GB2134488A - Display packaging of cosmetic products - Google Patents

Abstract

A kohl pencil or other cosmetic product in a rigid container (1) is packaged in a form of blister pack which comprises a backing sheet (3) and a blister (4) of thermoplastic sheet material which is thermo- formed with an open-fronted recess (6) in which the rigid container (1) is a close snap-fit and is gripped by the sheet material surrounding the recess. The package has the advantage of a conventional blister pack in that it inhibits pilferage because the container (1) cannot easily be removed from the recess (6), but it has greater sales appeal than a conventional blister pack for cosmetic products because the container is directly visible and accessible through the open-front (7) of the recess (6). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in the packaging of cosmetic products A common way of packaging small articles is by means of what is known as a blister pack.

Such a pack consists of a card or other backing sheet and a blister of transparent thermoplastic sheet material which is fixed around its edge to the backing sheet. The packaged article is enclosed between the blister and the backing sheet so that it can be inspected through the blister, but cannot be removed without destroying either the blister or the backing sheet.

This form of packaging has the advantage that it enables the packaged articles to be displayed in an effective manner, and it inhibits pilferage of the articles, particularly when the articles are very small because it becomes necessary to pilfer the packaged article as a whole. Generally the backing sheets are provided with an opening near their top edges and the packages are hung from hook-like supports which pass through these openings.

The package can then only be pilfered by removing the package from the hook-like support and this is much more difficult to do, than it is merely to pick up a small article, without being noticed in a shop or store.

Because of the display advantages and the help in avoiding pilfering, blister packs are frequently demanded by supermarkets and other large stores for all small products.

Cosmetic products in rigid containers, for example lipsticks or bottles of nail polish, have been packaged in blister packs, but with these products, blister packs have the disadvantage that the material of the blister obscures the product to some extent and may prevent the colour of the product being accurately assessed. For this reason blister packs, whilst desirable for the reasons mentioned above, may lower the sales appeal of such products.

The object of the present invention is to provide a package for a cosmetic product which, whilst still giving the advantages, as regards display and the inhibition of pilfering, of a blister pack, nevertheless allows the cosmetic product in its rigid container to be directly visible and accessible.

To this end, according to this invention, a packaged cosmetic product in a rigid container comprises a card or other backing sheet and a blister of thermoplastic sheet material which is fixed to the backing sheet and is thermo-formed with a recess which is outwardly open in a direction facing away from the backing sheet, and the rigid container containing the cosmetic product is a close push-fit in the recess and is gripped by the sheet material surrounding the recess.

With this form of package, the backing sheets may be provided with holes so that a range of the packaged products may be displayed by hanging them on hook-like supports. Unlike a conventional blister pack, however, the cosmetic product in its rigid container is directly visible and accessible through the open front of the recess. The exposed part of the container can therefore be handled by a prospective purchaser, but owing to the close push-fit of the container in the recess, the product in its container cannot easily be detached from the blister and the backing sheet.

Thus, removal of the product in its container from the package cannot easily be carried out in a shop or supermarket without it at once becoming apparent to attendants that this is happening. After purchase, though, the product in its rigid container can be removed from the recess by the use of a small implement such as nail file or by tearing off the backing sheet and pressing the bottom of the recess in the blister. The package therefore also has the advantage that it is easier to remove the product from the package than it is to remove a product from a convention blister pack with which it is frequently very difficult to obtain access to the inside of the blister. A still further advantage is that because the container is gripped by the sheet material, circular containers such as those of lipsticks or kohl pencils will not turn in the package as may happen within a blister.

Therefore display matter, for example colour information, applied to the container will remain visible from the front of the package.

Preferably the blister is formed from opaque thermoplatic sheet material such as plasticised PVC and in this case the colour of the blister can be chosen so that it sets off the product with the maximum visual impact.

When the shape of the rigid container of the product permits this, for example if the container is a cylindrical lipstick holder or a circular bottle, the sides of the recess are preferably slightly undercut. That is to say the sides of the recess are preferably formed so that they closely follow the shape of the rigid container and extend slightly more than half the way round the container. In this way the rigid container can be made to be a snap-fit within the recess and this enhances the grip of the blister on the rigid container and helps to prevent illicit removal of the container.

Further, to assist in ensuring that the container is not too easily removable from the recess, the recess may be made of a depth equal to or slightly greater than the thickness of the rigid container so that the rigid container is wholly contained within the recess.

As an alternative to this, the recess may be of such a depth that a part of the rigid container projects from the open front of the recess and the open front of the recess is surrounded by a wall portion of the blister which is spaced outwards away from the edge of the open front of the recess. With this arrangement the part of the rigid container which projects from the recess can be handled or felt by prospective customers, but the rigid container is still protected by the wall portion of the blister.

