WO2016091865A1

WO2016091865A1 - Perfume tester

Info

Publication number: WO2016091865A1
Application number: PCT/EP2015/078951
Authority: WO
Inventors: Quentin HOUYOUX
Original assignee: Reload Labs
Priority date: 2014-12-10
Filing date: 2015-12-08
Publication date: 2016-06-16
Also published as: BE1021669B1

Abstract

The invention relates to a perfume tester (1), in particular for perfumery, including a main body (2), capable of being gripped by hand, which includes at least one vessel (3) and at least one solid element impregnated with a perfume inside the vessel (3), said vessel (3) including a peripheral wall comprising a plurality of openings (30) in order to allow the scent of said perfume to circulate out of said vessel (3), the tester (1) also comprising a sheath (5) suitable for receiving, in a removable manner, the vessel (3) of said main body (2) in a closed position of the tester (1) in order to prevent the scent of said perfume from circulating out of said sheath (5).

Description

PERFUME TESTER

TECHNICAL FIELD AND PRIOR ART The present invention relates to the field of perfumes and, more particularly, to a device enabling a customer to test a perfume.

A perfumery offers for sale different types of perfumes. In order to allow a customer to choose their favorite perfume, the perfumery offers its customers a bottle of perfume for each type of perfume. In a conventional manner, each flask comprises a reservoir filled with a liquid perfume and a dispensing head.

To smell a perfume, the customer actuates the dispensing head of said perfume bottle in order to wet part of the skin of his wrist. Such an implementation perfumes the skin of the customer, which has a disadvantage when the customer wants to test several types of perfumes. Indeed, the smell of previous perfumes can interfere with the smell of the new perfume to be tested.

For this purpose, a perfumery makes available to its customers strips that can be impregnated with perfume, said strips being known to those skilled in the art under the designation "keys". To test a perfume, a customer actuates the dispensing head of the perfume bottle to impregnate the band. Then, the customer wears the perfume impregnated strip to smell the nose and then throws it after use.

Such an implementation has many disadvantages. Firstly, the quality of impregnation depends on the distance to which the bottle is removed from the strip to be impregnated. If the distance is small, the perfume remains liquid, accumulates on the band and flows under the effect of gravity. This results in the deposition of perfume drops on the floor of the perfume, which presents an embarrassment as well visual as it is offensive. On the contrary, if the distance is too great, the perfume vaporizes in the atmosphere of the perfumery and causes an olfactory discomfort. The atmosphere of perfumery is charged by the multiplicity of perfumes vaporized. The atmosphere is all the more charged that it is necessary to shake the impregnated strip to remove the odor of the alcohol present in the liquid perfume before enjoying the perfume. In addition, in order to collect the impregnated strips, the perfumery must provide a bin near the perfumes for sale, which has an aesthetic disadvantage. When bins are not visible, customers are likely to put the impregnated strips near the bottle of perfume, which accentuates the aesthetic discomfort for other customers.

Finally, it is necessary for the perfume to periodically replace the perfume bottles when they are finished, which has a very significant cost and a logistical disadvantage.

The invention therefore aims to overcome these disadvantages by providing a device for testing a perfume that is simple in design, practical use and causing neither olfactory discomfort nor visual discomfort while having a controlled cost.

GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THE INVENTION

For this purpose, the invention relates to a perfume tester, in particular for perfumery, comprising a main body, capable of being grasped by hand, which comprises at least one reservoir and at least one solid element impregnated with a perfume at the same time. interior of the tank, said tank comprising a peripheral wall having a plurality of openings to allow the olfactory circulation of said perfume out of said tank, and a sleeve adapted to removably receive the tank of said main body in a closed position of tester to prohibit the olfactory circulation of said perfume out of said sheath.

Thanks to the invention, it is no longer necessary to use a liquid perfume as in the prior art which is likely to have both olfactory and aesthetic disadvantages. In addition, the life of the scented solids can be optimized since in the closed position of the tester, any olfactory circulation is prohibited. Such a tester is easy to use since it suffices for a customer to feel the scent emanating from the tank in the manner of a "key" according to the prior art, the disadvantages associated with the impregnation of the "touch" Being advantageously eliminated. In addition, such a tester allows a customer to quickly test a fragrance. Finally, thanks to the invention, the mixture of perfumes in the atmosphere of a perfumery is advantageously avoided. In addition, the very nature of the solid elements makes it possible to avoid any perfume persistence in the ambient air.

Preferably, said main body extending longitudinally along an axis extending from front to back, the reservoir is located in the front portion of said main body. Advantageously, said main body comprises a rear gripping portion. Thus, a customer can grab the back of the main body and smell the scent of the front tank like a classic "touch". Preferably, the rear gripping portion has a fingerprint to facilitate the capture of the main body. Thus, the main body can be easily removed from the sheath by a customer.

