Patent Application
20050066990
This document claims priority to French Application No. 03 10293, filed Aug. 29, 2003 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/501,822, filed Sep. 11, 2003, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The invention relates to an applicator for a cosmetic product. The invention is particularly advantageous as an applicator for eye make-up such as mascara, to apply the mascara to eyelashes and eyebrows.
In the field of mascara, the most commonly used applicators are formed from so-called “twisted” brushes. Such twisted brushes are made by placing a layer of bristles between two branches of a steel wire configured in the shape of a hairpin, then twisting the two branches of the steel wire about its axis. The steel wire thus twisted forms a spiral (actually, one spiral or helix for each strand of steel wire) in which the turns rise from left to right in relation to the direction of twist of the steel wire (when the brush is viewed in a vertical position) or from right to left. The first type of twisting produces a brush sometimes referred to as a “left-handed brush”. Such a brush is described in patent EP 0 611 170. The second type of twisting, hitherto the most frequently encountered, produces a brush referred to as a “right-handed brush”.
Such twisted brushes generally include a “bristled” part defining an applicator portion, extending into a “non-bristled” part of the steel wire, sometimes referred to as the “tail” of the brush. The non-bristled part serves to fix the device to a rod attached to an element used to grasp the device, with the element also providing a closure cap for the bottle containing the mascara.
The brush should be attached to the rod so that the brush does not axially fall out of the rod and is not thereby rendered unusable. The brush attachment should also have considerable rotational restraint so that the brush turns with the rod when the rod is rotated by the user to unscrew the cap from the bottle. The attachment must be especially firm when the mascaras used are mascaras that dry very quickly, i.e. mascaras having a relatively thick formulation and which therefore adhere strongly to the brush and to the bottle.
To attach the brush to the rod, the tail end of the brush is generally inserted into a hole fashioned in the rod, with the diameters of this hole and the tail of the brush being substantially equal. The attachment is secured by heating the metal tail of the brush and forcing it into the hole in the rod so that the plastic material of the rod melts locally in contact with the tail of the brush and conforms to the shape of the twist in the tail of the brush.
The brush is therefore securely restrained in that the rod, by conforming to the shape of the twist, forms a kind of female thread around the tail of the brush which constitutes a male thread. Thus, any axial movement becomes impossible without deforming the material of the rod or the brush. However, rotation in the direction tending to unscrew the tail from the brush remains easy in that there is no chemical adhesion between the plastic and the metal, and in that this movement involves no mechanical deformation. Thus, the rotational restraint remains low. The unscrewing movement of the brush relative to the rod can occur in the direction of opening or closing of the mascara.
To address this problem, a conventional approach is to locally crush the tail of the brush so as to render it locally flat and thus prevent the tail of the brush from unscrewing during the rotational movement. However, this flattening is only effective at fairly low rotational torque values, and is not sufficiently effective for mascaras of relatively thick consistency.
One of the objects of the invention is therefore to provide a cosmetic applicator that does not present the drawbacks of the prior art.
According to one object of the invention, an applicator is provided in which the brush has minimal or no risk of separating from the rod to which it is attached, even with products of relatively sticky consistency.
A further object of the invention is to provide an applicator which can be made in a simple manner and at a low cost.
According to the invention, these objects can be achieved, wholly or partially, by a cosmetic applicator, e.g., for mascara, with a twisted core which includes a first portion in which are trapped bristles arranged in a radial manner relative to the core, and a second portion fixed in a rod, with the second portion of the core being formed by at least two twisted zones of different direction and/or pitch. Various alternative features are possible in accordance with the invention.
By way of example, the twisted zone of the second portion of the core contiguous with the bristled portion can be twisted in the same direction as the bristled portion. Also, by way of example, the twisted zone of the second portion of the core contiguous with the bristled portion can be twisted with the same pitch as the bristled portion.
Further by way of example, the second portion of the core can be formed by a twisted zone with a first pitch and by a twisted zone with a second pitch different from the first.
Alternatively, the second portion of the core can be formed by a twisted zone having a progressively increasing, or decreasing, pitch between a first end of the second portion contiguous with the bristled portion of the core and a second end opposite the first.
By way of example, the core can be formed from two branches of a steel wire.
The bristled portion of the core can present a plurality of turns rising from left to right when the applicator is viewed in the vertical position. In this case, the brush is described as “left-handed”. Alternatively, the bristled portion of the core can present a plurality of turns rising from right to left when the applicator is viewed face on in the vertical position. In this case, the brush is described as “right-handed”.