In both cases, that is when the rigid container is held entirely within the recess and when a wall portion is provided around the recess, the blister preferably has a flat surface, which is parallel to the plane of the backing sheet, surrounding the recess or at the forward edge of the wall. This arrangement has the further advantage that for transport purposes a large number of the packages can be packed in a carton or packing case in contact with each other in stacks and the rigid containers, which may be glass bottles, are protected against breakage by the resilient plastics material of which the blisters are formed.

Preferably the blister is fixed to the backing sheet in the same way as with a conventional blister pack, that is by providing the blister with a flat surrounding flange which is fixed to the backing sheet by an adhesive.

Three examples of packaged cosmetic products in accordance with the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a front view of the first example; Figure 2 is a section in the direction of the arrows on the line ll-ll in Fig. 1; Figure 3 is a front view of a second example; Figure 4 is a section as seen in the direction of the arrows on the line IV-IV in Fig. 3; Figure 5 is a front view of a third example; Figure 6 is a section as seen in the direction of the arrows on the line VI-VI in Fig. 5; and Figure 7 is a section as seen in the direction of the arrows on the line VII-VII in Fig. 5.

The first example shown in Figs. 1 and 2 is a pencil in which a kohl rod, which is not itself visible in the drawings, is held in a container comprising a rigid sheath 1 with a removable cap 2 on one end. The kohl pencil in its container 1, 2, is packaged in a blister pack comprising a cardboard backing sheet 3 and a blister 4 which is vacuum-formed from plasticised PVC sheeting.

The blister 4 has a surrounding flange 5 which is fixed to the backing sheet 3 by an adhesive and it has a recess 6, the front 7 of which, that is the side remote from the backing sheet 3, is open.

As seen in the front view of Fig. 1, the recess 6 generally follows the outline of the container 1, 2 of the kohl pencil and, as shown in Fig. 2, the recess 6 is of the same depth as the container of the kohl pencil so that the kohl pencil in its container is held entirely within the recess 6.

Further, as shown in Fig. 2, the side of the recess 6 follows the circular periphery of the sheath 1 and extends more than half-way round the sheath, that is to say around an arc of more than 180 of the sheath, so that the recess 6 has undercut sides. Accordingly the container 1, 2 of the kohl pencil is a snap fit in the recess 6 and it is gripped by the part of the sheet from which the blister is formed at the two sides of the recess. Because the container 1, 2 is held entirely within the recess 6, the container 1, 2 cannot easily be removed which inhibits pilferage because it means that the whole package must be taken and not merely the much smaller kohl pencil.

When the kohl pencil is to be removed from its package, however, this can easily be done by inserting a small implement under one end of the pencil and levering it out of the recess 6. Alternatively, the blister 4 may be torn from the backing sheet 3 and by pressing the blister at the back of the recess 6, the pencil can be pushed out.

It will be seen that the blister 4 has a flat surface 8 surrounding the open front 7 of the recess and this flat surface is parallel to the backing sheet 3. This formation of the blister is helpful when packaging a large number of the products because the products can be placed in pairs with the blisters beside each other and the backing sheet of one of the two products in the pair in contact with the flat face 8 of the blister of the other product of the pair. Space is thus saved and pressure on the blisters when a large number of the pro ducts are packed in a packing case is distri buted over the area of the flat face 8 so that the blister, which is quite flexible and resili ent, is not damaged.

The second example shown in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings consists of face powder held in a rigid box 11 of transparent plastics material. The package comprises a cardboard backing sheet 1 3 and a blister 14 which is vacuum-formed by the same techniques as the blister 4 of the first example.

The blister 14 has a surrounding flange 15 which is fixed to the backing sheet 1 3 in the same way as the flange 5. The blister 14 is formed with a recess 1 6 which, as seen in Fig. 3, follows the outline shape of the box 11. That is to say the recess 1 6 is substan tially rectangular as seen from the front, but with rounded corners. The recess 16 has an open-front 1 7 and is surrounded by a flat surface 18.

Along the straight parts of its top and bottom edges, the recess 16 is formed with lips 1 9 so that the top and bottom edges of the recess are undercut and the parts of the sheet material which form the lips 1 9 of the blister engage over the adjacent edges of the box 11. Thus, as in the first example, the box 11 is a snap fit in the recess 1 6 and the sheet material in the lips 1 9 grips box 11.

