Field of Invention The present invention relates to a skin colour shade-card, method of using the shade- card, and a shade-card packaged with a composition to form a kit for evaluating skin- tone, and for demonstrating proof of efficacy or facilitating product selection.

The invention has been developed primarily for use with skin creams and will be descri bed herei nafter with reference to th is a ppl ication . However, it wi l l be appreciated that the invention is not limited to this particular field of use.

Background and Related Art

Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of the common general knowledge in the field.

The ultimate goal of a cosmetic composition for lightening skin or reducing marks, as well as that of any cosmetic product or method; is a satisfied consumer. Many cosmetic products advertise benefits such as skin-lightening, anti-marks and blemish reduction. Trained and expert graders are frequently used to handle diagnostic equipment or to visually perceive the difference in skin-colour or tone, as consumers usually cannot easily discern whether the claimed benefit is actually delivered, or a quantitative extent to which it is delivered. To that extent, attempt has been made in prior art to provide ready-reckoner tools to the consumer in the form of cosmetic proof strips/shade-cards/colour charts/colour scales and colour rulers. These hand-held tools have, to some extent, provided the consumer with some means of relating to the functional claims made by the products that they use. Some publications have disclosed test devices for experts to diagnose skin conditions. An example is US 2002/0181752 (WALLO WARREN, et al) disclosing measuring changes in portions of a human body by 3-D images that are taken and superimposed. Simpler hand-held tools such as the shade-cards which are provided with GARNIER™ SKIN NATURALS LIGHT range of products, ex. L'OREAL, and FAIR&LOVELY™ skin creams sold by UNILEVER, are some other examples. Some patent publications are also to be found.

US 5 741 212 (MATTHEWS, MICHAEL WESTON BERTIE, 1998) describes a device for use in assessing various characteristics of a skin blemish, which includes at least two blemish assessment discs mounted for relative movement, with each assessment disc carrying a scale of blemish criteria so that the skin blemish may be positioned adjacent the scales of each assessment disc and matched with the relevant portions thereof. It also has a centrally positioned lens so that the user can place the blemished area under the lens and then assess inter-alia the colour of the blemish and relate it to one of the many colours available. The one drawback associated with this blemish assessor is that the device provides several scales at a time including blemish colour, size and physical condition, thereby making it complicated in use.

A similar hand-held device with additional features has been described in US 5 727 949 (BAR-OR, DAVID et. al, 1998). This describes a reference device for use in indicating prognosis of a physical condition based upon selected diagnostic characteristics of the physical condition. The reference device has a first panel member having first selected diagnostic characteristics of the physical condition distributed thereon, and a second panel member including second selected diagnostic characteristics of the physical condition distributed thereon as well as prognosis indicators associated with the second selected diagnostic characteristics. The first and second panels are mounted for relative movement whereby a selected one of the fi rst selected d iag nostic characteristics may be paired with a selected one of the second diagnostic characteristics and a determinable prognosis is revealed corresponding the specific paired characteristics. The reference device is particularly useful for prognosing melanoma based upon diagnostic characteristics of a skin lesion.

All the above devices either measure skin shade change or the change in blemish colour. While several products are available to counter blemishes, dark-circles, and lighten face and body; the present inventors have found that the above hand-held devices of the prior art are relatively unsuitable for giving an indication of evenness of skin-tone to readily indicate to the consumer the minute undiscernable changes in the skin-tone when skin lightening products are used over a period on relatively darker areas such as spots, blemishes, exposed areas of the fore-arms, dark circles and the body.

Thus there exists the need for a device that can be hand-held, which gives the consumer an indication of the efficacy of a skin lightening product on relatively darker areas of the body such as blemishes/dark circles, vis-a-vis a relatively lighter area such as face, on application over a period of time. There also exists the need for a device which gives a relatively simple indication of evenness of skin-tone to the consumer.

Object of the Invention

It is an object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a hand-held device that can give the consumer an indication of the efficacy of the skin lightening product on relatively darker areas of the body vis-a-vis a relatively lighter area such as face, on application over a period of time.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a device which gives a relatively simple indication of evenness of skin-tone to the consumer.

Other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the specification.

The present invention aims to provide a device to measure shade differences leading towards even tone of skin. The shade-card is capable of providing proof as well as educating consumers on the concept of even-tone. The device is capable of being used to demonstrate any kind of even toning effect, such as blemishes against face, dark circles against face, body against face, and body against elbows and joints. Summary of the Invention

According to the first aspect, the present invention provides a skin colour shade-card comprising:

(i) a substrate; and (ii) indicia placed onto said substrate, the indicia comprising a graduated scale of skin colour shades related to a person's first and second skin colour attribute, wherein the shade-card comprises two pointers, each pointer independently movable in relation to said graduated scale of skin colour shade.