Also, by way of example, the bristled portion of the core can be straight or rectilinear, or alternatively, curved. The rod can be integral with a grasping element. In addition, the bristles can form a brush of circular or polygonal transverse cross-section, for example, triangular, square or pentagonal.
One or more of the objects of the invention can also be achieved by a device for packaging and applying a product to keratinic fibers, such as the eyelashes or the eyebrows. The device includes a container holding the product, with the container delineating an opening in proximity to which is preferably disposed a wiper element, with the device equipped with an applicator as described above and described further herein.
The invention will become further apparent from the following detailed description, particularly when considered in conjunction with the drawings in which:
The applicator device 10 illustrated by way of example in
The brush 40 includes a substantially straight twisted core 20. The twisted core is obtained, for example, from a steel wire folded into a U shape, between the branches of which a sheet of bristles 41 is inserted before completing the twist operation. In response to the twisting movement, the bristles 41 are drawn in a spiral configuration to form a succession of turns spaced more or less widely apart. The bristles 41 in the illustrated example extend radially in relation to the support and are substantially rectilinear.
The sheet of bristles 41 forming the brush is trapped in a first portion 21 of the core 20. A second portion of the core 22, without bristles and also referred to herein as the tail of the brush, is fixed in the rod 30. The end of the rod 20 opposite the brush 40 is generally connected to an element (shown in
In this embodiment, the brush 40 is of the “right-hand brush” type, with the turns of the bristled portion 21 of the twisted core 20 rising from right to left when the brush 40 is viewed in the vertical position as shown.
The tail of the brush 22, which is fixed into the rod 30, includes two zones 22a and 22b twisted in two different directions. A first twisted zone 22a, formed in the extension of the bristled portion 21 of the core 20, has the same direction of twist and the same pitch as the bristled portion 21 of the core. A second twisted zone 22b, extending beyond the first twisted zone 22a, is in this instance twisted in the reverse direction relative to the first twisted zone 22a of the tail of the brush.
The tail of the brush can have a length, by way of example, of approximately 2 cm. The two twisted zones at the tail end of the brush and the twisted portion carrying the bristles have a pitch, for example, of approximately 1 mm.
To make this applicator, after inserting the sheet of bristles between the branches of the steel wire folded into a U-shape, the branches of the steel wire are wound in a first direction so as to form the bristled portion 21 of the core 10 and the first twisted zone 22a of the tail 22 of the brush. The two wires are then held at approximately 1 cm from the tip of the tail of the brush, and they are wound in the reverse direction so as to produce the second twisted zone 22b at the tail end of the brush.
The tail thus obtained is then partially heated and inserted into a hole 31 pre-formed in the rod 30. The plastic material of the rod melts slightly in contact with the tail and takes on the shape of the tail of the brush.
Thus, once the tail end of the brush, i.e. the zones twisted in both directions, has been inserted while hot into the hole in the rod, relative rotational movement of the brush in relation to the rod becomes impossible without severe deformation of the rod, because screwing in one part of the tail imparts an unscrewing action to the other part of the tail of the brush. The brush is thus very securely restrained from rotation relative to the rod. The presence of the twisted zone in the rod also provides effective axial restraint.
In the latter two embodiments, relative rotational movement of the brush in relation to the rod without severe deformation of the rod is also prevented, because the pitch of the twisted zone at the tail end of the brush is not constant, to thereby prevent unscrewing. Furthermore, the presence of the twisted zone in the rod also provides effective axial restraint. Here again, the brush is held very securely in the rod.
The brush according to the variant in
To use the applicator, the user unscrews the cap formed by the grasping element 60 and withdraws the applicator 10 from the container 60. In so doing, the applicator device 10 is caused to pass through the wiper element 70, thereby regulating the quantity of product distributed on the bristles. The withdrawal movement of the applicator is substantially lengthwise relative to the axis X. After use, the user replaces the applicator in the container, again causing the applicator device 10 to pass through the wiper element 70.
In the foregoing detailed description reference is made to preferred embodiments of the invention. It is evident that variants thereto can be proposed without departing from the invention as claimed herebelow. For example, the transverse cross-section of the brush perpendicular to the axis X can be of any shape other than circular, such as polygonal, or for example square, rectangular, triangular, pentagonal, etc. Similarly, the transverse cross-section of the bristles can be of different shapes, and the brush can include bristles having a single type of cross-section, or bristles having a combination of different cross-sections.
Obviously, numerous modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03 10293 | Aug 2003 | FR | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60501822 | Sep 2003 | US |
