This application claims priority from Taiwan Patent Application No. 109104256, filed on Feb. 11, 2020, in the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
The present disclosure relates to a mask substrate, particularly to a mask substrate and kit including the same made from an entire plant slice.
To improve skin moisturization and whitening effect, people nowadays often apply sheet materials containing essence liquid, skin care liquid, etc., to a skin surface. This is performed to easily maintain the skin in a high-moisturizing state so as to improve the absorbability of the skin to skin care ingredients. Therefore, various types of mask products have been developed in recent years.
Currently, woven or non-woven fabric substrates made via weaving, knitting, or non-woven fabric processing artificial fibers, natural fibers (e.g., cotton), bio-fibers, etc., with great water absorption are often used as mask substrates. However, the substrates made from the aforementioned materials may only be used as carrier layers for essence liquids and cannot be equipped with other functions. Furthermore, since a mask is a disposable product which is discarded after use, problems such as waste and pollution may easily occur.
As mentioned above, in terms of the mask substrate and the manufacturing process thereof, some problems and deficiencies are yet to be solved in the prior art. The present application aims to provide a technical solution that may effectively solve the problems and deficiencies as mentioned above in the prior art.
According to one embodiment, the present disclosure provides a mask substrate, including a substrate layer; the substrate layer is prepared by freeze-drying a plant slice having a predetermined thickness under a predetermined condition. After the mask substrate is rehydrated with an infiltrating liquid, a surface of the mask substrate is able to be applied to the skin of an individual.
Preferably, the substrate layer may be a thickness of 0.1 to 3 mm.
Preferably, the predetermined condition for freeze-drying may be a cavity temperature of 25° C. to −60° C., and a vacuum degree of 0 to 200 mT.
Preferably, the plant slice may be selected from a group consisting of white radish, taro, pumpkin, wax gourd, turnip, gherkin, cucumber, loofah, watermelon, pineapple, and carrot.
Preferably, the substrate layer has pores in a size of 5 to 100 μm.
Preferably, the mask substrate further includes a packaging bag which may seal the substrate layer therein.
Preferably, the substrate layer may be made without weaving, knitting, or non-woven fabric processing.
According to one embodiment, the present disclosure provides a mask kit, including a mask substrate and an infiltrating liquid, wherein the infiltrating liquid is deionized water or essence liquid; wherein after the mask substrate is rehydrated with an infiltrating liquid, a surface of the mask substrate is able to be applied to the skin of an individual.
In summary, the mask substrate and the kit including the same in the present disclosure have the following advantages:
(1) In the present disclosure, the mask substrate prepared by using a fresh plant slice via a freeze-drying process has a natural plant fiber pore structure. Therefore, the natural plant fiber pore structure may effectively absorb water or essence liquid to acquire a fine skin moisturizing effect when applied.
(2) The plant slice of the present disclosure is selected from an entire slice of different plants (e.g., gherkin, cucumber, loofah, etc.) which may maintain active substances of the selected plant. Therefore, when the mask substrate is infiltrated with water or essence liquid, active substances may be released. Then, when the mask substrate is applied, the active substances may be effectively absorbed by the skin.
(3) The mask substrate of the present disclosure is made from a natural plant slice, so additional materials that may cause skin irritation, such as artificial fibers, are not required. Hence, allergy may be avoided, and this natural product may be completely biodegradable.
(4) The mask kit of the present disclosure may be used with an infiltrating liquid containing ingredients for moisturizing, anti-aging, or whitening to fit consumer needs, which may further optimize the functions of the mask substrate.
The exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is described in detail with reference to the following drawings:
The present disclosure is to be further described in detail by the following preferred embodiments together with the drawings. It should be noted that the experimental data disclosed in the following embodiments are used to explain the technical features of the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the aspects to be implemented.
In the present application, the term, “approximately”, is intended to indicate a value including, for example, tolerance in the proportion of materials, tolerance in drug concentration values, or variations existing between experimental subjects. The term typically refers to variability of values equal to approximately or less than 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, 6%, 7%, 8%, 9%, 10%, 11%, 12%, 13%, 14%, 15%, 16%, 17%, 18%, 19%, or 20% depending on the situation.
As used herein, the term, “a plant slice”, refers to a thin slice made from a slicing process by using roots, stems, leaves, pulps from plants via a slicing machine. Wherein, the plants may be, for instance, white radish, taro, pumpkin, wax gourd, turnip, gherkin, cucumber, loofah, watermelon, pineapple, and carrot, preferably gherkin, cucumber, and loofah. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto.
