The present invention relates to a cosmetic product cake with ecological support and to the manufacturing process thereof.
Plastic consumption has risen from 15 million tons in 1964 to more than 310 million tons today. Plastic waste now pollutes a large part of natural environments. Some studies estimate that there are up to 150 tons of plastic in the oceans and that if the production trend continues in the current manner, plastic could reach 34 billion tons by 2050, at least 12 tons of which would be waste scattered throughout the environments. These figures suggest how fundamental the recycling or replacement of plastic objects is, with the aim of achieving a radical decrease in the production of this material.
The possibility to replace plastic both as an ingredient and as primary and secondary packaging is a process underway in all industrial and non-industrial areas. In cosmetics, the replacement of raw materials which generate microplastics is already a process which has been underway for some time, with first significant results.
EP 1078625 A2 describes a solid or viscous cosmetic composition enclosed in a plastic sheath containing solid proteins, liquid or solution polyols, solid polyols, and softeners.
It is the object of the present invention to obtain, with a different non-plastic material, the so-called anchoring grids made of plastic material which are usually used in large volumes (about 2 million pieces per month, therefore with high consumption of plastic) for providing cakes of cosmetic products to be anchored inside a container.
In order to achieve the aforesaid object, the present invention suggests a cosmetic cake consisting of a layer of cosmetic product and an underlying base layer for supporting and anchoring said cosmetic product layer inside a container, characterized in that said base layer consists of a dried and solidified aqueous mixture of only natural non-synthetic ingredients.
The aforesaid aqueous mixture preferably includes the following formulation:
and even more preferably the formulation indicated in the following table:
The exercise carried out was to transfer the use of natural ingredients already used for some time in the food industry as alternative packaging to polystyrene or plastic from food technology to cosmetics.
The formula starts from a food wafer recipe, in which the flour has been replaced by natural mica and the protein part thereof (gluten) has been replaced by vegetal proteins (pea, lentil, bean, broad bean, etc.), now easily available in the market of ingredients for cosmetic products.
The bearing structure is ensured by, in addition to proteins, cellulose or hydrocolloids derived from cellulose (crystalline cellulose, methylcellulose, hydroxypropyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose). These hydrocolloids are activated in water under strong stirring until a foam is obtained.
The sugars present in the formula are the third key ingredient which allows stabilizing the foam created during the preparation of the mixture and after drying. They make the structure very rigid and capable of being perfectly anchored to the cosmetic product to be supported. These sugars can be monosaccharides, disaccharides, or polysaccharides of vegetable origin (maize, rice, tapioca, wheat, or legumes). The origin thereof can be starch which is dextrinized enzymatically.
Starch as it is or modified is used as a filling agent in combination with natural mica. Mica gives the substrate a white color and controls the absorption of water.
Citric acid, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, and hydrochloric acid are preferably used as organic acids.
Preservatives, for example caprylyl glycol, hexylene glycol, ethylhexyl glicerine, ethylparaben, methylparaben, propylparaben, phenoxyethanol, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate and/or sodium dehydroxyacetate, are used since the starting formula contains a high amount of water, which is to be preserved.
It has thus been seen that it is possible to replace the usual anchoring grids made of plastic material by corresponding support and anchoring elements made of a natural material, also called “natural grids”, by pouring an aqueous fluid mixture with ingredients only of natural, non-synthetic origin as described above on a layer of cosmetic product (powder or fluid) previously introduced into a mold and inserting the whole in an oven at 60° C., where the aqueous mixture dries and becomes rigid, irreversibly adhering to the cosmetic product layer, which is in turn solidified.
It was noted that:
The application features of the natural grid are comparable to those of plastics, with some additional advantages:
For better understanding, an example of a process for creating a cake according to the present invention will be described below.
For the description of the process, reference will be made to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The process includes, as a preparatory step, the creation of an aqueous fluid mixture consisting only of ingredients of natural, non-synthetic origin, preferably those indicated in the previous table 1, even more preferably with the percentages indicated in table 2.
An appropriate mold is then selected, such as that indicated by reference numeral 1 as a whole in
With a suitable dosing device 3 (
A further dosing device 5 (
The mold 1 with the cosmetic product layer 4 and the overlapping fluid mixture layer 6 is then placed in an oven at 60° C., where the drying of the aqueous part of the fluid layer 6 occurs along with the formation of a solidified cosmetic cake 8 consisting of a lower layer 4 of solidified cosmetic product and an upper layer 6 consisting of a solidified mixture of natural ingredients.
The cake 8 is finally overturned and introduced into a container 9 where the cake itself consists of a base support and anchoring layer 6 (also referred to as a “grid”) of a natural type, without plastic ingredients, and of an overlapping layer 4 of solidified cosmetic product with a shaped upper surface, firmly anchored to said support and anchoring base 6.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102020000001663 | Jan 2020 | IT | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2021/051811 | 1/27/2021 | WO |