FORM - 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
The Patents Rules, 2006
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10 and Rule 13)


A SKIN COLOUR SHADE CARD
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LIMITED, a company incorporated under
the Indian Companies Act, 1913 and having its registered office
at 165/166, Backbay Reclamation, Mumbai -400 020, Maharashtra, India
The following specification describes the invention


FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to a skin colour shade-card, method of using the shade-card, and a shade-card packaged with a composition to form a kit for evaluating skin-tone, and for demonstrating proof of efficacy or facilitating product selection.
The invention has been developed primarily for use with skin creams and will be described hereinafter with reference to this application. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to this particular field of use.
BACKGROUND AND RELATED ART
Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of the common general knowledge in the field.
The ultimate goal of a cosmetic composition for lightening skin or reducing marks, as well as that of any cosmetic product or method; is a satisfied consumer. Many cosmetic products advertise benefits such as skin-lightening, anti-marks and blemish reduction. Trained and expert graders are frequently used to handle diagnostic equipment or to visually perceive the difference in skin-colour or tone, as consumers usually cannot easily discern whether the claimed benefit is actually delivered, or a quantitative extent to which it is delivered. To that extent, attempt has been made in prior art to provide ready-reckoner tools to the consumer in the form of cosmetic proof strips/shade-cards/colour
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charts/colour scales and colour rulers. These hand-held tools have, to some extent, provided the consumer with some means of relating to the functional claims made by the products that they use. Some publications have disclosed test devices for experts to diagnose skin conditions. An example is US2002/0181752 (WALLO WARREN, et al) disclosing measuring changes in portions of a human body by 3-D images that are taken and superimposed. Simpler hand-held tools such as the shade-cards which come along with GARNIER™ SKIN NATURALS LIGHT range of products, ex. L'OREAL, and FAIR&LOVELY™ skin creams sold by UNILEVER, are some other examples.
Some patent publications are also to be found.
US5741212 (MATTHEWS, MICHAEL WESTON BERTIE, 1998) describes a device for use in assessing various characteristics of a skin blemish, which includes at least two blemish assessment discs mounted for relative movement, with each assessment disc carrying a scale of blemish criteria so that the skin blemish may be positioned adjacent the scales of each assessment disc and matched with the relevant portions thereof. It also has a centrally positioned lens so that the user can place the blemished area under the lens and then assess inter-alia the colour of the blemish and relate it to one of the many colours available. The one drawback associated with this blemish assessor is that the device provides several scales at a time including blemish colour, size and physical condition, thereby making it complicated in use.
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A similar hand-held device with additional features has been described in US5727949A (BAR-OR, DAVID et. al, 1998}. This describes a reference device for use in indicating prognosis of a physical condition based upon selected diagnostic characteristics of the physical condition. The reference device has a first panel member having first selected diagnostic characteristics of the physical condition distributed thereon, and a second panel member including second selected diagnostic characteristics of the physical condition distributed thereon as well as prognosis indicators associated with the second selected diagnostic characteristics. The first and second panels are mounted for relative movement whereby a selected one of the first selected diagnostic characteristics may be paired with a selected one of the second diagnostic characteristics and a determinable prognosis is revealed corresponding the specific paired characteristics. The reference device is particularly useful for prognosing melanoma based upon diagnostic characteristics of a skin lesion.
All the above devices of prior arts either measure skin shade change or the change in blemish colour. While several products are available to counter blemishes, dark-circles, and lighten face and body; the present inventors have found that the above hand-held devices of the prior art are relatively unsuitable for giving an indication of evenness of skin-tone to readily indicate to the consumer the minute un-discernable changes in the skin-tone when skin lightening products are used over a period on relatively darker areas such as spots, blemishes, exposed areas of the fore-arms, dark circles and the body.
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Thus there exists the need for a device that can be hand¬held, which gives the consumer an indication of the efficacy of a skin lightening product on relatively darker areas of the body such as blemishes/dark circles, vis-a-vis a relatively lighter area such as face, on application over a period of time. There also exists the need for a device which gives a relatively simple indication of evenness of skin-tone to the consumer.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a hand¬held device that can give the consumer an indication of the efficacy of the skin lightening product on relatively darker areas of the body vis-a-vis a relatively lighter area such as face, on application over a period of time.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device which gives a relatively simple indication of evenness of skin-tone to the consumer.