According to a preferred aspect of the invention, the rear gripping portion extends in the extension of said sleeve in the closed position of the tester. Thus, the client is not likely to put his fingers on a part of the main body not provided for gripping, which improves the hygiene of said tester.

Preferably, said sheath comprising an insertion opening, said main body comprises an intermediate guide portion adapted to cooperate in complementary form with said insertion opening. In other words, the output and the introduction of the main body into the sleeve is guided to facilitate the handling of the tester by a customer. Preferably, said sleeve comprises a fixing foot configured to maintain said sleeve in an erected position in which the axis of the sleeve is inclined by less than 25 ° with respect to the vertical axis. Thus, under the effect of gravity, the main body is stable in the closed position of the tester. Preferably, the tester comprises rotational locking means of the main body in the sleeve in the closed position of the tester to precisely define the positioning of the main body in the sleeve in the closed position of the tester to allow, in particular, to facilitate the seizure of the main body by a client. For example, the impression of the gripping portion is always located forward, that is to say, in front of the client. Preferably, the perfume tester further comprises an identifier of the perfume to be tested, which may be in the form of a self-adhesive label or any other means, which is positioned on said sleeve or on said main body.

In a preferred aspect, said at least one solid element is in the form of a dry perfume capsule. Such a capsule has optimal perfume recovery qualities while having a long life. Preferably, the tester is passive in order to reduce the cost of manufacture and maintenance.

Preferably, the reservoir is removable from said main body so as to modify the perfume to be tested. Maintenance of the tester is thus easy for the employees of the perfumery.

The tester can adapt to different media that are found at the point of sale, such as shelves of varying thicknesses, counters or any other similar support.

PRESENTATION OF FIGURES

The invention will be better understood on reading the description which will follow, given solely by way of example, and referring to the appended drawings in which:

- Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a first embodiment of a perfume tester according to the invention in the open position;

Figure 2 is a schematic sectional view of the main body of the scent tester of Figure 1;

- Figure 3 is a schematic representation of a second embodiment of a perfume tester according to the invention in the open position; and Figure 4 is a schematic representation of the perfume tester of Figure 3 in the closed position. It should be noted that the figures disclose the invention in detail to implement the invention, said figures can of course be used to better define the invention where appropriate. DESCRIPTION OF ONE OR MORE MODES OF REALIZATION AND IMPLEMENTATION

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a perfume tester 1 according to a first embodiment of the invention. In this example, the perfume tester 1 comprises a main body 2, able to be grasped by hand, which comprises at least one reservoir 3 and at least one solid element 4 impregnated with a perfume inside the reservoir 3, said reservoir 3 comprising a peripheral wall comprising a plurality of openings 30 to allow the olfactory circulation of said perfume out of said reservoir 3. The perfume tester 1 further comprises a sleeve 5 adapted to removably receive the reservoir 3 of said main body 2 in a closed position of the tester 1 to prohibit the olfactory circulation of said perfume out of said sheath 5. Thus, a customer can smell the perfume conveniently when the tester 1 is open. When the tester 1 is closed, the olfactory emanations are prohibited, which avoids the mixture of different perfumes in the atmosphere.

The main body 2 and the sheath 5 of the tester 1 will now be presented in detail. Main body 2

As illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, said main body 2 extends longitudinally along an axis X2 oriented front to back. Preferably, the length of the main body 2 is between 5 cm and 25 cm and its diameter is between 1 cm and 5 cm in order to be handled easily with the aid of 2 or 3 fingers by a customer.

In this example, the main body 2 comprises a reservoir 3 extending in the front portion of the main body 2. Said reservoir 3 comprises a peripheral wall comprising a plurality of through-openings 30 as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. Preferably , the entire peripheral wall of the tank 3 comprises through openings 30 but it is obvious that portions of the peripheral wall could be devoid of through openings 30 as will be presented later. Preferably, said reservoir 3 extends between 25% and 90% of the total length of the main body 2 in order to facilitate the perfume olfactory circulation in the manner of a conventional touch.

More preferably, the through openings 30 have a diameter of between 1 mm and 5 mm and the space between two adjacent through openings 30 is between 1 mm and 10 mm in order to ensure a good compromise between the retention of the solid elements 4 impregnated with perfume and the olfactory circulation of said perfume out of said reservoir 3. The solid elements 4 impregnated with perfume will be presented in detail later.

