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Compact case with detachable leaves

This application is a continuation-in-part application of and claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 11/553,945, filed on Oct. 27, 2006.

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/901,163, filed on Feb. 13, 2007, U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/901,180, filed on Feb. 13, 2007, and U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/901,199, filed on Feb. 13, 2007, the entire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

This disclosure relates to a compact case with detachable leaves.

Makeup compacts are known in the art. Conventional makeup compacts typically comprise a top housing, a bottom housing, and one or more receptacles filled with one or more cosmetic products. Typically, each receptacle is fixedly attached to the interior of the compact. As such, once one of the receptacles is empty, the entire compact is no longer of use to the user, and is typically discarded. Alternatively, the receptacles may be cleansed and refilled with the depleted cosmetic product. But this process is difficult and highly inefficient for the user.

In addition, traditional compacts typically house only one or two types of cosmetic products. Thus, if a user wants to carry and apply more than one cosmetic product, the user has to carry more than one makeup compact. This is also inefficient, cumbersome, and inconvenient.

Compacts with removable receptacles are also known in the art. In these compacts, the receptacles themselves are removable from the inside of a compact lid. This allows the user to refill and customize the receptacles with desired products. These prior art receptacles may be removable in a variety of different ways, such as, for example through the use of magnets. However, these solutions are complicated and unsatisfactory for efficient and easy use.

One reason compacts with removable receptacles are inefficient is their large size. The size of the receptacles in a compact (and by extension, the amount of cosmetic product the receptacles are capable of housing) is directly related to the size of the compact case itself. For example, a wider or larger compact has more interior surface area for receptacles, and therefore may hold more cosmetic product. Ideally, a user would have as much surface area as possible in which to house and arrange a customized selection of cosmetics products. To enable this degree of flexibility, a compact with removable receptacles would have to be quite large. However, users typically desire cosmetic compacts to be small and conveniently carried. Compacts are typically placed and transported in purses, handbags, pockets, or other places where space is limited. They also may be used to apply makeup in places where there is little room to maneuver. Thus, large compacts may be difficult to manipulate. Therefore, despite the refillable nature of the receptacles, the usefulness of a compact with removable receptacles is severely limited by its large size.

Compacts with multiple fixed leaves are also known in the art. Typically, a portion of the faces of these leaves are recessed to form receptacles that may hold cosmetic product. Having multiple leaves provides additional surface area to hold cosmetic product. However, compacts with fixed leaves are still inconvenient due to the lack of flexibility of removing, customizing, or refilling the compact with cosmetic products that the user desires. For example, if there is more than one type of product in the compact and the user finishes one of them before the other, the user may cleanse and refill the empty receptacle, discard the compact, or carry an additional compact to replace the depleted one, all of which, as noted above, are undesirable options.

In some implementations, a makeup compact comprises one or more detachable leaves for holding cosmetic products that may be detached and replaced when the cosmetic product is depleted or as otherwise desired by the user. The leaves may also be detached from the compact and interchanged with different detachable leaves holding different cosmetic products.

The details of one or more implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages will be apparent to in view of the following description and drawings, and from the claims.

FIG. 1B depicts a top view of a single detachable leaf;

FIG. 2A depicts an illustrative view of a first leaf implementation;

FIG. 2B depicts an illustrative view of a second leaf implementation;