Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Live skin colorant containing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-13
2002-08-06
Dees, Jose′ G. (Department: 1616)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Live skin colorant containing
C106S415000, C106S417000, C106S418000, C106S436000, C106S459000, C424S064000, C424S401000, C424S489000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06428773
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to cosmetic compositions. More specifically, the invention relates to cosmetic compositions that can provide a shadowing effect that emphasizes the contours of the lips and other facial features.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of most cosmetics is to enhance the appearance of facial or body features. To extreme cases, the cosmetic acts to completely cover or eliminate from the sight of the casual observer a feature that the user considers unattractive, for example, concealment of dark shadows under the eyes, so as to enhance the overall appearance of the eyes. In other cases, however, the cosmetic is intended to cause a particular feature to become noticeable. The practice of emphasizing facial features, in particular by bright coloration, goes back several thousand years, when it was common to add powdered colored ores, such as red ochre(iron oxide) directly to the face to color the cheeks, or kohl(galena, a lead ore) to line the eyes.
The art of cosmetics has advanced significantly since prehistoric times. While the purpose is largely still enhancement, the trend is toward a more natural look, and emphasizing good features with more subtle strategies. To this end, a considerable focus has been devoted to development of cosmetics with unusual optical effects, i.e., that persuade the observer's eye to see a more perfect image of the face, e.g., one having no lines or blemishes, than actually exists, without the use of large quantities of heavy opaque pigments to cover flaws. Examples of cosmetics said to achieve such an effect are described for example in Nishikata et al., Cosmetics and Toiletries 112: 39-55, 1997; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,690,916, and 5,082,660; and PCT US99/13240.
An extension of this approach is to make more or less prominent a particular feature that does not comport with the perceived ideal appearance of that feature. It has been common for many years for cosmetics users to “contour” a feature by the application of two different shades of makeup, one light, one darker, to a less than perfect facial feature. The light makeup is placed on the area to be highlighted and the darker makeup placed on the area to be de-emphasized, resulting in a shadowing effect that can make the feature, for example cheekbones, appear more dimensional than they would ordinarily appear. This approach, however, typically also relies on the use of traditional heavily pigmented makeup, and necessarily requires the use of two different makeup products and considerable skill on the part of the user.
There thus continues to be a need for a cosmetic product that will allow the user to contour various features of the face, or other parts of the body, to emphasize or create the appearance of dimension and depth where it does not naturally occur. The present invention now provides such a product.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides a cosmetic composition, containing a four-layered interference pigment comprising an innermost layer of mica, a first outer layer of a colored pigment, a second outer transparent layer, and an outermost layer of a colored pigment, combined with a traditional interference pigment. The composition, when applied to various skin surfaces, and particularly the lips, creates a shadow effect which in effect serves to highlight one portion of the treated surface. Thus, for example, when applied to lips, it can make the prominent portions of the lips appear fuller by shadowing the less prominent portion of the lip.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The compositions of the invention provide a unique appearance to the skin surface to which they are applied, by highlighting the natural relief of the face and body's contours. An essential feature of the composition is a unique interference platelet having four distinct layers: an inner core of mica, a first outer layer of a colored pigment, a second outer transparent layer, and a third, outermost layer of a colored pigment. Such pigments, hereinafter referred to as a “shadow pigments”, are known in the art to provide a “color-flop” effect, which means that, depending on the angle at which the cosmetic containing the pigment is viewed, the viewer will see a different color, which in practical application results in a shift from light to dark, causing a shadowing effect on the treated surface. The shadowing thus emphasizes whatever relief there may be on the treated surface, making an otherwise flat feature appear to have greater dimension.
To the best of Applicants' knowledge, there is only one type of such pigment now publicly available; the commercially available form comprises a mica core, surrounded by a first pigmented red layer comprising a iron oxide, a second layer of transparent silica and an outermost yellow pigmented layer comprising an iron oxide combined with titanium dioxide. The overall effect of this combination is that the pigment appears yellow when viewed at the specular reflection angle, and reddish at other angles of reflection. This combination produces an overall orange-brown color, which is useful when trying to mimic skin color; indeed, the only known previous use of this pigment is for foundations or facial powders. which in use would bring out the relief of the cheekbones, or slenderize the appearance of the nose. Notwithstanding its apparent benefits, however, the color of the material makes it difficult, if not impossible, to create other shades that might also be desirable, for example, pinks or blue-reds, that would be useful in other types of makeup products such as lipsticks or blushes.
What would seem to be an easy solution to this limitation would be to combine the unique interference pigment with other standard pigments, such as additional metallic oxides of different colors, so as to modify or dilute the orange color. However, when this combination is made in amounts sufficient to alter the color accordingly, it has the result of neutralizing the contrast between the two colors of the interference pigment, thereby resulting in a loss of the color-flop effect. Similar disappointing results have also been observed when the shadow pigment is combined with transparent dyes or stains. Thus, to date, the yellow-red pigment has had little practical value beyond its use in facial makeup intended to mimic natural skin color.
It has now been unexpectedly discovered, however, that it is possible to combine the unique interference pigment with one or more standard interference pigments to obtain a variety of different shades, including reds, blues and pinks, without altering the desired light-to-dark shift effect. The resulting compositions can now be used in a variety of different forms, particularly as lipsticks, in order to emphasize the contours of different areas of the face and body, rather than just the cheeks or nose.
Thus, the compositions of the invention comprise the unique shadow pigment in combination with at least one traditional colored interference pigment. Traditional interference pigments, for purposes of the present specification and claims, are defined as thin platelike layered particles having a high refractive index, which, at a certain thickness, produce interference colors, resulting from the interference of typically two, but occasionally more, light reflections, from different layers of the plate, but which do not contain the four-layered arrangement of the shadow pigment. The most common examples of traditional interference pigments are micas layered with about 50-500 nm, films of TiO
2
, Fe
2
O
3
, or Cr
2
O
3
, or combinations thereof. Such pigments are often pearlescent, and may be uncoated or coated. Coatings include, but are not limited to, silica, nylon or polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). The interference pigments used in the present invention can have a white base color with a pearlescence that may or may not be colored; alternately, they may have a colored base, with a pearlescence that may or may not be colored. Preferred are interference pigments having a white base with a colored
Cohen Isaac D.
Oko Jennifer
Color Access Inc.
Dees Jose′ G.
Lamm Marina
Lowney, Esq. Karen A.
LandOfFree
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