Referring to Figures 1 and 2, said main body 2 comprises, in addition to its reservoir 3, a rear gripping portion 21 whose cross section is greater than the cross section of the reservoir 3. Preferably, as shown in Figure 2 , the rear gripping portion 21 has a recess 23 to facilitate the seizure of said main body 2 by a customer. The rear gripping portion 21 extends in the extension of said sleeve 5 in the closed position of the tester 1 to facilitate gripping. In addition, in the closed position, the tester 1 has a continuous tubular shape, which improves its aesthetic appearance.

Preferably, with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the main body 2 further comprises an intermediate guiding portion 24 situated between the front reservoir 3 and the rear gripping portion 21, whose cross section is smaller than the cross section. transverse of the rear gripping portion 21 to cooperate by complementarity of shapes with the sleeve 5 as will be presented later.

The main body 2 is advantageously dismountable in two parts to allow the replacement of the reservoir 3 by a new reservoir 3. In this example, the reservoir 3 is screwed to the main body 2 but it goes without saying that other connection means may be suitable, for example, a mounting by means of clips or a bayonet mount. In this example, with reference to FIG. 2, the reservoir 3 of the main body 2 is filled with a plurality of solid elements 4 impregnated with perfume. Preferably, each solid element 4 is in the form of a ball, a bead or a dry perfume capsule. Such solid elements 4 are for example known to those skilled in the art by the patent application WO2013021 1 14A1. Advantageously, any type of perfume can impregnate said solid elements 4. Preferably, the solid elements 4 are made of polymer in order to allow optimal restitution of the perfume. It has been presented a reservoir with a plurality of solid elements 4 but it goes without saying that the invention applies similarly to a tank 3 having only a single solid element 4 impregnated with perfume.

Sheath 5

Referring to Figure 1 showing a first embodiment of the sleeve 5, the sleeve 5 is cylindrical and extends longitudinally along an axis Xs oriented front to back. The sheath 5 has an inlet opening 51 adapted to allow the introduction of the front end of the main body 2. In other words, the sheath 5 has a cylindrical wall for receiving the main body 2, in particular its reservoir 3, which is closed at its front end and open at its rear end.

The cylindrical wall of the sheath 5 has a shape complementary to that of the intermediate guiding portion 24 of the main body 2 to allow its guiding when entering or leaving said sheath 5. According to a particular aspect, the front end of the reservoir 3 has a trapezoidal shape facilitating its entry into the sheath 5. Preferably, as shown in Figure 1, the tester 1 comprises rotation locking means to prevent the rotation of the main body 2 in said sheath 5 in position closed tester 1. In this embodiment, the main body 2 comprises a hollow portion 71, which is here formed on the intermediate guide portion 24, while the cylindrical wall of the sleeve 5 has a projecting portion 72 inside the cavity of the sheath 5 which has a shape complementary to the hollow portion 71 to prevent any rotation around the axes X2, X5 in the closed position of the tester 1. Thus, the aesthetic appearance of the tester 1 is invariable in the closed position and the footprint 23 to facilitate gripping is always located in the same place for each tester 1, which facilitates the performance of consecutive tests by a customer.

The sheath 5 further comprises a fixing foot adapted to keep the sheath 5 substantially vertical, that is to say, so that the angle formed between the axis X5 of the sheath 5 and the vertical axis is less than 40 °, preferably less than 25 °. Thus, the main body 2 is stable in the sleeve 5 in the closed position and simple to leave said sleeve 5.

According to the first embodiment, with reference to Figure 1, the fixing foot is in the form of a horizontal base 61 from which extends the cylindrical wall of the sleeve 5 along the axis X5. Such a base 61 makes it possible to position the tester 1 on a flat surface, for example a counter or a presentation table. Preferably, the attachment foot can be ballasted, glued, magnetized or held stationary by any similar means depending on the support surface. A second embodiment of the invention is described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. The references used to describe the elements of structure or function that are identical, equivalent or similar to those of the elements of FIG. 1 are the same, for the sake of simplicity. description. Moreover, the entire description of the embodiment of Figure 1 is not repeated, this description applies to the elements of Figures 2 and 3 when there are no incompatibilities. Only notable differences, structural and functional, are described.

According to the second embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the fastening foot is in the form of an attachment groove 62 from which the sleeve 5 extends. Such a fastening groove 62 has a U-shaped shape of which the cavity of the U extends laterally so as to be able to be fixed on a lateral edge of a flat wall, for example, a shelf, a counter or a presentation table.

With reference to FIG. 3, the peripheral wall of the reservoir 3 comprises a portion 3a devoid of through openings 30 on which is disposed a label 31 for indicate, for example, the name of the perfume to be tested. Alternatively, the label 31 could also be positioned on the sleeve 5. It goes without saying that another indicator could be suitable. Implementation

An example of implementation of the invention in a perfume will now be presented. In this example, a perfumery has a shelf with several presentation areas staggered vertically. Each display zone comprises a plurality of perfume bottles of the same type packaged in cardboard packaging. Each display zone further comprises a perfume tester 1 according to the invention attached to each shelf and whose solid beads are impregnated with the perfume that is offered for sale in said display area.