According to the second aspect, the present invention provides a packaged cosmetic product comprising:

(i) a cosmetic composition comprising an effective amount of a skin lightening agent and a carrier;

(ii) a package for receiving the cosmetic composition; and, (iii) a skin colour shade-card according to the first aspect associated with the package.

According to the third aspect, the present invention provides a method for evaluating efficacy of a cosmetic product, the method comprising: (i) applying the cosmetic product to the skin;

(ii) placing the skin colour shade-card of the first aspect against the skin treated with the cosmetic product in step (i); (iii) visually assessing a score on the skin colour shade-card with the help of the pointers; and, (iv) repeating steps (i) and (ii) at a future time followed by comparison of scores resultant from first and second assessments of the skin.

The term "comprising" is mea nt not to be l im iting to any subsequently stated elements but rather to encompass non-specified elements of major or minor functional i mportance. I n other words the listed steps, elements or options need not be exhaustive. Whenever the words "including" or "having" are used, these terms are meant to be equivalent to "comprising" as defined above. Except in the operating and comparative examples, or where otherwise explicitly indicated, all numbers in this description indicating amounts of material ought to be understood as modified by the word "about".

It should be noted that in specifying any range of concentration or amount, any particular upper concentration can be associated with any particular lower concentration or amount.

For a more complete understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of preferred embodiments.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The advantages, use and features of the present invention will more fully be explained through consideration of the accompanying drawings, which form non-limiting embodiments of the invention, in which:

Figure-1 is a first embodiment of a skin colour shade-card; and,

Figure-2 is a second embodiment of a skin colour shade-card.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Today devices and shade-cards exist to measure and expertly evaluate skin colour. Several such devices and shade-cards have been introduced into the markets, either as stand-alone products, or more specifically, as add-ons to commercially available skin lightening/ whitening / fairness products by several companies. It is a fact that such add-ons have helped increase the awareness of the benefits of the product; and at the same time, they have provided some degree of credibility to the claims made by the product. Recent studies of market trends have shown that the consumers, nowadays, not only aspire to have fairer and glowing faces, but they also aspire to have an even- tone complexion, i.e. a complexion in which the shade of the body matches or closely matches that of the face. While the prior art products have provided some means of ascertaining the benefits of continued usage of cosmetics on one particular attribute, such as face colour, there is no shade-card, known to the present inventors, that is capable of easily ascertaining evenness of skin-tone.

It has generally been observed that consumers do not blindly believe the functional clai ms made by such products such as flawless-fairness, anti-blemish/ anti-marks fairness, body-as-fair-as-face and the like.

Therefore, according to the first aspect the present invention provides a skin colour shade-card comprising: (i) a substrate; and

(ii) indicia placed onto the substrate, the indicia comprising a graduated scale of skin colour shades related to a person's first and second skin colour attribute, wherein said shade-card comprises two pointers, each pointer independently movable in relation to said graduated scale of skin colour shade.

It is preferred that the first attribute is face colour, and the second attribute is body or blemish colour.

The graduated scale has progressively increasing darkness of said colour shades. Some known and widely acceptable shades include dark brown, brown, light brown, dark tan, tan, light tan and pinkish white. Other shades are also, and preferably included. In one aspect, the graduated scale is arranged in a linear manner. In this case, each of the pointers is slidably mounted on said scale.

Alternatively, and more preferably, the graduated scale is arranged in circular manner on the substrate. The substrate itself is preferably of circular shape In this case, each of the pointers is rotatably mounted on the scale. In this embodiment, the pointers are preferably riveted to the scale. Known alternatives to riveting can also be used.

The pointer can be of any shape as long as the pointer is capable of pointing towards a distinct skin colour shade on the graduated scale. In one embodiment the pointer is preferably shaped as a circular dial with a pointing element. The pointing element may be in form of a notch or an arrowhead or a contrasting spot on the circumference. Alternatively it may be a spot or a radial line of a different colour or etched in the surface.

It is also envisaged in an alternate preferred embodiment that the two pointers are in the form of hands of a clock.

To allow the user to better evaluate the colour-shade of his first and second attributes, it is preferred that the shade-card includes a reflecting means. This could be in the form of a reflective strip which could be a metallized plastic foil or ordinary silvered- mirror.

The shade-card may a lso prefera bly i ncl ude a magn ification mea ns, such as a magnifying lens, so that the user can place the area under the lens and then assess inter-alia the colour shade and relate it to one of the many colours available.

