US20110309083A1

US20110309083A1 - Container for enabling consumers to obtain all skin care products therein

Info

Publication number: US20110309083A1
Application number: US12/819,177
Authority: US
Inventors: Shen Hsiu-Tzu Charlene
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2010-06-18
Filing date: 2010-06-18
Publication date: 2011-12-22

Abstract

A container for enabling consumers to obtain of all skin care products and minimize residual skin care products is provided. The container includes an elongated upper body portion and an elongated lower body portion. The elongated upper body portion is connected to the elongated lower body portion to form a container body to be adapted for containing the substance therein for use from the dispensing head. Moreover, the elongated upper body portion is further adapted to disconnect from the elongated lower body portion to facilitate getting the remaining substance from the container body to obtain of all skin care products.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container, and more particularly but not by any way of limitation, to a container having an elongated upper body portion being further adapted to disconnect from an elongated lower body portion to facilitate obtaining of all skin care products therein and minimizing residual skin care products.
2. Related Art
Human beings have been conscious of and concerned about the condition and appearance of their skin since the beginnings of recorded history. Skin which appears wrinkled, discolored, rough, flabby, or malformed gives an unhealthy or unattractive impression to others. Consequently, from the earliest times, various treatments and adornments have been employed to enhance the complexion one presents to the world.
A prime cause of skin wrinkling and roughness is dehydration of the scarf skin, especially the stratum corneum. Studies have shown that dryness and reduced flexibility of the stratum corneum can be corrected by rehydrating the skin, water being the only substance that will plasticize the stratum corneum effectively. Consequently, a number of skin care creams and lotions have appeared which contain agents to moisturize the skin.
Make-up cosmetics include various base materials for coating the skin with moderate gloss and a feeling of transparency, improving spreadability (slip for face powder) and adherence, preventing make-up disorders due to secretions such as sweat, sebum and the like and further improving the touch in use and enhancing the moldability of products and colorants for coloring the skin.
However, most of those products are viscous liquids, such as conditioners, body lotions, sun screens, moisturizers, makeup remover, facial treatments, makeup foundations, etc., which pose particular difficulties in dispensing. The viscosity of these liquids makes it difficult to dispense them from standard, top-opening containers because the liquids tend to stay at the bottom of the container even when the container is inverted. It often takes considerable patience on the part of the consumer to wait until the viscous liquid reaches the opening or the dispensing spout on the top of the container after the container is inverted. If the container is only partially full, nearly empty or if the liquid is particularly viscous, the weight of the liquid by itself is sometimes unable to create sufficient force to overcome the viscosity and to initiate flow. The consumers must frequently resort to shaking or banging the container to coax the liquid out.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,051,907 demonstrates a refillable container adapted to facilitate the purchase and use of larger volumes of consumer products and the selective discharge thereof. However, most of the skin care products or cosmetics do not have larger volumes products. Such a refillable container is difficult to be adapted for those products. Moreover, those cosmetics or skin care products have expiration dates, and most of those products are viscous liquids. If the consumers just refill the products when almost empty, the rest of the products may remain permanently in the bottle, especially at the bottom or sidewall due to the viscosity. After refilling a couple of times, the remaining products may have expired, which may breed bacteria or deteriorate. If the consumers continue to use, skin injury could occur.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To solve the aforementioned problems of the prior art, the present invention provides a container which enables consumers to use all skin care products in the bottle and minimize residual skin care products, especially remaining products/substances at the bottom.
Accordingly, the present invention discloses a container having an elongated lower body portion and an elongated upper body portion. The elongated lower body portion includes a solid bottom portion, an open top, and a generally geometrical sidewall to define a bowl-like space. The elongated upper body portion has a dispensing head and a generally geometrical sidewall to define a hollow space with a longitudinal distance greater than a depth of the bowl-like space. Normally, the elongated upper body portion is connected to the elongated lower body portion to form a container body to be adapted for containing the substance, such as cosmetics or skin care products. consumers may use them from the dispensing head. On the other hand, the elongated upper body portion is further adapted to disconnect from the elongated lower body portion to facilitate obtaining the remaining substance for consumers from the bowl-like space of the elongated lower body portion.
Moreover, the elongated lower body portion includes a lower connecting portion on the top and the elongated upper body portion includes an upper connecting portion extending from an end of the sidewall. When the elongated upper body portion is connected to the elongated lower body portion by the upper connecting portion and the lower connecting portion, thereby defining there between a substantially uniform outer surface to facilitate handling thereof.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are examples, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein for illustration only, and thus is not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a respective view of a first embodiment of a container in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2A is an explosive view of the first embodiment of the container in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2B is a sectional view of the first embodiment of the container in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3A is an explosive view of a second embodiment of the container in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3B is a sectional view of the second embodiment of the container in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4A is an explosive view of a third embodiment of the container in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4B is a sectional view of the third embodiment in accordance with the present invention FIG. 4A illustrating an adhesive for connecting;

