Ernesto Gabriel Bianchi, Hessen, Germany; Matthias Konrad Hippe, Sulzbach, Germany; Aniruddha Chatterjee, Kelkheim, Germany; Adrien Grenier, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Andrea Peri, Kronberg, Germany; Udo Friedel Schoenborn, Bad Soden, Germany; and Abhishek Prakash Surushe, Kelkheim, Germany.
Assigned to The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH.

Filed: 7/27/21
Issued: 6/11/24

An absorbent article comprising: a liquid permeable topsheet; a liquid impermeable backsheet; an absorbent core comprising an absorbent material and a core wrap, wherein the absorbent material is sandwiched between a top side and a bottom side of the core wrap, wherein the absorbent core comprises at least one channel-forming area that is substantially free of absorbent material, and wherein the channel-forming area forms a three-dimensional channel when the absorbent material swells; a masking layer between the absorbent core and the backsheet; wherein a wearer-facing side of the masking layer and the bottom side of the core wrap are only partially bonded to each other, their interface thus comprising a bonded portion and an unbonded portion, wherein the channel-forming area at least partially corresponds to the unbonded portion, so that the masking layer can at least partially decouple from the three-dimensional channel when the absorbent material swells so as to at least partially conceal the three-dimensional channel when the absorbent material swells.