It is also preferred that the skin colour shade-card includes an aperture, such that said first or second attribute can be seen, when said shade-card is placed on it. It may also allow the consumer to hold the cardboard to their face in front of a mirror, while the user ascertains the shades.

The scale of colour shades is preferably determined by a method which includes the following steps: (i) taking multiple photographs of multiple subjects;

(ii) sorting the photographs, thereby classifying them according to the attributes to obtain sorted data;

(iii) analyzing the sorted data;

(iv) selecting representative images from each class, thereby creating graduated scale of colour shades for each attribute; and

(v) validating the scale of colour shades by clinicians. The skin colour shade-card may be made of any suitable material, such as plastic or cellulosic (e.g. cardboard). The colour shades may be printed directly on the substrate or may be separately printed, e.g. on a thin plastic sheet and thereafter affixed to the substrate. The print is usually a combination of coloured ink, ordinarily a four colour process. Any known printing process such as lithography, gravure, flexography, letterpress or screen processes may be used. The printing method is not critical. It is particularly preferred that thermal printing, electro-photography or inkjet printing is used. The inks are normally formed of a coloured pigment, resin binder and, most frequently, a volatile solvent.

The invention, in another aspect provides a packaged cosmetic product which includes:

(i) a cosmetic composition comprising an effective amount of a skin lightening agent and a carrier;

(ii) a package for receiving the cosmetic composition; and, (iii) a skin colour shade-card according to the first aspect, associated with the package.

The skin colour shade-card ca n form one or more panels of an outer carton.

Alternatively, the shade-card can be provided as an insert into an outer package (e.g. carton) within which a jar, flexible tube, or other container holds the cosmetic composition. In such embodiments, it may also be possible to provide perforations around the skin colour shade-card, so that the user may detach it from the panel.

Preferably, the skin colour shade-card is configured to function as a holder for the cosmetic composition.

Reference will now be made to the description of the accompanying figures. In all figures, like numerals represent like elements/features.

Figure-1 shows an embodiment of the skin colour shade-card according to the invention which has a disc-shaped substrate made of card-board and an indicia that is placed onto the substrate having a graduated scale of skin colour shades 2 related to a person's first and second attribute. The graduated scale is arranged in a circular manner on the disc-shaped substrate. The graduations can be seen in the form of a plurality of shaded areas sequentially numbered from 2A to 2M depicting different colour shades, having progressively increasing darkness of the colour shades. The skin colour shade-card has pointers 3 a n d 4, each pointer independently movable in relation to said graduated scale of skin colour shade, such that one of the pointers points towards skin colour shade related to said first attribute and the other pointer points towards skin colour shade related to said second attribute. The pointers are rotatably mounted on the disc-shaped substrate with the help of the rivet 5. In this embodiment, face colour is the first attribute whereas body colour is the second attribute. In use, the person using the shade-card can point to a skin colour shade each using both the pointers, to ascertain the difference between the first and second attributes; in this case, difference between face and body colour. Upon continued use of a cosmetic composition, which claims to provide skin-lightening benefits, the user may repeat the above exercise, by which subtle differences in skin shades may be easily ascertained.

Figure-2 shows another embodiment of the skin colour shade-card according to the invention, in which the graduated scale of skin colour shades 2 is arranged in a linear manner on the substrate 1. The graduations can be seen in the form of a plurality of shaded areas sequentially numbered from 2A to 2J depicting different colour shades, having progressively increasing darkness of the colour shades. Pointers 3 and 4 are slidably mounted on the scale 2, each pointer independently movable in relation to said graduated scale of skin colour shade,. The method of use in this case, remains similar to that of the skin colour shade-card of Figure-1.

The cosmetic compositions for use in the present invention will contain one or more ski n l ighteni ng agents. Suita ble for th is purpose a re materia ls wh ich i ncl ude niacinamide, elagic acid, kojic acid, arbutin, tranexamic acid, ethyl resorcinol, placental extract, ascorbic acid and derivatives thereof (e.g. magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, sodium ascorbyl phosphate, ascorbyl glucoside, and ascorbyl tetraisopalmitates). Other skin lightening materials suitable for use herein include ACTIWHITE® (Cognis) with active component being pisum savitum, EMBLICA® (Rona), Azeloglicina (Sinerga) and extracts (e.g. mulberry extract). Amounts of the skin lightening agent may range from about 0.01 to about 15 weight%, preferably from about 0.1 to about 10 weight%, more preferably from about 1 to about 8 weight%, optimally from about 2 to about 5 weight% by weight of the composition.