Other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the specification.
The present invention aims to provide a device to measure shade differences leading towards even tone of skin. The shade-card is capable of providing proof as well as
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educating consumers on the concept of even-tone. The device is capable of being used to demonstrate any kind of even toning effect, such as blemishes against face, dark circles against face, body against face, and body against elbows and joints.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the first aspect, the present invention
provides a skin colour shade-card comprising:
(i) a substrate; and
(ii) indicia placed onto said substrate, the indicia
comprising a graduated scale of colour shades related to a person's first and second attribute, wherein the device comprises a pointer associated with the graduated scale for each of the attribute.
According to the second aspect, the present invention provides a packaged cosmetic product comprising:
(i) a cosmetic composition comprising an
effective amount of a skin lightening agent and a
carrier; (ii) a package for receiving the cosmetic composition;
and, (iii) a skin colour shade-card according to the first
aspect associated with the package.
According to the third aspect, the present invention provides a method for evaluating efficacy of a cosmetic product, the method comprising: (i) applying the cosmetic product to the skin;
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(ii) placing the skin colour shade-card against the skin treated with the cosmetic product in step (i);
(iii) visually assessing a score on the skin colour shade-card with the help of the pointers; and,
(iv) repeating steps (i) and (ii) at a future time followed by comparison of scores resultant from first and second assessments of the skin.
The term "comprising" is meant not to be limiting to any subsequently stated elements but rather to encompass non-specified elements of major or minor functional importance. In other words the listed steps, elements or options need not be exhaustive. Whenever the word5 "including" or "having" are used, these terms are me^nt to be equivalent to "comprising" as defined above.
Except in the operating and comparative examples, or where otherwise explicitly indicated, all numbers in this description indicating amounts of material ought to be understood as modified by the word "apout".
It should- be noted that in specifying any range of concentration or amount, any particular upper concentration can be associated with any particular lower concentration or amount.
For a more complete understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of preferred embodiments.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The advantages, use and features of the present invention will more fully be explained through consideration of the accompanying drawings, which form non-limiting embodiments of the invention, in which:
Figure-1 is a first embodiment of a skin colour shade-card; and,
Figure-2 is a second embodiment of a skin colour shade-card.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Today devices and shade-cards exist to measure and expertly evaluate skin colour. Several such devices and shade-cards have been introduced into the markets, either as stand-alone products, or more specifically, as add-ons to commercially available skin lightening/ whitening / fairness products by several companies. It is a fact that such add-ons have helped increase the awareness of the benefits of the product; and at the same time, they have provided some degree of credibility to the claims made by the product. Recent studies of market trends have shown that the consumers, nowadays, not only aspire to have fairer and glowing faces, but they also aspire to have an even-tone complexion, i.e. a complexion in which the shade of the body matches or closely matches that of the face.
While the prior art products have provided some means of ascertaining the benefits of continued usage of cosmetics on one particular attribute, such as face colour, there is no
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shade-card, known to the present inventors, that is capable of easily ascertaining evenness of skin-tone.
It has generally been observed that consumers do not blindly believe the functional claims made by such products such as flawless-fairness, anti-blemish/ anti-marks fairness, body-as-fair-as-face and the like.
Therefore, according to the first aspect the present
invention provides a skin colour shade-card comprising:
(i) a substrate; and
(ii) indicia placed onto the substrate, the indicia
comprising a graduated scale of colour shades related to a person's first and second attribute, wherein said device comprises a pointer associated with the graduated scale for each of the attribute.
It is preferred that the first attribute is face colour, and the second attribute is body or blemish colour.
The graduated scale has progressively increasing darkness of said colour shades. Some known and widely acceptable shades include dark brown, brown, light brown, dark tan, tan, light tan and pinkish white. Other shades are also, and preferably included. In one aspect, the graduated scale is arranged in a linear manner. In this case, each of the pointers is slidably mounted on said scale.
Alternatively, and more preferably, the graduated scale is arranged in circular manner on the substrate. In this case, each of the pointers is rotatably mounted on the scale. In
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this embodiment, the pointers are preferably riveted to the scale. Known alternatives to riveting can also be used.
