Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Preparations characterized by special physical form – Cosmetic – antiperspirant – dentifrice
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-26
2002-06-11
Dees, Jose′ G. (Department: 1616)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Preparations characterized by special physical form
Cosmetic, antiperspirant, dentifrice
C424S065000, C424S066000, C424S067000, C424S068000, C512S001000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06403109
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention concerns the field of perfumery. It relates more particularly to a transparent perfume or cologne and essentially free of the volatile organic solvents current in parfumery.
PRIOR ART
In the preparation of perfumes and colognes the use of ethanol as a solvent is still very widespread. Ethanol makes it possible to solubilize well the perfuming ingredients used by the perfumers. Thus it is easy to incorporate each ingredient at the desired concentration and obtain a transparent solution. For this reason, most of the perfumes and colognes available on the market still contain ethanol, usually between 50 and 95% per volume.
Today consumers tend to prefer perfumes without alcohol or with a reduced content in alcohol, such that there is a requirement for replacing ethanol in the above-mentioned products.
It would be desirable to replace ethanol by water or an organic solvent which does not leave an important residue on the skin, or yet by a mixture of one or more of these solvents with water.
However in this context the use of water or a mixture of water with a non-volatile organic solvent leads to problems of solubility of the perfuming ingredients in the water phase because of their hydrophobic character. Although it is known that these hydrophobic ingredients can be emulsified in the oil-in-water (O/W) type emulsions, these formulations are not usually transparent.
Furthermore, transparent perfuming compositions are known from the prior art in the form of microemulsions containing important amounts of surfactants. In these microemulsions the perfume (oily phase) is dispersed in water in form of drops having a size of about 5-50 nm and thanks to the small size of the drops, the mixture, i.e. the microemulsion, is transparent. However, it is not desirable to need to incorporate an important amount of surfactants, relative to the amount of perfuming ingredients, as this limits considerably the amount of fragrance that can be incorporated in the mixture.
Another known transparent composition type is the nanoemulsion, characterised by an average size of the oily phase droplets below ca. 30-75 nm. The droplets are small enough to make the emulsion translucent or partially transparent. Although these emulsions present the advantage of needing lesser amounts of surfactants than the microemulsions, they present nevertheless the disadvantage that their process of preparation is often difficult and delicate. Such emulsions are for example the object of application EP 728 460. More precisely there is described in this document a transparent nanoemulsion of oily-in-water type obtained by addition of an amphiphillic, non-ionic and liquid lipid, at a temperature below 45° C. to obtain the desired emulsion. This lipid is used in a proportion of 2 to 10% by weight with respect to the total weight of the lipidic phase. As the oily phase, the patent application describes amongst others the use of natural and synthetic essential oils. The described emulsions are used in cosmetic compositions as a result of their capacity to penetrate the skin after topical application.
Finally, a “conventional” emulsion, in which the average size of the dispersed droplets is above 100 nm, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,798,111. The object of this patent is a highly viscous cosmetic emulsion, and more particularly a semi-solid transparent gel, comprising 10 to 97% by weight of an aqueous phase containing 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol and 2 to 90% by weight of an oily phase comprising silicon oil. These gels have an optic turbidity below 50 NTU at 21° C. In addition to the above-mentioned ingredients these cosmetic compositions may contain non-ionic surfactants. The compositions described in this document are too viscous to be used in perfume compositions such as perfumes or colognes.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention aims at solving the various problems met in the prior art by providing perfuming composition devoid of volatile organic solvents or VOC defined by the E.P.A. (Environmental Protection Agency), in particular by providing an ethanol-free composition and which is transparent. As a perfuming composition it is meant here a composition with low viscosity in which one ore more perfuming ingredients are totally solubilized and which, unlike a cosmetic composition, is not meant to penetrate the skin upon application. The object of the present invention is thus a perfuming composition in the form of a oil-in-water (O/W) or water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion, the oil containing at least one perfuming ingredient, said emulsion containing from 5 to 50% by weight of a dispersed phase and from 95 to 50% by weight of a continuous phase, the difference between the refractive index n of the dispersed phase and the continuous phase being less than or equal to ca. 0.003, preferably less than or equal to ca. 0.001.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the viscosity of the perfuming composition is below 10 Pa.s, independently of the nature of the emulsion.
In the case of a O/W emulsion the continous phase is formed by the water (aqueous phase) and the dispersed phase is formed by the oil (oily phase). In the case of a W/O emulsion, also called inverse emulsion, the continuous phase is formed by the oil wherein the water is dispersed, thus forming the dispersed phase.
The perfuming ingredients are dissolved in the oily phase because of their hydrophobic character.
Following a preferred embodiment of the invention, the perfuming composition is formulated as a perfume or a cologne.
The perfuming compositions of the invention are obtained by addition to an emulsion of certain ingredients which act on both the oily and the aqueous phases.
The ingredients added to the perfuming compositions of the invention, and which are specified further on, have the effect of modifying the refractive index of the two phases, so as to form a transparent emulsion. We have in fact observed that the transparent emulsions of the invention can be obtained when the difference between the refractive index of the dispersed phase and that of the continuous phase does not exceed ca. 0.003. Preferably this difference is less than or equal to ca. 0.001.
The transparency of the emulsions of the invention is characterised by a transmission measured at 600 nm (cell of 1 cm thickness), typically higher than 60% and for many emulsions above 80%.
It is useful to note here that the refractive index of water is 1.33 and that the perfuming compositions typically used have a refractive index n generally comprised between 1.45 and 1.55. The addition of certain ingredients makes it possible to narrow the difference between the respective refractive indexes of the two phases so as to bring it within the limits defined above.
We have observed that in the context of this invention it is possible to use a certain number of substances or agents having the capacity of acting on both phases as desired and the choice of which depends on individual criteria that can be established for each composition. The above-mentioned agents shall thus be selected as a function of their compatibility with the nature of the perfume, their compatibility with the skin, the desired sensation of the transparent perfume after application on the skin and the chemical inertia of these agents vis-a-vis the perfuming ingredients. Furthermore, the substance which will be used to act on the aqueous phase must be soluble in this phase and the substance selected to act on the oily phase must of course be soluble in the oily phase.
It is therefore possible to use any substance which satisfies one or more of the important criteria for a given perfuming composition, provided that this agent is able to increase the refractive index n of the aqueous phase and to lower the refractive index n of the oily phase, such that the difference between the two refractive indexes is within the limits defined above (inferior or equal to 0.003).
The used substance may be a solid or a liquid.
When the agent is a liquid ingredient, there is used preferably a substan
Dees Jose′ G.
Firmenich SA
Lamm Marina
Winston & Strawn
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