexible support (1 ) being designed in such a manner that it has an increasing flexibility from the mouth end portion (2) to the holding end portion (3) at least over a part of the lip product area (4,6) of the support (1 ) carrying the lip product (5). 7. Applicator according to claim 6, characterized in that said sheet-like flexible support (1 ) has a substantially triangular shape with rounded corners and has a substantially constant thickness, and that the lip product area (4,6) is designed in a curved band near a base of the triangular shape in order to approach the curvature of the lips of a user when used 8. Applicator according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that said sheet-like flexible support (1 ) carries a lip product area (4,6) comprising a lip product (5) on both sides near the mouth end portion (2). 9. Applicator according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said applicator comprises a liquid lip product (5) in the lip product area (4,6), intended to be applied to the lips of a user. |
The present invention relates to an applicator for containing and applying a relatively small amount of a lip product, at least comprising a thin flexible sheet-like support with a surface with a lip product area which is designed to comprise the lip product.
Many of the above applicators are known and range from relatively thin sheet-like supports to more rigid stick like applicators. All intended to contain and apply a lip product.
Lip products are usually quite vulnerable products that are easily smeared or otherwise deformed and thereby inadvertently applied, even when still residing in the respective package thereof.
The applicators which comprise a relatively small amount of a lip product are for ex- ample lip samplers or testers, which are used to enable potential customers to sample and try the lip product. Also encompassed are single use applicators for other purposes, like medical purposes.
Lip products are for example lipstick, lip-gloss and the like, but can also be medical products, like medical ointments, liquids, lip balm, lip emollient, sun protection products, anti herpes labialis agent etc. The applicator according to the invention is also suitable for lip products with a different consistency such as powdery products or semi liquid products.
When a relatively small amount of lip product is present on a support this is extremely sensitive to the problems associated with smearing or deformation of the lip product. As because of the result of smearing or deformation the lip product may not be suitable any more for the intended purpose. For example, a lipstick sampler, comprising a relatively thin sheetlike support carrying on both sides a relatively small amount of lipstick is very sensitive to smearing and the like as this will greatly influence the accuracy of the application of the lipstick to the lips, and only to the lips. This may also lead to applying lumps of lipstick, which is of course also very undesirable. For example compression of the applicator may lead to smearing and deformation of the lip product.
In the prior art a need exists to further protect the relatively small amount of lip product on a support and to improve the accuracy of transfer thereof.
The present invention meets the above need by providing an applicator for containing and applying a relatively small amount of a lip product, at least comprising a thin flexible sheet-like support with a surface with a lip product area which is designed to comprise the lip product, characterized in that the thin sheet-like support at least in the lip product area comprises a fine gauze material, said gauze material at least partially covering the thin sheet-like support and being connected thereto over substantially the entire circumference of the gauze material and being loose from the support for the remainder thereof, thereby forming a lip product space between the gauze and the support for accommodating the lip product.
When such an applicator is provided with a relatively small amount of lip product in the lip product area said lip product is very well protected. Smearing and deformation of the lip product, according to the invention being present in the fine gauze material and possibly in the lip product space between the gauze and the support, is highly prevented. Compression of the applicator is also no longer a problem as the possible compression thickness is limited to the thickness of the gauze. By proper selection of the thickness of the gauze and the amount of lip product smearing and deformation by compression can be fully prevented.
Further because of the presence of the fine gauze material the amount of lip product can be decreased even further without visual impairment of the appearance of the applicator provided with the lip product.
Finally the presence of the gauze material can be sensed by the user on the lips which increases the accuracy of application of the lip product.
When lipstick is applied to the lips using the applicator according to the invention the user can, as a consequence of the presence of the gauze material, position the applicator on or between the lips very accurately.
Although the lip product is present in the fine gauze material it can be easily and without undue effort be transferred to the intended location on the lips of the user.