FIG. 5 is a respective view of the fourth embodiment of the container in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6A is a perspective view of a fifth embodiment of the container in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 6B is an explosive view of the fifth embodiment of the container in accordance with the present invention FIG. 6B.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description refers to the same or the like parts.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a respective view of a first embodiment of a container in accordance with the present invention.
The container includes an elongated lower body portion 20 and an elongated upper body portion 10. The elongated upper body portion 10 is connected to the elongated lower body portion 20 to form a container body 100 to be adapted for containing a substance therein for use from a dispensing head 11. The substance may be, but not limited to, hair care products (shampoos, conditioners, hair sprays, hair gels, hair lotions, etc.), body care products (body oils, body lotions, liquid body soap), skin care products (moisturizers, makeup remover, facial treatments, toners), sun care products (sun screens, self tanning lotions), beauty products (nail polish remover, bubble baths, liquid makeup, after shave lotions, perfumes), and other cosmetics, such as mascaras, make-up foundations, etc., in particular viscous liquids.
As shown in FIG. 1, the dispensing head 11 is a dispensing nozzle. However, the dispensing head 11 may be a pump, a valve or any other type of dispenser. Consumers can use the substances therein through the dispensing head 11. A cap 30 is attached to the top of the elongated upper body portion 10 to cover the dispensing head 11 when unused to avoid the dispensing head 11 being damage or dirty. Also, when the substances are almost out, the elongated upper body 10 portion is further adapted to disconnect from the elongated lower body portion 20 to facilitate obtaining the remaining substance, especially at the bottom of the elongated lower body portion 20.
Please see FIGS. 2A and 2B, which are explosive and sectional views respectively of the first embodiment in accordance with FIG. 1 of the present invention.
The elongated lower body portion 20 has a solid bottom portion 21, an open top 23, and a generally geometrical sidewall 24 to define a bowl-like space 25 therein. The elongated upper body portion 10 has the dispensing head 11 and a generally geometrical sidewall 13 to define a hollow space 14 with a longitudinal distance L1 greater than a depth D1 of the bowl-like space 25. Therefore, when the elongated upper body portion 10 is adapted to disconnect from the elongated lower body portion 20, the shorter depth D1 make it easy to obtain the remaining substance from the bottom or the sidewall of the bowl-like space 25 by consumer's finger or small tool, such as a scraper.
The elongated lower body portion 20 includes a lower connecting portion 22 on the top 23 and the elongated upper body portion 10 includes a upper connecting portion 12 extending from an end of the sidewall 13. When the elongated upper body portion 10 is connected to the elongated lower body portion 20 by the upper connecting portion 12 and the lower connecting portion 22, thereby a substantially uniform outer surface 101 is defined therebetween to facilitate handling thereof and with better appearance. The generally geometrical sidewall 13 of the elongated upper body portion 10 is equivalent to the generally geometrical sidewall 24 of the elongated lower body portion 20. As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, both the geometrical sidewall 24 of the elongated lower body portion 20 and the geometrical sidewall 13 of the elongated upper body portion 10 are cylindrical shape. The cylindrical shape is most frequently used shape for containers, but is not limited to only this shape. Please refer to FIGS. 6A and 6B, the geometrical sidewall 24 of the elongated lower body portion 20 and the geometrical sidewall 13 of the elongated upper body portion 10 are triangular column. Any other geometrical shape could be used.
In this first embodiment, refer to FIGS. 2A and 2B, the lower connecting portion 22 has an externally threaded surface and the upper connecting portion 12 has an internally threaded surface. The externally threaded surface is complementary to the internally threaded surface. The elongated lower body portion 20 is in threaded engagement with the elongated upper body portion 10 by the externally threaded surface and the internally threaded surface. Meanwhile, the consumer could disconnect the elongated upper body portion 10 and the elongated lower body portion 20 by reverse rotation. Due to most of the containers are made of glass, the threaded engagement is a better way to detachable engage the elongated upper body portion 10 and the elongated lower body portion 20.
Please see FIGS. 3A and 3B, which are explosive and sectional views respectively of the second embodiment in accordance with the present invention. A waterproof gasket 40 is placed between the lower connecting portion 22 and the upper connecting portion 12 to prevent the substance to leak from the container body 100 when the elongated upper body portion 10 is connected to the elongated lower body portion 20. The waterproof gasket 40 may be an O-ring, which commonly made of rubber.
As shown in FIG. 4A, which is an explosive view of a third embodiment of the container in accordance with the present invention. The lower connecting portion 22 is fit tightly to the upper connecting portion 12. However, the tight fit will cause the elongated upper body portion 10 and the elongated lower body portion 20 to be difficult to detach. And the substance may leak from the container body 100. Therefore, pleases see FIG. 4B, the elongated upper body portion 10 is connected to the elongated lower body portion 20 by a adhesive 41.
The adhesive 41 may be a hot-melt adhesive. The consumer could disconnect the elongated upper body portion 10 and the elongated lower body portion 20 by a little heating. The heating time or temperature depends on the property of the adhesive 41. On the other hand, the adhesive 41 may be a water-proof adhesive to prevent the substance to leak from the container body 100. Moreover, the adhesive 41 may be a combination of the hot-melt adhesive and the water-proof adhesive, or any other adhesive.
Please see FIG. 5, which is a respective view of the fourth embodiment of the container in accordance with the present invention. A label 50 is attached to the substantially uniform outer surface 101 to cover a seam 51 between the lower connecting portion 20 and the upper connecting portion 10.
While an illustrative and presently preferred embodiment of the invention has been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may be otherwise variously embodied and employed and that the appended claims are intended to be construed to include such variations except insofar as limited by the prior art.