As used herein, the term, “non-woven fabric processing”, refers to a net or fabric having the structure of randomly inter-laid fibers or threads, which is not a method identified under the case of knitting and weaving fabric, however.
As used herein, the terms, “knitting” and “weaving”, refer to the use of a machine, such as a weaving machine or a weaving machine, to enable fibers to be woven and intertwined to form a knitting structure or a weaving structure.
Please refer to
In the freeze-drying step (S103), the predetermined conditions for performing the freeze-drying process are: The cavity temperature is approximately 25° C. to −60° C., preferably 20° C. to −45° C., and more preferably 15° C. to −40° C., 10° C. to −35° C., 5° C. to −30° C., 0° C. to −25° C., and −3° C. to −20° C. The vacuum degree is approximately 0 to 200 mT, preferably 25 to 175 mT, and more preferably 50 to 150 mT. The processing time is approximately 18 to 40 hours, preferably 20 to 35 hours, and more preferably 23 to 30 hours.
Specifically, the freeze-drying step (S103) of the present disclosure may be divided into three phases, including the first phase of the freeze-drying process: decreasing the temperature of the plant slice from 25° C. to −25° C., remaining for 90 minutes, then decreasing the temperature of the plant slice from −25° C. to −40° C., and remaining for 30 minutes; the second phase of the freeze-drying process: increasing the temperature of the plant slice from −40° C. to −3° C., wherein the vacuum degree remains at 50 to 150 mT, and the operating time is 20 to 30 hours; and the third phase of the drying procedure: having the plant slice remain for 30 minutes under the condition of the temperature at 25° C. and the vacuum degree at 100 mT after the temperature of the plant slice is increased from −3° C. to 25° C., and then completing the freeze-drying step (S103) after remaining from 90 to 150 minutes at 25° C.
It is worth mentioning that, in the first phase as mentioned above, since the use of the two-stage cooling method may ensure that ice crystals may not grow too fast, which may prevent plant fiber tissues from being damaged, the plant slice after the completion of freeze-drying still has fine water absorption. Furthermore, in the second phase and third phase, the plant slice is able to be dried to a finest state by a precise control of the vacuum degree, temperature, and time. That is, the plant slice prepared by the freeze-drying process of the present disclosure may maintain a structural integrity without having the problems, such as warping, expansion or fracture, etc.
The substrate layer acquired in the manufacturing method for the mask substrate according to the present disclosure is a thin slice directly obtained from the plant slice. Therefore, the substrate layer is made without weaving, knitting, or non-woven fabric processing. As a result, the substrate layer is not mixed with woven fabric, knitted fabric, or non-woven fabric, such as artificial fibers, silk fibers, or biological fibers. Instead, the substrate layer is formed by the natural structure of the plant slice. Wherein, the substrate layer has pores in various sizes formed by the natural structure; the size of the pores may be approximately 5 to 100 μm, preferably 10 to 80 μm, and more preferably 20 to 50 μm.
Please refer to
From Table 1, it may be known that the mask substrate prepared by the manufacturing method of the mask substrate of the present disclosure may still fully maintain the integrity of the substrate without easily being fractured even under the circumstance of the substrate being very thin. In the meantime, after fully infiltrated in the essence liquid, fine water retention may be well maintained.
Then, please refer to
The difference of the processing conditions between Comparative Example 2 and the present disclosure being: In the freeze-drying process of the first phase, the temperature of the plant slice is decreased from 25° C. to −25° C. with remaining for 96 minutes, and then the temperature of the plant slice is decreased from −25° C. to −40° C. with remaining for 30 minutes. The rest of conditions are the same as those mentioned above. With reference to the result of
The difference of the processing conditions between Comparative Example 3 and the present disclosure being: In the freeze-drying process of the third phase, the temperature of the plant slice is increased from −3° C. to 25° C., the pressure is restored back to normal pressure, and the temperature of the plant slice remains at 25° C. for 20 minutes. The rest of conditions are the same as those mentioned above. With reference to the result of
The difference of the processing conditions between Comparative Example 4 and the present disclosure being: In the freeze-drying process of the second phase, the temperature of the plant slice is increased from −40° C. to −3° C., the vacuum degree remains at 150 mT, and the operating time is 5 hours. In the freeze-drying process of the third phase, the temperature of the plant slice is increased from −3° C. to 25° C., the temperature of the plant slice remains for 30 minutes at the temperature of 25° C. and a vacuum degree of 150 mT, and then the temperature of the plant slice remains for 90 to 150 minutes at the temperature of 25° C. The rest of conditions are the same as those mentioned above. With reference to the result of
That is, from Comparative Examples 1 to 4 as mentioned above, it may be known that failing to precisely control vacuum degree, temperature, and time may prevent the plant slice from drying to the finest state, resulting in the plant slice not able to maintain structural integrity. This may generate problems, such as warping, expansion or fracture, etc., and thus the plant slice may not be precisely rehydrated as a complete, flat and flexible substrate mask.