Per se a thin sheet-like applicator for applying lipstick to the lips is known from US-A-2
735 435. This applicator comprises a stack composed of a sheet-like support with lipstick, a gauze, and an upper sheet with lip shaped openings. The gauze is completely connected to the upper sheet with the openings, and connected to the support at only two small locations near the circumference thereof. Therefore no lip product space as with the present invention is formed. Further the gauze is relatively coarse. Also the document dates back to 1953 and obviously has not had a fruitful effect on the prior art. The known applicator further has numerous disadvantages. The openings in the upper sheet need to be dimensioned separately for lips with different dimensions. Also pressure has to be applied to the applicator for transferring the lipstick to the lips by using two fingers. The result certainly is not accurate, nor can the applicator be used multiple times. Also use of this applicator results in smearing and fouling of fingers and the applicator itself.
According to the invention the fine gauze material can be connected to the support by all means known for that purpose. Examples of connection techniques are ultrasonic welding, heat welding, gluing, chemical bonding, laser bonding etc.
A particular advantage of the applicator according to the invention is that it provides the possibility to accommodate liquid lip products. Liquid means semi liquid products but also products having the viscosity of water or an even lower viscosity. Tests showed that the fine gauze material substantially being loose from the surface of the support provides an excellent means for containing liquid products without running thereof when stored.
A fine gauze material is of course a relatively fine gauze material. Which means a ma- terial that has dimensions such that in combination with the specific properties of the lip product stored in the gauze the advantageous effects of the invention are obtained. A very important advantage of the invention is that the applicator according to the invention is capable of containing and applying liquid products.
In practice a gauze material is used having a mesh width of about 100 μιη to 1500 μιτι, preferably 250 to 1000 μιη. If the mesh width is difficult to establish, for instance in the case of polygonal openings, or openings with complicated shapes in the gauze, the mesh width is considered to be the largest dimension of the opening. The open area of the gauze is preferably at least 20%, more preferably 20 - 70% and most preferably 30 - 55%. The open area is the ratio between the open surface area of the gauze and the total surface area.
The material for manufacturing the fine gauze material is not specifically limited and many different kinds of materials can be used for that purpose. Preferably the fine gauze material comprises plastic filaments.
In particular the filaments of the gauze material are substantially freely moveable rela- tive to each other.
This embodiment has particular advantages. A special advantage of the freely moveable filaments is that they can provide a relatively small mixing action to the lip product when applied to a specific location on a user. This can be advantageous for example when applying lipstick. This effect is even stronger when the applicator is flexible and bent in use. By bend- ing of the applicator the filaments change position relative to each other, which changes the shape and size of the openings in the gauze material. This also improves repositioning of the lip product in the gauze after an amount has been transferred to a user.
Advantageously the fine gauze material is a woven gauze material. Woven gauze materials are relatively strong and have stable dimensions.
In order to prevent any shifting or moving of the fine gauze material relative to the support or to prevent unintended leakage of lip product from the lip product space the fine gauze material is preferably connected to the support along the entire circumference of the gauze material. This increases the accuracy of applying the lip product. For certain applications it may be preferred to also connect the fine gauze material to the support on additional positions. Preferably however the mayor portion of the fine gauze material is loose from the support. This is important for obtaining the favourable effects of the present invention.
Preferably the plastic filaments are selected from PET, PE, Polyamide, PP, nylon etc As discussed earlier the thickness of the gauze material can be selected depending on the specific properties of the lip product and the specific application thereof.
The present invention is suitable for many kinds of applicators. In a particular embodiment the applicator comprises a sheet-like flexible support with a mouth end portion and an opposite positioned holding end portion, said sheet-like flexible support comprising on at least one side thereof a lip product area carrying an amount of lip product, said lip product area being located on said support near the mouth end portion thereof in such a manner that at least a substantial part of at least one lip of a user can be brought into contact with said lip product in said lip product area by taking the support between the lips at the mouth end por- tion, said support being dimensioned such that it can be grasped manually at the holding end portion thereof which during use is located outside the mouth of the user, said sheet-like flexible support being designed in such a manner that it has an increasing flexibility from the mouth end portion to the holding end portion at least over the part of the lip product area of the support carrying the lip product.
The above applicator without the fine gauze material is disclosed in WO-A-
2007/006559. This applicator provides outstanding results in applying lipstick to the lips of a user in an extremely accurate manner. The presence of the fine gauze material improves the applicator in many aspects. Less lipstick is necessary, smearing and deformation during storage and use is prevented and liquid or semi liquid products can be contained therein and ap- plied therewith.