Claims

1. A container adapted to contain a substance, the container comprising:

an elongated lower body portion, having a solid bottom portion, an open top, and a generally geometrical sidewall to define a bowl-like space; and

an elongated upper body portion, having a dispensing head and a generally geometrical sidewall to define a hollow space with a longitudinal distance greater than a depth of the bowl-like space, and being connected to the elongated lower body portion to form a container body to be adapted for containing the substance therein for use from the dispensing head, the elongated upper body portion being further adapted to disconnect from the elongated lower body portion to facilitate obtaining the remaining substance from the bowl-like space of the elongated lower body portion.

2. The container of claim 1, wherein the elongated lower body portion includes a lower connecting portion on the top and the elongated upper body portion includes a upper connecting portion extending from an end of the sidewall, when the elongated upper body portion is connected to the elongated lower body portion by the upper connecting portion and the lower connecting portion, thereby defining therebetween a substantially uniform outer surface to facilitate handling thereof.

3. The container of claim 2, wherein the lower connecting portion has an externally threaded surface and the upper connecting portion has an internally threaded surface, the externally threaded surface is complementary to the internally threaded surface.

4. The container of claim 3, wherein the elongated lower body portion is in threaded engagement with the elongated upper body portion by the externally threaded surface and the internally threaded surface.

5. The container of claim 2, further comprises a waterproof gasket placed between the lower connecting portion and the upper connecting portion to prevent the substance to leak from the container body when the elongated upper body portion is connected to the elongated lower body portion.

6. The container of claim 2, further comprises a label attached to the substantially uniform outer surface to cover a seam between the lower connecting portion and the upper connecting portion.

7. The container of claim 1, wherein the elongated upper body portion is connected to the elongated lower body portion by a adhesive.

8. The container of claim 7, wherein the adhesive is a hot-melt adhesive.

9. The container of claim 7, wherein the adhesive is a water-proof adhesive.

10. The container of claim 1, wherein further comprises a cap attached to the elongated upper body portion to cover the dispensing head.

11. The container of claim 1, wherein the generally geometrical sidewall of the elongated upper body portion is equivalent to the generally geometrical sidewall of the elongated lower body portion.