In the closed position, the tester 1 has a tubular shape and extends inclined with respect to the vertical direction. Its design is advantageously refined in order to follow the codes of luxury.

The main body 2 is housed in the sleeve 5 so that only the gripping portion 21 is visible. The reservoir 3 is enclosed in the sheath 5 whose inlet opening 51 is closed by the gripping portion 2. Thus, in the closed position, no fragrance emanates from the tester 1, which does not modify the atmosphere of the perfume shop.

If a perfumery customer wishes to test a perfume, it is sufficient for said customer to grasp with a few fingers the gripping portion 21 to remove the main body 2 of the sleeve 5 which remains attached to the shelf. The output of the main body 2 is easy because of the footprint 23 formed on the gripping portion 21.

The customer can then approach the front part of the main body 2, that is to say the tank 3, near his nose to capture the perfume emanations of the solid elements 4 which circulate through the through openings 30 of the reservoir 3. Advantageously, no smell of alcohol emanates from said solid elements 4, which does not affect the perception of the perfume by the customer. Advantageously, the † † † a perfume is fast compared to the prior art, which improves the likelihood of purchase of a perfume bottle by the customer.

After feeling the perfume, the customer can close the tester 1 by introducing the main body 2 in the sleeve 5 and thus prohibit any emanation of perfume. For this purpose, the intermediate guide portion 24 of the main body 2 cooperates, in complementarity of shapes, with the inlet opening 51 of the sheath 5 in order to orient the main body 2 relative to the sheath 5 and to guide its movement. to the bottom of the sheath 5, the axes X2, X5 being coaxial.

Advantageously, it is no longer necessary for the customer to impregnate a strip and dispose of it as in the prior art. In addition, the tester 1 is passive, that is to say devoid of energy source, and has a limited cost and is easy maintenance. Thanks to the invention, the aesthetic appearance of perfumery is greatly improved. In addition, the atmosphere of perfumery can be better managed to avoid mixing different flavors.

In addition, the consumption of perfume for the customer's test is significantly limited since only the solid elements 4 must be renewed. As the diffusion of perfume is stopped when the tester 1 is closed, the solid elements 4 are consumed only during the tests, which avoids wastage. In practice, for a conventional use, the renewal frequency of the solid elements 4 is much lower than in the prior art, of the order of 2 to 6 months.

The renewal is also simple to implement since it is sufficient for an employee to replace the tank 3 with a new tank 3, the employee advantageously not in contact with the solid elements 4, which limits the risk of alteration.

Thanks to the invention, a customer can test different flavors in a convenient and pleasant way, the disadvantages associated with impregnated strips being eliminated.

Claims

1. Perfume tester (1), in particular for perfumery, comprising:

a main body (2), capable of being grasped by hand, which comprises at least one reservoir (3) and at least one solid element (4) impregnated with a perfume inside the reservoir (3), said reservoir (3) comprising a peripheral wall having a plurality of openings (30) to allow the olfactory circulation of said perfume out of said reservoir (3), and

a sheath (5) adapted to removably receive the reservoir (3) of said main body (2) in a closed position of the tester (1) in order to prevent the olfactory circulation of said perfume from said sheath (5).

2. Tester according to claim 1, wherein, said main body (2) extending longitudinally along an axis (X2) extending from front to rear, the reservoir (3) is located in the front part of said main body. (2).

3. Tester according to claim 2, wherein said main body (2) comprises a rear gripping portion (21).

4. Tester according to claim 3, wherein, the rear gripping portion (21) has an indentation (23) to facilitate the capture of the main body (2).

5. Tester according to one of claims 2 to 4, wherein, the rear gripping portion (21) extends in the extension of said sleeve (5) in the closed position of the tester (1).

6. Tester according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein, said sleeve (5) comprising an insertion opening (51), said main body (2) comprises an intermediate guide portion (24) adapted to cooperate by complementarity of shapes with said insertion opening (51).

7. Tester according to one of claims 1 to 6, wherein said sleeve (5) comprises a fixing foot (61, 62) configured to maintain said sleeve (5) in an erected position in which the axis of the sleeve (X5) is inclined less than 25 ° with respect to the vertical axis.

8. Tester according to one of claims 1 to 7, comprising rotation locking means (71, 72) of the main body (2) in the sleeve (5) in the closed position of the tester (1).

9. Tester according to one of claims 1 to 8, wherein said at least one solid element (4) is in the form of a dry perfume capsule.

10. Tester according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the tester (1) is passive.