Sanitary Apparatus and Method for Sampling Cosmetics
A cosmetic patch for testing and evaluating a cosmetic product. The patch comprises a top surface colored and textured to match that of a user's features, preferably that of their lips. The reverse side of the patch comprises a weak adhesive surface to temporarily bond to the user's hand, forearm, or other object. When the user deposits a sample of the cosmetic product onto the textured surface of the patch, the user may then compare and evaluate the look of the cosmetic product on their particular features, for example their lips, without having to actually place the cosmetic product on their features and thus prevent the spread of contagious diseases and maintain costs at a minimum for the cosmetics vendor.
The present application is related to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/243,936 filed on Sep. 18, 2009, which is incorporated herein by reference and to which priority is claimed pursuant to 35 USC 119.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of cosmetics, specifically to an apparatus for testing cosmetics in a sanitary fashion
2. Description of the Prior Art
Currently, when a customer is at a cosmetics counter within a department store, shopping mall, or other venue where popular cosmetics are sold, there are very few options for the customer to try or sample a particular type or color of cosmetic product without having to buy the product. In the case of lipstick, most stores or cosmetic vendors will only have one sample for each shade of lipstick available for the entirety of the public to use. Needless to say, in an attempt to keep costs down as well as to stop the spread of contagious diseases, it is impossible for the sample lipstick to actually be placed on a customer's lips. Therefore various options have been informally developed over the years which have been implemented in order for the customer to get a better feel and opinion of the product they are interested in without actually having to put the product on its intended area of use.
One option for testing cosmetic products includes the customer rubbing or placing a portion of the desired cosmetic product on their hand or other area of bare skin. While this may be ideal for a variety of skin creams, it is less than desirable when the customer wishes to test a cosmetic product such as lipstick because as is nearly the case in every person, the color of one's lips is not nearly the same color as one's hand or skin in general. Testing a particular shade or texture of lipstick on the customer's hand therefore leads to a false comparison of how that product will actually look on the customer's lips because while a particular color may look good over the customer's skin on their hand, it may not look or feel as good as when on their lips. This then forces the customer to imagine or estimate what that particular shade or texture of lipstick will really look like when properly placed in its intended position. Additionally, the concern of stopping the spread of contagious diseases is not really addressed here as the same lipstick tube could conceivably be used over and over on the back of each customer's hand, a portion of the body that is no more likely to be clean or sanitary as their lips or mouth.
In some cases, the cosmetics merchant behind the counter will give the customer a white sample index card or a tissue to test the cosmetic product. However, this leads to an even larger discrepancy than that described above because the bleached white color of an index card or tissue is even further away from the true color of the customer's lips than that of their skin, thus giving the customer even less information to base their purchase on.
Another attempted solution to the problem of sanitarily testing cosmetic products has been to supply the customers with smaller sample sized portions of the product that they are interested in. The customer is then allowed to keep the sample sized product for their own personal use and may test the product on its intended location. However, in addition to being expensive, very valuable counter space and storage is needed to display and house the sample units which make them unattractive for many cosmetic vendors, especially for those that are mobile or door-to-door.
One other method used by cosmetic counters to sanitize the lip stick is to dip the tube in rubbing alcohol. This technique has not been proven to be 100% medically effective in eliminating all bacteria and viruses left on a tube of lipstick.
What is needed is a safe, sterile device for testing or sampling cosmetic products that accurately gives the customer an appraisal of how that cosmetic product would look on a specific portion of their body without having to actually apply the cosmetic product to that body part.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe current invention is a cosmetic patch for testing and evaluating a cosmetic product. The patch comprises a top surface colored and textured to match that of a user's features, preferably that of their lips. The reverse side of the patch comprises a weak adhesive surface to temporarily bond to the user's hand, forearm, or other object. When the user deposits a sample of the cosmetic product onto the textured surface of the patch, the user may then compare and evaluate the look of the cosmetic product on their particular features, for example their lips, without having to actually place the cosmetic product on their features and thus prevent the spread of contagious diseases and maintain costs at a minimum for the cosmetics vendor.
While the apparatus and method has or will be described for the sake of grammatical fluidity with functional explanations, it is to be expressly understood that the claims, unless expressly formulated under 35 USC 112, are not to be construed as necessarily limited in any way by the construction of “means” or “steps” limitations, but are to be accorded the full scope of the meaning and equivalents of the definition provided by the claims under the judicial doctrine of equivalents, and in the case where the claims are expressly formulated under 35 USC 112 are to be accorded full statutory equivalents under 35 USC 112. The invention can be better visualized by turning now to the following drawings wherein like elements are referenced by like numerals.
The invention and its various embodiments can now be better understood by turning to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments which are presented as illustrated examples of the invention defined in the claims. It is expressly understood that the invention as defined by the claims may be broader than the illustrated embodiments described below.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTSThe current invention is a device and method for testing or sampling cosmetic products in a safe, sanitary way. In one embodiment, the current device is a removable cosmetic patch, generally denoted by reference numeral 10 seen in
In another embodiment, the patch 10 comprises a tab 28 or an extended edge defined on the material surface and disposed on one of the external sides of the patch 10. The tab portion 28 of the patch 10 is large enough for a user to pinch between two fingers and drag in a peeling motion. The tab 28, unlike the rest of the patch 10, does not contain any adhesive backing in its reverse side. Furthermore, the patch 10 may comprise a clear perimeter 30 disposed around the colored lip shape as seen in
When a user approaches a cosmetics vendor and selects a lipstick, lip gloss, or a lip liner that they are interested in, the vendor hands the user an individual cosmetic patch 10 that matches the user's own lip color along with the sample unit of the cosmetic product that they selected. Ideally, the cosmetic vendor would select the cosmetic patch 10 from a plurality of different groups of patches, each patch group bearing the color of the lips of a different ethnicity so that a maximum match between the cosmetic patch 10 and user's lips is achieved. Each cosmetic patch 10 may be individually wrapped and hermetically sealed thus ensuring the cleanliness and sterility of the cosmetic patch. In another embodiment, a plurality of cosmetic patches 10 may disposed on a single sheet seen 18 in
With the correct cosmetic patch 10 and a cosmetic sample 26 in hand, the user removes the backing surface 16 from the cosmetic patch 10 and places it anywhere that is convenient for the user, such as the hand or forearm 24 as seen in
In another embodiment seen in
Many alterations and modifications may be made by those having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it must be understood that the illustrated embodiment has been set forth only for the purposes of example and that it should not be taken as limiting the invention as defined by the following invention and its various embodiments.