To allow the user to better evaluate the colour-shade of his first and second attributes, it is preferred that the shade-card includes a reflecting means. This could be in the form of a reflective s,trip which could be a metallized plastic foil or ordinary silvered-mirror.
The shade-card may also preferably include a magnification means, such as a magnifying lens, so that the user can place the area under the lens and then assess inter-alia the colour shade and relate it to one of the many colours available.
It is also preferred that the skin colour shade-card includes an aperture, such that said first or second attribute can be seen, when said shade-card is placed on it. It may also allow the consumer to hold the cardboard to their face in front of a mirror, while the user ascertains the shades.
The scale of colour shades is preferably determined by a method which includes the following steps: (i) taking multiple photographs of multiple subjects; (ii) sorting the photographs, thereby classifying them
according to the attributes to obtain sorted data; (iii) analyzing the sorted data; (iv) selecting representative images from each class,
thereby creating graduated scale of colour shades for
each attribute; and (v) validating the scale of colour shades by clinicians.
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The skin colour shade-card may be made of any suitable material, such as plastic or cellulosic (e.g. cardboard). The colour shades may be print directly on the substrate or may be separately printed, e.g. on a thin plastic sheet and thereafter affixed to the substrate. The print is usually a combination of coloured ink, and ordinarily a four colour process. Any known printing process such as lithography, gravure, flexography, letterpress or screen processes may be used. The printing method is not critical. It is particularly preferred that thermal printing, electro¬photography or Inkjet printing is used. The inks are normally formed of a coloured pigment, resin binder and, most frequently, a volatile solvent.
The invention, in another aspect provides a packaged cosmetic product which includes:
(i) a cosmetic composition comprising an
effective amount of a skin lightening agent and a
carrier; (ii) a package for receiving the cosmetic composition;
and, (iii) a skin colour shade-card according to the first
aspect, associated with the package.
The skin colour shade-card can form one or more panels of an outer carton. Alternatively, the shade-card can be provided as an insert into an outer package (e.g. carton) within which a jar, flexible tube, or other container holds the cosmetic composition. In such embodiments, it may also be possible to provide perforations around the skin colour shade-card, so that the user may detach it from the panel. Preferably, the skin colour shade-card is configured to function as a holder for the cosmetic composition.
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Reference will now be made to the description of the accompanying figures. In all figures, like numerals represent like elements/features.
Figure-1 shows an embodiment of the a skin colour shade-card according to the invention which has a disc-shaped substrate 1, made of card-board and an indicia that is placed onto the substrate having a graduated scale of colour shades 2 related to a person's first and second attribute. The graduated scale is arranged in circular manner on the disc. The graduations can be seen in form of plurality of shaded areas seguentially numbered from 2A to 2M depicting different colour shades, having progressively increasing darkness of the colour shades. The skin colour shade-card 1 has pointers 3 and 4 associated with the graduated scale for each of the attribute. The pointers are rotatably mounted on the disc-shaped substrate 1 with the help of the rivet 5.In this embodiment, face colour is the first attribute whereas body colour is the second attribute. In use, the person using the shade-card can point to a colour shade each using both the pointers, to ascertain the difference between the first and second attributes; in this case, difference between face and body colour. Upon continued use of a cosmetic composition, which claims to provide skin-lightening benefits, the user may repeat the above exercise, by which subtle differences in skin shades may be easily ascertained.
Figure-2 shows another embodiment of the skin colour shade-card according to the invention, in which the graduated scale 2 is arranged in a linear manner on the substrate 1. The graduations can be seen in form of plurality of shaded
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areas sequentially numbered from 2K to 2J depicting different colour shades, having progressively increasing darkness of the colour shades. Pointers associated with the first and second attribute 3 and 4 are slidably mounted on the scale 2. The method of use in this case, remains similar to that of the skin colour shade-card of Figure-1.
