Abstract:
Artificial eyelashes having improved adhesive for easy application, comfortable use, and repeated wear. The eyelashes include a rolled projecting part that provides adjustability in angle and a suitable contour for the eyelid. The lashes may be reused, including refill tapes for protection of the adhesive portion of the eyelashes when such lashes are not in use.

Description:
[0001]    This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 09/582,213, filed Jul. 19, 2000. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates to artificial eyelashes, which have the advantage of being easy to use and comfortable to wear.  
           [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0005]    According to the prior art, artificial eyelashes are attached to the human skin with liquid adhesive. In general, products on the market offer a kit having several artificial eyelashes and one adhesive. A user, often a woman, applies the adhesive to a backing whenever she wants to wear the artificial eyelashes. After applying the adhesive, the user has to wait until it becomes tacky to stick. This is not only time consuming, but if too much adhesive is used, it sometimes causes irritation of the eyes. Furthermore, once opened, it is difficult to prevent the adhesive from drying out.  
           [0006]    To solve these problems, U.S. Pat. No. 3,880,175 to Hosokawa and Japanese Utility Model No. Sho. 48-103288 attach the same side of film to the eyelid after the artificial hair is adhered to one adhesive side of the film. As shown in FIG. 1, a mounting part  101  receives individual hairs  102  which are connected with a supporting yarn  103 . While such a prior art approach solves the liquid adhesive problem, additional problems associated with such approaches have resulted in commercial failure.  
           [0007]    Firstly, since the artificial hair and the backing are on the same side, there needs to be a thick adhesive film ranging from 3 to 7 mm. When applied to human skin, this thick film protrudes out beyond the eyelids, and the eyes of sensitive users can be harmed. Some users will also feel some discomfort due to the air-tight seal that results and will further be unable to apply eye makeup. Other users, sensitive to the adhesive, may experience reddening of the eyelid. Users having relatively large double eyelids will also find the prior art lashes uncomfortable as the adhesive film is located on the wrinkled part of the lid.  
           [0008]    As a further drawback, while artificial eyelash wearers generally prefer their lashes to sweep upward, the artificial eyelashes according to the prior art are susceptible to drooping downward due to the placement of the hairs between the backing and the eyelid pushing the hairs downward. As a result, wearers have to frequently readjust their artificial eyelashes with their hands or with an eyelash tool.  
           [0009]    In addition, the prior art artificial eyelashes are not only expensive but cannot be reused due to the decreased adhesive strength following use.  
           [0010]    Lastly, it is desirable for artificial eyelashes to contour to the shape of the eyelid. However, due to the thickness of the backing of the prior art eyelashes, such contouring proves to be very difficult and therefore makes wearing these artificial eyelashes very inconvenient.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    The purpose of this present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art artificial eyelashes and to provide artificial eyelashes which have the advantage of being easy to use and comfortable to wear.  
           [0012]    Another purpose of this invention is to provide artificial eyelashes which have greatly reduced side effects, such as skin irritation, and which do not interfere with the application of eye makeup.  
           [0013]    An additional purpose of this invention is to provide users who have large double eyelids with comfortable artificial eyelashes.  
           [0014]    A still further purpose of this invention is to provide artificial eyelashes which do not droop.  
           [0015]    Yet another purpose of this invention is to provide artificial eyelashes which can easily contour to the shape of the wearer&#39;s eye.  
           [0016]    Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0017]    [0017]FIG. 1 is a side view of conventional artificial eyelashes;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 2 is a front view of the artificial eyelashes of the present invention;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 3 is a side view of the artificial eyelashes of the present invention;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the artificial eyelashes according to the present invention;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 5 is a side view of the artificial eyelashes of FIG. 4;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 6 is a side view of the artificial eyelashes of FIG. 4 with adhesive elements;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 7 illustrates application of the adhesive elements of FIG. 6 to create a projecting part;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 8 is a side view of the lashes of FIG. 4 as worn by a user;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 9 is a side view of the lashes of FIG. 7 as worn by a user and showing the projecting part;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 10 depicts a further embodiment of the artificial eyelashes according to the present invention;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 11 is a side view of the lashes of FIG. 10;  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 12 is a side view of the lashes of FIG. 10 as worn by a user;  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 13 is a front view of the eyelashes of FIG. 10 with refill tapes according to the present invention;  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 14 is a perspective view of transfer adhesive for use with the present invention; and  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 15 is a perspective view of double-sided tape for use with the present invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0032]    The invention will be evident from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate the invention.  
         [0033]    The present invention is directed to artificial eyelashes having artificial hairs attached to an adhesive part for the hairs. There is an adhesive sheet that is 0.5 mm to 2 mm in width for attaching to the human skin.  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 2 is a top view of a first embodiment of the artificial eyelashes and depicts an adhesive sheet  3  attached to an adhesive part  2  of the artificial hairs  1 .  