Therefore, it must be understood that the illustrated embodiment has been set forth only for the purposes of example and that it should not be taken as limiting the invention as defined by the following claims. For example, notwithstanding the fact that the elements of a claim are set forth below in a certain combination, it must be expressly understood that the invention includes other combinations of fewer, more or different elements, which are disclosed in above even when not initially claimed in such combinations. A teaching that two elements are combined in a claimed combination is further to be understood as also allowing for a claimed combination in which the two elements are not combined with each other, but may be used alone or combined in other combinations. The excision of any disclosed element of the invention is explicitly contemplated as within the scope of the invention.
The words used in this specification to describe the invention and its various embodiments are to be understood not only in the sense of their commonly defined meanings, but to include by special definition in this specification structure, material or acts beyond the scope of the commonly defined meanings. Thus if an element can be understood in the context of this specification as including more than one meaning, then its use in a claim must be understood as being generic to all possible meanings supported by the specification and by the word itself.
The definitions of the words or elements of the following claims are, therefore, defined in this specification to include not only the combination of elements which are literally set forth, but all equivalent structure, material or acts for performing substantially the same function in substantially the same way to obtain substantially the same result. In this sense it is therefore contemplated that an equivalent substitution of two or more elements may be made for any one of the elements in the claims below or that a single element may be substituted for two or more elements in a claim. Although elements may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, it is to be expressly understood that one or more elements from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination and that the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation of a subcombination.
Insubstantial changes from the claimed subject matter as viewed by a person with ordinary skill in the art, now known or later devised, are expressly contemplated as being equivalently within the scope of the claims. Therefore, obvious substitutions now or later known to one with ordinary skill in the art are defined to be within the scope of the defined elements.
The claims are thus to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptionally equivalent, what can be obviously substituted and also what essentially incorporates the essential idea of the invention.
Claims
1. An apparatus for testing and evaluating a cosmetic product comprising:
- a material construction surface having a selected color and for receiving the cosmetic product; and
- an adhesive surface disposed on the opposite side of the material construction surface for adhering the apparatus to a supporting surface for display.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 where the selected color of the material surface matches the color of a user's lips or a selected portion of the face.
3. The apparatus of claim 2 where the color of the material construction surface is substantially colored to match the lips of the user according to the user's ethnicity.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a removable backing disposed to the adhesive surface.
5. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising a plurality of material construction surfaces disposed on a single roll or sheet of removable backing.
6. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising means for dispensing a plurality of material construction surfaces in succession from a container.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 where the material construction surface is textured to substantially mimic that of a user's lips.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the material construction surface is substantially geometrically shaped.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 where the material construction surface is substantially shaped like a pair of lips.
10. The apparatus of claim 1 where the material construction surface is coupled to a rod with means for being angled close to a user's face.
11. The apparatus of claim 4 where the material construction surface comprises a tab on its outer edge so as to be more easily peeled away from the removable backing.
12. The apparatus of claim 10 where the material construction surface is removably coupled to the rod.
13. A method for sanitarily sampling cosmetic products comprising:
- selecting one of a plurality of material construction surfaces most closely matching the color of a user's lips, selected portion of the face, or user's skin;
- placing the selected material construction surface having the matching color onto a testing surface;
- disposing a sample portion of the cosmetic product on the material construction surface; and
- comparing the sample portion of the cosmetic product to the selected color of the material construction surface.
14. The method of claim 13 further comprising removing the material construction surface from a backing surface before placing onto the testing surface.
15. The method of claim 13 further comprising removing the material construction surface from the testing surface after comparing the sample portion of the cosmetic product to the color of the material construction surface.
16. The method of claim 14 where removing the material construction surface from a backing surface before placing onto the testing surface comprises removing the material construction surface from a roll or sheet comprised of the backing surface.
17. The method of claim 13 where comparing the sample portion of the cosmetic product to the selected color of the material construction surface comprises disposing the material construction surface in close proximity the face of the user by means of a rod coupled to the material construction surface.
18. The method of claim 13 where placing the selected material construction surface having the matching color onto a testing surface comprises disposing the material construction surface on the user's skin.
19. The method of claim 13 where placing the selected material construction surface having the matching color onto a testing surface comprises disposing the material construction surface on the distal end of a rod.
20. The method of claim 14 where removing the material construction surface from a backing surface before placing onto the testing surface comprises pulling a pull tab disposed on the material construction surface.
Type: Application
Filed: Sep 17, 2010
Publication Date: Mar 24, 2011
Inventor: Bonnie Lee (Newport Coast, CA)
Application Number: 12/885,267
International Classification: A45D 40/26 (20060101); B65D 73/00 (20060101);