Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing – For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-17
2001-08-21
Ogden, Necholus (Department: 1751)
Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces, auxiliary compositions
Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing
For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
C510S119000, C510S130000, C510S417000, C510S422000, C510S426000, C510S427000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06277798
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to cleansing compositions. In particular it relates to mild personal cleansing compositions with good skin feel attributes and foaming properties suitable for simultaneously cleansing and conditioning the skin and/or the hair and which may be used, for example, in the form of foam bath preparations, shower products, skin cleansers, hand, face and body cleansers, shampoos, etc.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Mild cosmetic compositions must satisfy a number of criteria including cleansing power, foaming properties and mildness/low irritancy/good feel with respect to the skin, hair and the ocular mucosae. Skin is made up of several layers of cells which coat and protect the keratin and collagen fibrous proteins that form the skeleton of its structure. The outermost of these layers, referred to as the stratum corneum, is known to be composed of 250 Å protein bundles surrounded by 80 Å thick layers. Hair similarly has a protective outer coating enclosing the hair fibre which is called the cuticle. Anionic surfactants can penetrate the stratum corneum membrane and the cuticle and, by delipidization destroy membrane integrity. This interference with skin and hair protective membranes can lead to a rough skin feel and eye irritation and may eventually permit the surfactant to interact with the keratin and hair proteins creating irritation and loss of barrier and water retention functions.
Ideal cosmetic cleansers should cleanse the skin or hair gently, without defatting and/or drying the hair and skin and without irritating the ocular mucosae or leaving skin taut after frequent use. Most lathering soaps, shower and bath products, shampoos and bars fail in this respect.
Certain synthetic surfactants are known to be mild. However, a major drawback of most mild synthetic surfactant systems when formulated for shampooing or personal cleansing is poor lather performance compared to the highest shampoo and bar soap standards. Thus, surfactants that are among the mildest, such as sodium laureth-3 sulphosuccinate, are marginal in lather. The use of known high sudsing anionic surfactants with lather boosters, on the other hand, can yield acceptable lather volume and quality but at the expense of clinical skin mildness. These two facts make the surfactant selection, the lather and mildness benefit formulation process a delicate balancing act.
Despite the many years of research that have been expended by the toiletries industry on personal cleansing, the broad mass of consumers remain dissatisfied by the mildness of present day cleansing compositions, finding, for example, that they have to apply a separate cosmetic lotion or cream moisturizer to the skin after using a shower or bath preparation in order to maintain skin suppleness and -hydration and to counteract the delipidizing effect of the cleanser.
It is known from the art that inclusion of oils in bathing compositions can provide post-use skin feel benefits. However incorporation of oils at levels sufficient to deliver consumer noticeable benefits has until now proved to be a challenge, particularly with respect to maintaining good lather characteristics in the presence of oil and avoiding unpleasant ‘slimy’/‘greasy’ water feel or appearance during use while still delivering a desirable after-use soft skin feel. A further difficulty associated with combining high levels of oil with conventional detergent systems has been the achievement of a system in which the oil can be released into the water during use which remains stable over time and across a range of temperature conditions.
Applicant has found that certain oil dispersing nonionic surfactants are valuable in bathing compositions for the delivery of enhanced skin mildness and desirable water aesthetics whilst maintaining a good lather profile. However, Applicant has also found that use of certain oil dispersing nonionic surfactants in bathing compositions can lead to dispensing difficulties under stressed temperature conditions. In particular, Applicant has found that bathing compositions containing certain mild oil-dispersing surfactants demonstrate highly viscous gel-like behaviour under low temperature conditions. It has now been found that personal cleansing compositions having improved skin feel attributes both for in use feel and after use feel, an excellent lather profile and having desirable low temperature fluidity characteristics can be formed by the use of certain oil dispersing nonionic surfactants with auxiliary surfactants and dispersible oils and a fluidising agent in particular levels and ratios.
Thus a need exists for personal cleansing products which will not dehydrate the skin or result in loss of skin suppleness, which will provide a level of slin conditioning performance which previously has only been provided by a separate post-cleansing cosmetic moisturizer and which will produce a foam which is stable and of high quality, which are effective hair and skin cleansers, which have good in-use aesthetics, fluidity and rinsibility characteristics, and which at the same time have stable product and viscosity characteristics and remain fully stable under long term and stressed temperature storage conditions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The subject of the present invention is a mild, foam-producing cleansing product suitable for personal cleansing of the skin or hair and which may be used as foam bath and shower products, skin cleansers and shampoos etc. According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a detergent, personal cleansing or cosmetic composition comprising:
(a) from about 1% to about 25% by weight of water-soluble gel-forming nonionic surfactant;
(b) from about 0.1% to about 3% by weight of a alkyl sulphate fluidising agent having an average of from 4 to 10 carbon atoms on the alkyl chain; and
(c) optionally, from about 1% to about 30% by weight of dispersed oil phase.
In a highly preferred embodiment, the invention takes the form of a foam producing cleansing composition with superior skin feel characteristics, improved perceived dryness and assessed tightness and expertly graded dryness, combined with excellent lathering, good stability, cleansing ability and conditioning performance.
All concentrations and ratios herein are by weight of the cleansing composition, unless otherwise specified. Surfactant chain lengths are also on a weight average chain length basis, unless otherwise specified.
The cleansing compositions herein are based on the combination of water-soluble surfactants, an alkyl sulphate fluidising agent and a dispersed oil phase. In preferred compositions the surfactant system comprises a gel-forming, oil dispersing nonionic surfactant and mild auxiliary surfactants having an average carbon chain length of from about 12 to about 22 carbon atoms, which in general terms can be selected from other nonionic, anionic, amphoteric and zwitterionic surfactants and mixtures thereof. The total level of surattant, inclusive of anionic, nonionic, zwitterionic, amphoteric and other surfactant components is preferably from about 5% to about 25%, more preferably from about 7% to about 20%, and especially from about 8% to about 16% by weight. The compositions preferably comprise a mixture of gel-forming, oil dispersing nonionic surfactant and anionic surfactants optionally with auxiliary nonionic, zwitterionic and/or amphoteric surfactants. The total level of auxiliary surfactant is in the range from about 0.1% to about 15%, preferably from about 1% to about 10%, more preferably from about 2% to about 6% by weight of the composition, while the level of gel-forming oil dispersing nonionic surfactant is from about 1% to about 25%, preferably from about 2% to about 15%, more preferably from about 3% to about 12% by weight and especially from about 4% to about 8% by weight. The weight ratio of anionic surfactant:auxiliary nonionic, zwitterionic and/or amphoteric surfactant is preferably in the range of from about 5:1 to about 1:3. The ratio of auxiliary surfactant to gel-forming, oil dispersing no
Elliott Russell Phillip
Phipps Nicola Jacqueline
Ogden Necholus
The Procter & Gamble & Company
Webb Gregory E.
Winter William J.
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