CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/870,234, filed July 3, 2019, and U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application No. 16/920,261 filed July 2, 2020, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to protecting skin against ultraviolet light exposure, e.g., during a nail polish curing procedure.

BACKGROUND

Ultraviolet (UV) light is often used when manicuring or pedicuring to quickly set and harden nail lacquers or other nail coatings. In doing so, a user is exposed to the UV light which can cause irritation, sunburns, premature aging, blistering and peeling, and increased likelihood of skin cancer. Existing gloves are not suitable for this purpose. As such, there is a need in the art for ways of protecting the skin from UV light during a manicure or pedicure.

SUMMARY

A protective covering for skin can include a UV protective member having main body portion and at least one elongated appendage shaped portion extending from the main body portion, and an adhesive layer disposed on the UV protective layer. The adhesive layer can be configured to adhere to human skin.

In certain embodiments, the main body portion can be back-of-hand shaped. The at least one elongated appendage can include five elongated appendages that can be configured to cover each finger of a hand, for example. In certain embodiments, the protective covering can be configured to cover an entire top of a hand and fingers, and at least a portion of a side of each finger.

The five elongated appendages can include a thumb, an index finger, a middle finger, a ring finger, and a pinky finger, each shaped differently, for example. In certain embodiments, each elongated appendage can include one or more perforations configured to allow tearing, cutting, and/or trimming at the perforations to change a length of each elongated appendage to match each finger of a wearer to cover only skin up to a nail.

In certain embodiments, the main body portion can be top-of-foot shaped and can be configured to adhere to a top of a foot. Any other suitable shape to cover a hand and fingers, or foot and toes is contemplated herein.

The UV protective member can be made of a base layer and a UV reflective coating layer, and the UV reflective coating can be disposed on an opposite side of the base layer as the adhesive layer. Any other suitable assembly is contemplated herein. The base layer can be comprised of at least one of a plastic material and/or a fabric material, or any other suitable material, for example.

In accordance with at least one aspect of this disclosure, a kit for protecting skin against UV exposure can include a plurality of protective coverings for skin, which can comprise a UV protective member having main body portion and at least one elongated appendage shaped portion extending from the main body portion, and an adhesive layer disposed on the UV protective layer, the adhesive layer can be configured to adhere to human skin.

In accordance with at least one aspect of this disclosure, a method for protecting skin against UV exposure can include removing a plurality of protective coverings from a package, removing a temporary layer from an adhesive layer of the protective covering, exposing the adhesive layer, adhering the protective covering to an area of skin to be exposed to UV light, and removing the protective covering after completion of UV light exposure.

These and other features of the systems and methods of the subject disclosure will become more readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the embodiments taken in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that those skilled in the art to which the subject disclosure appertains will readily understand how to make and use the embodiments of the subject disclosure without undue experimentation, embodiments thereof will be described in detail herein below with reference to certain figures wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of an embodiment of a protective covering in accordance with this disclosure;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the protective covering of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 shows a schematic view of a plurality of protective coverings contained in a kit; and

Fig. 4 is a schematic view of a hand having an embodiment of a protective covering adhered thereto during a UV nail polish curing procedure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made to the drawings wherein like reference numerals identify similar structural features or aspects of this disclosure. For purposes of explanation and illustration, and not limitation, an embodiment of a protective cover is shown in Fig. 1 and is designated generally by reference character 100. Other embodiments and/or aspects thereof are shown in Figs. 1-4.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, a protective covering 100 for protecting skin against UV light can comprise a UV protective member 102 having main body portion 104 and at least one elongated appendage shaped portion 106 extending from the main body portion 104. The protective covering 100 can also include an adhesive layer 108 disposed on the UV protective covering 100.

The adhesive layer 108 can be configured to adhere to human skin. The adhesive layer 108 can completely cover the UV protective UV protective member 102, or can be disposed on less than all of the UV protective member (e.g., in a single area or multiple separate areas). Any suitable type of adhesive is contemplated herein.

In certain embodiments, the main body portion 104 can back-of-hand shaped. The at least one elongated appendage 106 includes five elongated appendages that are configured to cover each finger of a hand, for example.

