Conopco, Inc.

Elizabeth Arden Company, Division of Conopco, Inc.

Unilever Plc

Michael Statham

Liam Anthony Murray

An apparatus, mold assembly and related method for manufacturing a personalized lipstick is described, the apparatus including a housing or cabinet, a plurality of different color blends each held within a separate pot fitted with a dispensing system, an ultrasonic wave heating/mixing probe, a mold assembly held within the probe and a transport rail for moving the probe from one station to another within the housing. The lipstick mold assembly includes a sheath containing a solidified base wax formed with a well for receiving color pigments. The method for molding the lipstick includes use of the aforementioned apparatus, providing the mold assembly with a solidified wax, transporting the mold assembly to dosing positions for receiving programmed amounts of the color blends, applying an ultrasonic wave to heat and blend the wax/dosed color blends, transporting the mold assembly within the housing to a cooling station, returning the mold assembly to an operator for demolding and assembling into a suitable lipstick case.

Lipstick machine

An apparatus and method are described for customizing a cosmetic product at the point of sale to a customer. The apparatus includes a program for receiving external information on at least one of the customer's skin properties and converting the information to a corresponding formula. A formulation unit is provided for preparing the corresponding formula. This unit includes a mechanism for receiving the corresponding formula as a set of operating instructions, reservoirs for containing different cosmetic chemical compositions, pumps and a mechanism for activating the pumps to dose the chemical compositions into a common dosing chamber in a manner determined by the operating instructions. Importantly, the pumps must have pistons capable of reciprocating and rotating motion.

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Wootton, United Kingdom

Michael Statham