Greetings cards have been a fashionable means for communicating sentiments between individuals for many years. They provide a quick and reliable way of expressing a wish or a message in an easy and readily understood manner. Greeting cards are especially sent when celebrating anniversaries, such as birthdays, and also at times of religious or national festivals.

The consumer has no shortage of greetings cards to choose from with many retail outlets dedicated solely to selling cards for all occasions. However, there is a continuing need for new and innovative products within the greetings card field. This is of particular importance within the higher end of the greetings card market. For example, in recent years there has been increasing consumer interest in cards with a unique or hand-made appearance. Often it is desirable for the card to become more of a gift in itself rather than simply the representation of the givers'sentiments. As a result, more and more complex and intricate artwork have appeared on the faces of greetings cards, enabling the recipient to keep the card as an item of intrinsic value.

However, as with all artworks, appreciation can be somewhat subjective and it can be difficult for the consumer to choose an appropriate greetings card unless they know the particular artistic tastes of the recipient.

There is a need, therefore, to provide consumers with greetings cards of a high quality and which can also satisfy the desire to give both a card and a gift in the form of a single item. There is also a need to provide consumers with the option of purchasing a wider range of gift/greeting cards that are not limited to works of artistic craftsmanship. Hence, it is an object of the present invention to meet the needs identified above.

Accordingly, a first aspect of the invention provides a greetings card comprising a front portion and a rear portion; wherein the front portion is pivotally attached to the rear portion; and a toiletry product is located on said front portion.

The invention advantageously meets the needs of the consumer by providing a high quality gift incorporated into a greetings card. Toiletry products are very desirable gifts that can be aimed at most consumers from children to adults, and are rarely considered unsuitable on the grounds of subjectivity or taste.

As is commonly known in the art, the greetings cards can be made from a variety of materials such as paper, paperboard, cardboard or plastics. In their simples form greetings cards have been made by folding a square or substantially rectangular piece of paper in half, with the fold line defining a pivoting or hinged joint between a front portion of the greetings card and a rear portion of the greetings card. However, the front and rear portions can be pivotally attached to each other using alternative means, such as via decorative wire, clips, fasteners or thread, for example, and need not be made from a unitary piece of material.

In the folded state the greetings card defines an exterior surface and an interior surface. Conventionally in Western Europe and North America, the pivotal joint forms the left-hand spine or sometimes the top spine of the greetings card. The exterior surface is typically divided into a front face and a rear face, effectively defining a 'cover'like that of a book. In use, the front face often bears the design or main greeting, whilst the rear face remains substantially blank. The interior surface is also divided into two portions one of which is rearward facing-i. e. corresponds to the back-side of the front face-and one of which is forward facing-i. e. corresponds to the front side of the rear face. The forward facing portion of the interior surface typically bears a further greeting or motto where desired, or alternatively can remain blank.

For the avoidance of confusion, henceforth, the term'front portion'is used to correspond to the front face of the front portion of a greetings card. The term'rear portion'is used, hereafter, to refer to the interior forward face of the rear portion of a greetings card.

As will be appreciated by the skilled person, greetings cards are not limited in construction to single pieces of folded paper or card and can be constructed from a range of materials and to a number of designs. For instance, a typical greetings card design format is to fold a substantially square piece of paper or cardboard in half and then in half again-i. e. essentially folding the material into quarters. The present invention is not limited to a particular design format other than where the greetings card comprises a front portion that overlays at least a part of the rear portion.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the front portion comprises a shaped window or opening cut into it, and a toiletry product is located within the shaped window by suitable fastening means. Optionally, the shaped window can assume a configuration that most reflects the sentiments that the consumer wishes to express to the recipient of the greetings card. For example, suitable window shapes can include simple geometrical shapes (e. g. circles, squares, triangles etc. ), more complex geometrical shapes (e. g. stars or spirals), balloons, Christmas trees, love hearts or birthday cakes. Alternatively, the shaped window can be formed in the shape of an animal or an inanimate object. In general, any shape that is appealing to the consumer can be adopted.

In a specific embodiment the toiletry product is the same shape as the shaped window. It is optional for the toiletry product to occupy the entirety of the shaped window or simply a portion of the shaped window. It will be appreciated that the toiletry product will usually be of much greater thickness than the card. Thus, it is preferred that the toiletry product has a substantially flat base that is located in a plane with the front portion of the card, with the body of the toiletry product extending outwardly from the surface of the front portion. In this manner the body of the toiletry product does not hamper complete closure of the greetings card.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the toiletry product is sufficiently transparent for an inscription printed on the rear portion to be visible to the eye of the consumer when looking through the shaped window in said front portion. Hence, the shaped window and toiletry product together define an optical path through which an inscription made on the rear portion can be observed. It is an advantage of the present invention that the appearance of the inscription can be modified according to the composition or configuration of the toiletry product when the consumer looks along the aforementioned optical path. The appearance of the inscription can be subjected to various lensing and colouring effects as defined by the specific three- dimensional configuration of the substantially transparent toiletry product.