In this example, as seen in Fig. 4, the recess 1 6 is of a slightly greater depth than the thickness of the box 11 so that box 11 is again held entirely within the recess 1 6 and owing to the closeness with which the walls of the recess 1 6 fit round the periphery of the box 11, the box 11 cannot easily be removed from the recess. As with the first example, removal can be effected by inserting an implement between the wall of the recess 16 and the box 11 and levering the box 11 out or by removing the blister 14 from the backing sheet 1 3 and pressing the box 11 out of the recess by exerting pressure on the back of the blister.

In the third example shown in Figs. 5 to 7 of the drawings, owing to the shape of the rigid container of the cosmetic product, which in this example is nail polish, the blister is of a slightlu more complex form.

In this example, nail polish is held in a glass bottle 21 having a body of generally cubical shape, but with rounded corners and edges. The neck of the bottle is closed by a tapering elongated tubular cap 22. In the same way as with the first two examples, the package comprises a cardboard backing sheet 23 and a blister 24. The blister 24 is fixed to the backing sheet 23 through a surrounding flange 25 which is fixed to the backing sheet 23 by an adhesive.

The blister 24 is formed with a recess 26 the outline of which, as seen from the front, follows the periphery of the bottle 21 and cap 22. In this example, however, in distinction from the first two examples, the recess 26 as such is not so deep as the thickness from back to front of the bottle 21 and the cap 22 so that, as seen most clearly in Fig. 6, a portion of the bottle 21 and of the cap 22 protrudes from the recess 26. However to prevent the bottle 21 from being easily gripped and pulled from the recess 26, the recess 26 is surrounded by a wall portion 29 of the blister and this wall portion extends closely around the projecting part of the bottle 21 so that it is impossible to insert the fingers between the wall portion 29 and the bottle to enable the bottle to be gripped.A flat surface 30, which is parallel to the backing sheet 23, extends outwards from the wall portion 29 and this assists in packing a large number of the products in a packing case in much the same way as the surface 8 in the first example.

As shown most clearly in Fig. 6, the upper part of the recess 26 fits closely around the circular cap 22 and extends more than halfway round the cap in the same way as the recess 6 extends more than half-way round the sheath 1 of the pencil. Accordingly the cap 22 is a snap-fit in the upper part of the recess 26 and, further, as shown in Fig. 7, the bottom face of the recess 26 is formed with a protruding portion 31 which fits in a dimple 32 formed in the bottom of the bottle 21. The recess is accordingly under-cut behind the protruding portion 31 and owing to the fitting of the portion 31 in the dimple 32, a bottle 21 is also a snap-fit at its bottom end in the recess 26. Owing to the snap-fitting of both the bottle and cap in the recess, the container as a whole is securely held in the recess and, with the addition of the wall 29, canot easily be removed so that, as with the first two examples, pilferage is inhibited.

In this example, the backing sheet 23 is provided with an opening 33 near its top so that a number of the packaged products can be hung from hook-like supports projecting from a sales display framework. The backing sheets of the first two examples can, of course also be provided with similar openings if its is required to store and display them in the same way.

Claims (11)

1. A packaged cosmetic product in a rigid container, the package comprising a card or other backing sheet and a blister of thermoplastic sheet material which is fixed to the backing sheet and is thermo-formed with a recess which is outwardly open in a direction facing away from the backing sheet, and the rigid container containing the cosmetic product being a close push-fit in the recess and being gripped by the sheet material surrounding the recess.

2. A product according to Claim 1, in which at least one side of the recess is undercut and part of the sheet material in this side engages over part of the rigid container, which is a snap-fit in the recess.

3. A product according to Claim 2, in which two opposite sides of the recess are undercut and parts of the sheet material in both these sides engage over parts of the rigid container.

4. A product according to Claim 3, in which a part at least of the container is of circular cross-section and two opposite sides of the recess extend more than half way round the wall of the circular part of the container.

5. A product according to any one of the preceding Claims, in which the recess is of a depth substantially equal to, or greater than, the thickness of the container in a direction perpendicular to the backing sheet.

6. A product according to any one of Claims 1 to 4, in which the recess is of a depth such that a part of the rigid container projects from the open front of the recess, which is surrounded by a wall portion of the blister spaced outwards from the edge of the open front of the recess.

7. A product according to Claim 5, in which the blister has a flat surface, which is parallel to the backing sheet, surrounding the front edge of the recess.

8. A product according to Claim 6, in which the blister has a flat surface, which is parallel to the backing sheet, extending out wards from the front edge of the wall portion.

9. A product according to any one of the preceding Claims, in which the sheet material is opaque and coloured.

10. A product according to any one of the preceding Claims, in which the blister is provided with a flat surrounding flange, which is fixed to the backing sheet by an adhesive.

11. A product according to Claim 1, substantially as described with reference to Figs.

1 and 2, or Figs. 3 and 4, or Figs. 5 to 7 of the accompanying drawings.