Advantageously said sheet-like flexible support has a substantially triangular shape with rounded corners and has a substantially constant thickness, and that the lip product area is designed in a curved band near a base of the triangular shape in order to approach the curvature of the lips of a user when used. This embodiment will be discussed in greater detail with reference to the enclosed drawings.
Although the applicator can comprise the lip product on only one side thereof, it is preferred, especially in the case of lip products, that said sheet-like flexible support carries a lip product area comprising a lip product on both sides near the mouth end portion.
Further the invention provides an applicator according to the invention which applica- tor comprises a lip product in the lip product area, preferably a liquid lip product intended to be applied to the lips of a user.
In the following the invention will be explained in greater detail with reference to the accompanied drawings, therein:
Fig. 1 shows an embodiment of the applicator according to the invention with a sub- stantial triangular shape;
Fig. 2 shows a cross section (l-l) of the applicator according to fig. 1 ;
Fig. 3 shows a portion of the fine gauze material according to the invention; and
Fig. 4 shows a cross section (Ill-Ill) of the gauze material according to fig. 3. In fig. 1 an applicator according to the invention is shown, comprising a sheetlike support 1 with a mouth end portion 2 and a holding end portion 3. Near the mouth end portion 2 a lip product area 4 is present designed as a curved band carrying an amount of lip gloss 5. 8 shows a fine gauze material which is connected to the sheet-like support 1 around the entire circumference 7 of the fine gauze material 8 by ultrasonic welding. The gauze material is a woven nylon gauze with a mesh width of 500 pm and a filament thickness of 30 m. For the remainder of the gauze material it is substantially completely loose from the support, which is an important requirement for obtaining the effects of the invention. Of course depending on the specific application the gauze material may be connected on other locations too as long as the mayor part thereof remains unconnected to the support.
The lip gloss 5 is a liquid lip product which is kept in the gauze material 8 until it contacts the lips of a user and a limited amount of pressure is exerted. During storage and handling the lip gloss 5 remains in the gauze material 8 on the sheet-like support 1 .
Because of the substantially triangular shape of the applicator the flexibility will in- crease from the mouth end portion 2 to the holding end portion 3 at least over a substantial part of the lip product area 4 and in this case over almost the entire applicator. When the applicator according to the invention is grasped between the lips of a user at the position of the band shaped area 4 with lip gloss 5 and the holding end portion 3 is grasped by two fingers and moved up and down (bent), during all stages of bending the radius of curvature of the applicator will decrease from the mouth end portion to the holding end portion as a consequence of the increasing flexibility of the applicator in that direction.
In fig. 2 a cross-section of the applicator according to fig. 1 along line l-l is shown. In this cross-section it is clear that apart from the lip product area 4 with lipstick also a second lip product area 6 comprising lip gloss 5 and the same fine gauze material 8 are present on the opposite side of the applicator. In this way both lips can be provided with lipstick simultaneously.
In the figures the dimensions of the respective components are only schematic and by no means accurate depictions of reality.
Fig 3 shows an enlargement of a fine gauze material 8 comprising warp filaments 9 and weft filaments 10 in this case manufactured from nylon.
Fig. 4 finally shows a cross section of the gauze material of fig. 3. Although in this example a single warp and single weft filament is shown other possibilities are also feasible, like multiple warp and/or weft filaments. Also different weaving techniques are possible.
The lip product space as present in the applicator according to the invention is in fact not a real open space, like a container or something but is intended to mean that the area underneath the gauze is accessible by the lip product. Therefore this space is not specifically designated in the drawing to prevent confusion. The fact that the gauze is substantially only connected to the support at the circumference indicates that there is a space underneath the gauze. This lip product space plays a fundamental role in obtaining the advantageous properties of the applicator according to the invention. This space allows for a deformation or 'mixing' action during transfer of the lip product. When pressure is applied on the gauze by the lips, subtle movement of the gauze or the respective filaments thereof and the presence of the lip product space allow for a excellent flow characteristics of the lip product during transfer thereof to the lips.
The fine gauze material used according to the invention is not limited to woven materials but all materials having the same properties providing the advantageous effects of the invention can be used.