The cosmetic compositions for use in the present invention will contain one or more skin lightening agents. Suitable for this purpose are materials which include niacinamide, elagic acid, kojic acid, arbutin, tranexamic acid, ethyl resorcinol, placental extract, ascorbic acid and derivatives thereof (e.g. magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, sodium ascorbyl phosphate, ascorbyl glucoside, and ascorbyl tetraisopalmitates). Other skin lightening materials suitable for use herein include ACTIWHITE® (Cognis) with active component being pisum savitum, EMBLICA® (Rona), Azeloglicina (Sinerga) and extracts (e.g. mulberry extract). Amounts of the skin lightening agent may range from about 0.01 to about 15 weight%, preferably from about 0.1 to about 10 weight%, more preferably from about 1 to about 8 weight%, .optimally from about 2 to about 5 weight% by weight of the composition.
Sunscreen agents are also useful for the cosmetic compositions. Illustrative materials are 2-ethylhexyl p-methoxycinnamate, 4,4'-t-butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane, 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone, octyldimethyl p-aminobenzoic acid, digalloyltrioleate, 2,2-dihydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone, ethyl 4-
[bis(hydroxypropyl)]aminobenzoate, 2-ethylhexyl-2-cyano-3,3-diphenylacrylate, 2-ethylhexylsalicylate, glyceryl p-
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aminobenzoate, 3,3,5-trimethylcyclohexylsalicylate, methylanthranilate, p-dimethylaminobenzoic acid or aminobenzoate, 2-ethylhexyl p-dimethylaminobenzoate, 2-phenylbenzimidazole-5-sulfonic acid, 2-{p-dimethylaminophenyl)-5-sulfoniobenzoxazoic acid, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, bis-ethylhexyloxyphenol methoxyphenol triazine, methylene bis-benzotriazolyl tetramethylbutylphenol, dimethicodiethylbenzal malonate, isoamyl methoxycinnamate, octyl triazone, terephthalidene dicamphor sulfonic acid and mixtures thereof. Amounts may range from about 0.1 to about 10 weight%, preferably from about 1 to about 5 weight% by weight of. the composition.
Cosmetically acceptable carriers will normally be part of the skin lightening cosmetic compositions. Suitable carriers include water, hydrocarbons, silicones, polyols, natural and synthetic esters, fatty alcohols, fatty acids and combinations thereof. Amounts of the carrier may range from about 10 to about 99 weight%, preferably from about 50 to about 97 weight%, optimally from about 7 0 to about 90 weight% by weight of the composition.
Emulsifiers and surfactants may also be present, especially in water and oil compositions. These emulsifiers may either be nonionic, anionic, cationic or amphoteric. Amounts of the emulsifiers may range anywhere from 0.1 to 10 weight% by weight of the composition.
In accordance with another aspect the present invention provides a method for evaluating efficacy of a cosmetic product, the method comprising: (i) applying the cosmetic product to the skin;
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(ii) placing the skin colour shade-card against the skin treated with the cosmetic product in step (i);
(iii) visually assessing a score on the skin colour shade-card with the help of the pointers; and,
(iv) repeating steps (i) and (ii) at a future time followed by comparison of scores resultant from first and second assessments of the skin.
Use of the skin colour shade-card according to the invention
To show reduction in blemish colour, £nd thus how a product provides even toning benefit, the method of use of the skin colour shade-card is as follows:
Day 1
Ascertain the shade of the worst blemish and the shade of the normal skin on the face using the skin colour shade-card. The number of colour shades that separate the two, would show how far the user is from even-tone skin.
Day 1 to Day 28
Use cosmetic product as per directions given on the product
pack.
Day 28
Repeat the exercise of Day-1. The number of colour shades that separate the two, would show the improvement as far as even-tone skin is concerned, if the product is effective.
Alternatively, the user may also ascertain subtle differences in face and body colour shades using the skin
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colour shade-card as above, along with any suitable cosmetic composition.
It will be appreciated that the illustrated examples provide a hand-held device that can give the consumer an indication of the efficacy of the skin lightening product on relatively darker areas of the body vis-a-vis a relatively lighter area such as face, on application over a period of time.
It will be appreciated that the illustrated examples provide a device which gives a relatively simple indication of evenness of skin-tone to the consumer.
All documents referred to herein, including all patents, patent applications, and printed publications, are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety in this disclosure.
It should be understood that the specific forms of the invention herein illustrated and described are intended to be representative only as certain changes may be made therein without departing from the clear teachings of the disclosure.
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Although the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention may be embodied in many other forms.