The protective covering 100 can be configured to cover an entire top of a hand and fingers, and at least a portion of a side of each finger, for example (e.g., as shown in Fig. 4). For example, the five elongated appendages 106 can include a thumb, an index finger, a middle finger, a ring finger, and a pinky finger, each shaped differently (e.g., of different lengths), e.g., as shown. Each elongated appendage 106 can include one or more perforations 110 configured to allow for tearing, cutting, and/or trimming at the perforations 110 to change a length of each elongated appendage 106. This can allow a user to match each finger of a wearer to cover only skin up to a nail to leave a nail exposed. It also can allow manufacture of a one size fits all protective cover instead of multiple sizes for different customers.

In certain embodiments, the main body portion 104 can be top-of-foot shaped and can be configured to adhere to a top of a foot. Accordingly, one having ordinary skill in the art in view of this disclosure understands that all embodiments disclosed herein can be applied to foot shaped embodiments (e.g., an appendage for each tow, perforations for changing length, etc.).

Referring now to Fig. 2, the UV protective member 102 can made of a base layer 112 and a UV non-transmissive (e.g., reflective or absorptive) coating layer 114. The UV non transmissive coating 114 can be disposed on an opposite side of the base layer 112 and the adhesive layer 108. The adhesive layer 108 can be covered by a removable adhesive cover 116 (e.g., wax paper or other non-stick layer), until removed by the user to be applied to skin. Any suitable base layer 112 is contemplated herein (e.g., clear and flexible plastic, soft fabric material. It is contemplated that the UV protective member 102 may be a single layer of material that has UV non-transmissive properties and a separate UV non-transmissive layer need not be separately applied, for example.

In accordance with at least one aspect of this disclosure, referring to Fig. 3, a kit 150 for protecting skin against UV exposure can comprise a plurality of protective coverings 100. For example, a kit 150 can include a right hand protective cover and a left hand protective cover enclosed in a sealed, sanitary package. The kit 150 can include a number of protective coverings 100 for use on the back of a hand, or a number of protective coverings 100 for use on the back of a foot, and/or a combination of both, all contained in a package 152.

In accordance with at least one aspect of this disclosure, a method for protecting skin against UV exposure can be as follows, removing a plurality of protective coverings 100 from a package 152, removing a removable adhesive cover 116 from an adhesive layer 108 of the protective covering 100, exposing the adhesive layer 108, adhering the protective covering 100 to an area of skin to be exposed to UV light, and removing the protective covering 100 from the skin after completion of UV light exposure.

Referring to Fig. 4, embodiments can be used to cover one or more hands and/or feet during a UV light nail polish curing process. The UV protective covering 100 can prevent UV light from contacting the skin of the user.

Those having ordinary skill in the art understand that any numerical values disclosed herein can be exact values or can be values within a range. Further, any terms of

approximation (e.g.,“about”,“approximately”,“around”) used in this disclosure can mean the stated value within a range. For example, in certain embodiments, the range can be within (plus or minus) 20%, or within 10%, or within 5%, or within 2%, or within any other suitable percentage or number as appreciated by those having ordinary skill in the art (e.g., for known tolerance limits or error ranges).

The articles“a”,“an”, and“the” as used herein and in the appended claims are used herein to refer to one or to more than one (i.e., to at least one) of the grammatical object of the article unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. By way of example,“an element” means one element or more than one element.

The phrase“and/or,” as used herein in the specification and in the claims, should be understood to mean“either or both” of the elements so conjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some cases and disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with“and/or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e.,“one or more” of the elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified by the“and/or” clause, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to“A and/or B”, when used in conjunction with open-ended language such as“comprising” can refer, in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elements other than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionally including other elements); etc.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims,“or” should be understood to have the same meaning as“and/or” as defined above. For example, when separating items in a list,”or” or“and/or” shall be interpreted as being inclusive, i.e., the inclusion of at least one, but also including more than one, of a number or list of elements, and, optionally, additional unlisted items. Only terms clearly indicated to the contrary, such as“only one of’ or“exactly one of,” or, when used in the claims,“consisting of,” will refer to the inclusion of exactly one element of a number or list of elements. In general, the term“or” as used herein shall only be interpreted as indicating exclusive alternatives (i.e.,“one or the other but not both”) when preceded by terms of exclusivity, such as“either,”“one of,”“only one of,” or “exactly one of.”

Any suitable combination(s) of any disclosed embodiments and/or any suitable portion(s) thereof are contemplated herein as appreciated by those having ordinary skill in the art.

The embodiments of the present disclosure, as described above and shown in the drawings, provide for improvement in the art to which they pertain. While the subject disclosure includes reference to certain embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that changes and/or modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject disclosure.