Sunscreen agents are also useful for the cosmetic compositions. Illustrative materials are 2-ethylhexyl p-methoxycinnamate, 4,4'-t-butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane, 2- hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone, octyldimethyl p-aminobenzoic acid, digalloyltrioleate, 2,2-dihydroxy-4-m et h oxy b e n zo p h e n o n e, ethyl 4-

[bis(hydroxypropyl)]aminobenzoate, 2-ethylhexyl-2-cyano-3,3-diphenylacrylate , 2- ethylhexylsalicylate, glyceryl p-aminobenzoate, 3,3,5-trimethylcyclohexylsalicylate, methylanthranilate, p-dimethylaminobenzoic acid or aminobenzoate, 2-ethylhexyl p- dimethylaminobenzoate, 2-phenylbenzimidazole-5-sulfonic acid, 2-(p- dimethylaminophenyl)-5-sulfoniobenzoxazoic acid, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, bis- ethylhexyloxyphenol methoxyphenol triazine, methylene bis-benzotriazolyl tetramethylbutylphenol, dimethicodiethylbenzal malonate, isoamyl methoxycinnamate, octyl triazone, terephthalidene dicamphor sulfonic acid and mixtures thereof. Amounts may range from about 0.1 to about 10 weight%, preferably from about 1 to about 5 weight% by weight of the composition.

Cosmetically acceptable carriers will normally be part of the skin lightening cosmetic compositions. Suitable carriers include water, hydrocarbons, silicones, polyols, natural and synthetic esters, fatty alcohols, fatty acids and combinations thereof. Amounts of the carrier may range from about 10 to about 99 weight%, preferably from about 50 to about 97 weight%, optimally from about 70 to about 90 weight% by weight of the composition.

Emulsifiers and surfactants may also be present, especially in water and oil compositions. These emulsifiers may either be nonionic, anionic, cationic or amphoteric. Amounts of the emulsifiers may range anywhere from 0.1 to 10 weight% by weight of the composition.

In accordance with another aspect the of the present invention, there is provided a method for evaluating efficacy of a cosmetic product, the method comprising the steps of : (i) placing a skin colour shade-card according to the first aspect of the invention against the skin for a first visual assessment of a score on said skin colour shade- card by moving one of the pointers in relation to said graduated scale of skin colour shade; (ii) following a regimen of periodic application of a cosmetic product to the skin over a predetermined period;

(iii) placing the skin colour shade-card against the skin subjected to the regimen of the step (ii) for a second visual assessment of a score on said skin colour shade- card by moving the other pointer in relation to said graduated scale of skin colour shade;

(iv) comparing the scores resultant from the first and the second assessment of the skin.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for comparing colour shades of two different areas of the skin, the method comprising the steps of:

(i) placing a skin colour shade-card according to the first aspect of the invention against a first area of the skin for a first visual assessment of a score on said skin colour shade-card by moving one of the pointers in relation to said graduated scale of skin colour shade;

(ii) placing the skin colour shade-card against a second area of the skin for a second visual assessment of a score on said skin colour shade-card by moving the other pointer in relation to said graduated scale of skin colour shade;

(iii) comparing the scores resultant from the first and the second assessment of the skin.

Preferably, the first area of the skin is on the face of a human subject and the second area of the skin is on the body of the subject. Use of the skin colour shade-card according to the invention

To show reduction in blemish colour, and thus how a product provides even toning benefit, the method of use of the skin colour shade-card is as follows:

Day 1

Ascertain the shade of the worst blemish and the shade of the normal skin on the face using the skin colour shade-card. The number of colour shades that separate the two, would show how far the user is from even-tone skin. Day 1 to Day 28

Use cosmetic product as per directions given on the product pack.

Day 28

Repeat the exercise of Day-1. The number of colour shades that separate the two, would show the improvement as far as even-tone skin is concerned, if the product is effective.

Alternatively, the user may also ascertain subtle differences in face and body colour shades using the skin colour shade-card as above, along with any suitable cosmetic composition.

It will be appreciated that the illustrated examples provide a hand-held device that can give the consumer an indication of the efficacy of the skin lightening product on relatively darker areas of the body vis-a-vis a relatively lighter area such as face, on application over a period of time.

It will be appreciated that the illustrated examples provide a device which gives a relatively simple indication of evenness of skin-tone to the consumer.

All documents referred to herein, including all patents, patent applications, and printed publications, are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety in this disclosure. It should be understood that the specific forms of the invention herein illustrated and described are intended to be representative only as certain changes may be made therein without departing from the clear teachings of the disclosure.

Although the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention may be embodied in many other forms.