Please refer to
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the packaging bag 300 may be divided into two parts for package. For one part of the package, a plurality of mask substrates 110 are stacked by the separation layer 120, and for the other part of the package, the infiltrating liquid 200 is packaged in a predetermined amount. Hence, the mask substrate 110 is taken out and fully infiltrated with infiltrating liquid 200 before use, and then applied to the skin of an individual. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In another embodiment, the packaging bag 300 may also package the mask substrate 110 and the infiltrating liquid 200 altogether, thus only requires to torn open the packaging bag 300 for immediate use.
The following tests are conducted by the inventor according to various mask substrate materials prepared by the aforementioned manufacturing method.
Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Test
Objective: Total organic substances released by the mask substrate after soaked in deionized water are tested to determine whether the mask substrate may release the nutrients it contains.
After the gherkin mask substrate (gherkin group (FDPC)) and the cucumber mask substrate (cucumber group (FDP)) with thicknesses of 1 to 2 mm are respectively soaked in deionized water of 80 ml for 20 minutes, the soaked solution and deionized water (DI Water) are detected by a total organic carbon analyzer to conduct a peroxy pyrosulfate heating oxidation/infrared method according to the norms of Taiwan Inspection Technology Co., Ltd. (SGS) (referring to the method of NIEA W543.50C). The result is shown in Table 2 below.
From Table 2, it may be known that the TOC test has confirmed that organic substances may be released after the mask substrate is soaked in deionized water in either the gherkin group or the cucumber group according to the mask substrate prepared by the aforementioned manufacturing method.
Water Absorption and pH Test
The non-woven fabric mask, the gherkin mask substrate, the cucumber mask substrate are weighed to gain dry weight. Next, the remaining water is observed after each of the mask substrates is soaked in a known amount of deionized water for 1 minute. The remaining water is subtracted from the known amount of deionized water after water absorption to gain the total amount of water absorption. Further, the gained amount is divided by the dry weight to obtain the amount of water that can be absorbed per gram of the mask substrate. Also, the pH of the moisturized mask substrate is tested. The result is shown in Table 2 below.
From Table 3, it may be known that both the gherkin group and the cucumber group have excellent water absorption; especially, the water absorption of the gherkin group has a water absorption effect very similar to that of the non-woven fabric mask commonly used in the market according to the mask substrate prepared by the aforementioned manufacturing method. In addition, both the pH values of the gherkin group and the cucumber group remain neural. Hence, it is unlikely to cause irritation to the skin.
Result of Observation by an Electron Microscope (SEM)
Please refer to
Based on the electron microscope structure images of
Efficacy of Using a Loofah as a Mask Substrate
Three subjects are selected for skin testing. A freeze-drying loofah slice with a thickness of 2 mm is used as a mask substrate. The mask substrate is fully infiltrated with deionized water, and then applied to the skin of the subjects for 15 minutes. The result is shown in
Efficacy of Using a Gherkin as a Mask Substrate
Three subjects are selected for skin testing. A freeze-drying gherkin slice with a thickness of 2 to 3 mm is used as a mask substrate. The mask substrate is fully infiltrated with deionized water, and then applied to the skin of the subjects for 15 minutes. The result is shown in
Efficacy of Using a Cucumber as a Mask Substrate
Two subjects are selected for skin testing. A freeze-drying cucumber slice with a thickness of 2 mm is used as a mask substrate. The mask substrate is fully infiltrated with deionized water, and then applied to the skin of the subjects for 15 minutes. The result is shown in
In summary, by the natural fiber structures, the mask substrate of the present disclosure may effectively absorb water or essence liquid. In the meantime, the active substances contained in the substrate may be released when applied, further improving the skin moisturizing and beauty effects. Furthermore, the mask substrate of the present disclosure is made from natural plant slices. Accordingly, the mask substrate may decompose naturally after use without causing environmental damage.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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109104256 | Feb 2020 | TW | national |