Oh, patents! Blue Lizard® sunscreen Z-cote®

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

 

The US manufactured, Australian Blue Lizard® sunscreen with a patented Smart Bottle™

  that turns blue in the presence of UV radiation, also uses a patented zinc oxide Z-cote® formula. According to the inventors, Zinc oxide is the most effective, stable and safe, broad spectrum UVA and UVB protection agent. The Z-cote® formulation of zinc oxide, disclosed in the WIPO patent application WO2013173336, titled Easily formulated Zinc oxide, is a patented process that micronizes zinc oxide into nanoparticles with a mean particle distribution (D₅₀) ranging between 300 nm to 600 nm (with no particles smaller <100 nm), and further coats the particles to make them hydrophobic (resistant to water). This coated nanoparticle zinc oxide powder has the advantage of dispersing evenly (without clustering) in the rest of the formula, and on the skin, thus providing users with an even zinc oxide application, which both protects from harmful UVA and UVB radiation, and remains resistant to water. 

 

Thus the patented  Z-cote® process means that you can retain sun protection in the water, and use the sunscreen for sports activity, where sweating will not make the formula run into your eyes or off your skin. Indeed, Blue Lizard® claims that their Sports formula and Very water resistant Regular formula afford 240 minutes of protection is whirlpool water, which amounts to three times more than the US standards for water resistant sunscreen (set to 80 minutes).

 

Cool sunscreen… for runners, triathletes, bikers, tennis players… plus more… outdoor folks,  now that summer is around the corner!

 

 The abstract of patent application WO2013173336, titled Easily formulated Zinc oxide, appears below with an image above of the marketed Sports and Very water resistant Regular formulas for Blue Lizard® Sunscreen.

The present disclosure relates to polymeric siloxane coated zinc oxide powders having a mean particle size number distribution (D50) ranging from about 300 nm to about 600 nm and their use in sunscreen compositions. The relatively high surface area (in relation to particles of <100 nm) avoids agglomeration resulting in ease of formulation and high dispersal of the particles which tends toward less light scatter and hence better transparency in formulations. Furthemore, the combination of the particular particle size number distribution (D50) of zinc oxide ranging as above with bis(resorcinyl)triazine UV absorbers shows unexpected increased UV-A absorbance (320 to 400 nm) in comparison to the zinc oxide and bis resorcinyl triazine UV absorbers on their own at the same concentration.

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For your tiny and bigger tots, Blue Lizard® also has a special Baby formula! So you and your family can all stay protected with a sunscreen that is choc-full of patents.

Oh, patents! Blue Lizard® Smart Bottle™

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Yeah, yeah yeah, sunscreen, schmuncream…

 Ok… how about if you had a way of seeing how much UV radiation there is around you, both indoors and outdoors? Would that convince you to apply sunscreen for protection against this damaging radiation?

 

This is exactly what you will see and find out when you use the USA manufactured, Australian Blue Lizard® sunscreen which comes packaged in a patented Smart Bottle® that turns bright blue in the presence of UV radiation!

 

And to top this really cool bottle technology, the sunscreen contents comply with Australia’s sun protection standards which are the highest and most stringent in the world.

 

The patent US6405867, titled Package for suncream, assigned to Crown Laboratories Inc., discloses the Blue Lizard® Smart Bottle™ technology, consisting of photochromic material means to display the presence of UV radiation. The photochromic material means react to the presence of UV radiation by changing color according to the intensity of the UV radiation. In one embodiment of the invention, these photochromic means are specifically located on the bottle to combine with a label that indicates, according to the color of the photochromic material, when it is recommended to apply sunscreen. In another embodiment of the invention, the photochromic means are blended in with the HDPE (high density polyethylene) material of the bottle, and the whole bottle changes color to various shades of blue depending on the amount of UV radiation that is present. Thus, the invention of this bottle with special patented photochromic material is designed to alert users when they are in the presence of UV radiation, so that they will know when to apply sunscreen.

 

Below you will find the patent abstract of this invention, and one of the patent figure drawings and above an image of one of the marketed products. 

Abstract US6405867:  A bottle includes a base and a continuous sidewall extending upwardly from the periphery of the base to a neck. The neck defines an opening which is selectively blocked by a lid. Base and sidewall define a cavity for containing a suncream or the like which a person selectively applies to their skin to reduce the harmful effects of the sun's rays. The package also contains display means for providing a person with the indication of the intensity of UV radiation, or another ambient condition, incident upon the package.

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This product intends to make sun safety easy and a lot of fun with a cool UV sensing bottle that turns blue!

And Crown Labs are really very serious about sun safety. They even teach it in kindergarten at elementary schools in Hawaii!

 

Oh, patents! Sunscreen

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Sunny days ahead…. sunscreen a must!

A search for patents using the single search word “sunscreen” returned a whopping 4922 patents, a number commensurate with all the warnings about the damaging effects of UV rays on skin and hair.

 US8652449 titled Sunscreen compositions having synergistic combination of UV filters is a l’Oréal patented sunscreen. The invention consists in reducing the overall amount of UV filters while retaining high UV filtering capacity. This is achieved in the discovery of a combination of UV filters that function synergistically to filter UV rays.  And, the main advantages of having several different UV filtering agents that work synergistically is that it enables to reduce the overall amount of UV filtering agents, which are usually sticky and thick, while still maintaining a high Sun Protection Factor (SPF). So L’Oréal’s new and advanced sunscreens are both lighter and more effective (with a higher SFP).  

Below you will find the abstract for US8652449 titled Sunscreen compositions having synergistic combination of UV filters  and an image of L’OREAL’s advanced sunscreen.

Abstract US8652449: The disclosure relates to sunscreen compositions having a synergistic combination of ultraviolet light (UV) filtering agents that provide a high sun protection factor (SPF). Compositions according to the disclosure have high SPF values without requiring high overall amounts of UV filtering agents. Furthermore, the disclosure relates to methods of using the described compositions for protecting keratinous substances such as skin and hair from UV radiation.

Now, enjoy the warmth of the sun and stay protected!