Personal care compositions with improved hyposensitivity

Abstract

The present invention provides personal care compositions comprising a carrier and a mixture of essential oil components having specific levels of eucalyptol, terpene materials and auxiliary fragrance materials. The compositions herein gentle to skin and have a fragrance and activity similar if the composition were made using the pure extracted essential oil.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to the field of personal care compositions comprising essential oils. More specifically, the present invention provides personal care compositions comprising a mixture of essential oil components having improved hyposensitivity whilst maintaining well-rounded fragrance characteristics and aromatherapeutic application. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Many personal care compositions on the market today contain essential oils as fragrances, and more recently as active ingredients useful for the treatment of a variety of ailments. Such uses have been generated out of the interest associated with aromatherapy, in which various essential oils are vaporized and inhaled by the user. This practice has led to the use of rosemary and lavender oils for relaxation, eucalyptus and citrus oils for the treatment of respiratory infections, and a variety of other novel oils used as analgesics, muscle relaxants and the like. [0003] Essenti...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The compositions herein are gentle to skin and have a fragrance and activity similar if the composition were made using the pure extracted essential oil.

Problems solved by technology

Different extraction methods can generate essential oils having differing levels and ratios of important components, and this in turn can result in essential oils having different fragrance and activity profiles, despite being isolated from the same source.

A problem associated with essential oils is the fact that they can contain auxiliary fragrance materials some of which are recognized as potential allergens and / or irritating agents.

These materials, in a proportion of the population, can cause hypersensitivity-type reactions, or skin irritation, manifested as skin redness, burning, itching, and in severe cases, edema and skin peeling.

Unfortunately, these same auxiliary fragrance materials such as limonene, linalool, benzyl alcohol and geraniol in combination with terpenes such as □- and □-pinene and □-phellandrene are typically fundamental to the fragrance of the essential oil and, in some instances, required for the purported aromatherapeutic activity of the oil in question.

By simply eliminating these auxiliary fragrance materials in the essential oil, the oil typically does not meet the user's expectation in both fragrance impact and roundness and aromatherapeutic activity.

The above compositions either do not deliver the required reduced level of auxiliary fragrance materials to avoid sensitivity reactions and therefore are not hyposensitive formulae, or do not contain enough auxiliary fragrance materials to generate a well-rounded fragrance or associated aromatherapeutic activity.

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