         [0035]    [0035]FIG. 3 is a side view of the artificial eyelashes of FIG. 2, in which the adhesive part  2  of the artificial hairs  1  is affixed to an upper layer a of the adhesive sheet  3  and a lower layer b is the layer which is adhered to the eyelid. The lower layer b is affixed to the product container or affixed to a back paper for delivery to the users.  
         [0036]    The proper width of the adhesive sheet  3  ranges from 0.5 mm to 2 mm and, more preferably, from 1.0 mm to 1.5 mm. If smaller widths are used, the adhesive strength decreases, while larger widths reduce wearing comfort.  
         [0037]    The adhesive sheet  3  is made of synthetic resins with an adhesive layer such as polyester film and, more preferably, a freely changeable nonwoven fabric or similar materials with an adhesive layer for better wearing comfort. Since the adhesive sheet is shaped in a half-arc like that of a natural eyelash, wearing comfort is improved.  
         [0038]    The thickness of the adhesive sheet must be at least 0.1 mm and, more preferably, is less than 0.05 mm. The projecting length of the adhesive sheet affixed to the adhesive part  2  of the artificial hair should be 1.0 mm or less and, most preferably, there is no projecting length. When projecting length is eliminated, the end of the adhesive part  2  of the artificial hair can be abutted well with the end of the adhesive sheet and there is no interference to the application of eye makeup.  
         [0039]    To improve the cosmetic effect, reflective materials or coloring can be applied to the artificial hair  1 , the extra part c of adhesive sheet  3  or the lower part d of the adhesive sheet.  
         [0040]    In general, users prefer colored eyelashes or eyelashes made with reflective materials. In this present invention, reflective materials and coloring may be applied easily. In the prior art, such application is impossible without the use of extra supporting materials.  
         [0041]    A further embodiment of the present invention is depicted in FIGS.  4 - 9 . As shown in FIG. 4, the artificial hair  10  is wrapped around a main yarn  12 . Numerous hairs are wrapped side by side to create a full artificial eyelash.  
         [0042]    A side view of a single hair according to the embodiment of FIG. 4 is depicted in FIG. 5. In this embodiment, the back surface of the yarn  12  with overwrapping hairs  10  includes an adhesive  14  having a liner  16 . The liner  16  is removed prior to application of the eyelash to the eyelid. According to a preferred embodiment, the adhesive  14  is curved around the yarn  12  as shown in FIG. 7. The resulting curved adhesive forms a rolled projecting part  18  which is applied to the eyelid. The curvature of the rolled projecting part  18  fits the eyelid naturally and allows adjustment in the degree of upward slope of the eyelashes as the rolled projecting part may be “rolled” to result in a greater upward lift. FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate the eyelashes as worn.  
         [0043]    A further embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS.  10 - 13 . In this embodiment, the eyelashes, generally designated by the reference numeral  30 , include artificial hairs  20  connected to one another by a strip  22  running substantially perpendicular to the length of the hairs  20 . The hairs  20  may be fastened to the strip  22  or integral therewith. The back surface  22   a  of the strip  22 , shown in the side view of FIG. 11, is treated with an adhesive for application of the strip to the eyelid. As shown in FIG. 12, the back surface  22   a  of the strip may include curved adhesive forming a rolled projecting part  18 .  
         [0044]    The artificial eyelashes of the present invention are designed to be reuseable through application of refill tapes  24  to the exposed adhesive when the lashes  30  are not in use. The adhesive portion of the lashes is initially covered with a tape  24  for storage and distribution to users. Prior to use, the user peels off the tape  24  to expose the adhesive portion and then applies the eyelash to the eyelid. When the wearer removes the lashes, a refill tape  24  is aligned with and placed over the adhesive along the strip. The tape protects the lashes from inadvertent adhesion to inappropriate surfaces and preserves adhesive integrity for repeated use.  
         [0045]    As shown in FIGS. 14 and 15, the adhesive  14  may be embodied, respectively, as transfer adhesive or as double-sided tape such as that available through 3M®. As known in the art, the double-sided tape may include two adhesive layers  14 , a liner  16  and a separating film  26  such as polyester. Both transfer adhesive and double-sided tape allow the mounting portion of the eyelashes to remain thin and therefore afford improved wearing comfort. The adhesive may also be embodied as a glue formulated for use on human skin and allowing for both secure adhesion and easy removal.  
         [0046]    Because the adhesive portion of the artificial eyelashes according to the present invention is very narrow, the lashes can be easily attached between the lower part of a double eyelid and the upper part of the natural eyelash and will smoothly contour to the shape of the natural eyelash. Therefore, inconvenience and side effects in wearing them can be minimized.  
         [0047]    The artificial eyelashes of the present invention are reusable by simply replacing the adhesive sheet after use. In addition, the well-aligned adhesive tape does not project out which can solve the disadvantage of conventional artificial eyelashes in which the projecting film of synthetic resin has induced a twinkling phenomenon and resulted in interference with the application of eye makeup.  
         [0048]    The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be recognized by one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.