In use the greetings card of the invention can bear one or more inscriptions selected from a written message; a picture; a monogram; a symbol ; and an image. In the case of a written message, the text can be taken from any recognised alphabet, hieroglyphic or pictographic form of written communication.

The toiletry product of the invention is typically is selected from soap; bubble bath; shampoo; liquid soap; gel soap; or lotion. However, any related cosmetic product can be suitably included in the greetings cards of the present invention. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the toiletry product is encapsulated within a transparent plastic mould. This enables the product to reach the consumer in an untampered form and can also assist manufacture of the greetings card by providing additional mounts or anchors for securely locating the product within the shaped window.

The transparent plastic mould can be manufactured using standard vacuum or blow moulding technology. Typically the mould is formed from a flat sheet of plastics material that is folded over. A three dimensional shape can be moulded into one half of the folded sheet with the other half effectively forming a'lid'to cover the interior of the moulded shape. In this manner the folded material defines an enclosed chamber that can be suitably filled with a toiletries substance.

As mentioned previously, the toiletry product can be coloured, thereby imparting additional visual effects to the overall appearance of the greetings card. It is optional for the toiletry product to be perfumed. Colouring and perfuming the toiletry product can be achieved using agents commonly known as suitable and approved for cosmetics applications. In a specific embodiment of the invention, essential oils of plant origin are used as perfuming agents.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the toiletry product is in the form of a gel tablet of bubble/foam bath. Suitable compositions of gel tablets are described in detail in WO-A-03/066018. Typically, a bubble/foam bath gel tablet can comprise, water; gelatin ; a surfactant; a humectant; and a non-formaldehyde preservative.

The surfactant can be suitably selected from sodium lauryl sulphate ; triethanolamine lauryl sulphate ; sodium lauryl ethersulphate ; ammonium lauryl ethersulphate ; and monoethanolamine lauryl sulphate. The humectant may be either glycerine or PEG-7 glyceryl cocoate. Typically, the non-formaldehyde preservative comprises a substance selected from parabens and phenoxyethanol. In use, the gelatin comprises between 4% and 4.5% of the mass of the gel tablet toiletry product.

A second aspect of the invention provides a substantially transparent toiletry product secured to a greeting card, wherein a message or motif applied to said card is viewable through said toiletry product.

The invention is further illustrated by reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 shows a front view of a greetings card of the present invention in the closed format; Fig. 2 shows the interior surface of a greetings card of the present invention; Fig. 3 shows a disassembled greetings card of the present invention; and Fig. 4 shows a photographic representation of greetings cards of the present invention.

A specific embodiment of the present invention is now described in more detail.

A greetings card 101 is shown in Figure 1. A front portion 101 a of the card has a shaped window 102 cut into it, from which a vacuum formed transparent plastic mould containing the toiletry product 103 extends outwards. Because the mould and toiletry product are both sufficiently transparent, an inscription 104 printed on a rear portion 101 b of the greetings card 101 is viewable through the toiletry product 103.

The card can be opened as shown in Figure 2. Card 101 comprises a single piece of cardboard folded along line 201 and 202. Consequently, front portion 101 a comprises a double thickness of cardboard having an edge 203 which is stuck down using a conventionally available adhesive. Near, and parallel, to edge 203 are two lines of perforations defining a tearable strip 205. A tab 206 at the upper end of the strip 205 allows the recipient of the greetings card to pull the top of the strip 205, tear open the perforations 204 and, thus, separate the two layers of cardboard forming the front portion 101 a. Figure 3 shows the greetings card 101 with the tear off strip 205 having been removed. By removing the tear off strip 205, the two layers 301 and 302 of the front portion 101 a are separated by opening about the fold 201. The leftmost portion of card 301 merely has a shaped window 303 cut into it. The middle portion of the card has a similarly shaped window 304 positioned to align with window 303 when the card is rotated about fold 201. Window 304 contains the toiletry product 103. Figure 3 also shows a strip of card left stuck to the surface of portion 302 after removal of the tear off strip 205. The toiletry product 103 can be, thereby, removed from the greetings card 101 easily.