Skin treatment product

Claim 1

A skin treatment product for absorbing axillary perspiration comprising a particulate absorbent polymeric material in combination with a powder,liquid or gel carrier medium, characterised in that the polymeric material is a highly porous, crosslinked polymeric material comprising units of the formula - where R 1 is hydrogen or methyl Z comprises one or more of the following substituents a) -SO 3 H b) -SO 3 M c) -CH 2 N + R 2 R 3 R 4 An - d) -CH 2 N + R 2 R 3 HAn - f) -CH 2 O(CH 2 CH 2 O) q H g) -CH 2 SO 3 H h) -CH 2 SO 3 M i) -CH 2 0S0 3 M j) -COOM R 2 , R 3 and R 4 , which may be the same or different, are alkyl, hydroxyalkyl, cycloalkyl or aryl or R 2 and R 3 form part of a ring, and where for substituent (c) the total of the carbon atoms for the groups R 2 + R 3 + R 4 is less than 10 and for each of substituents (d) and (e) the total of the carbon atoms for the groups R 2 + R 3 is less than 8, M is an alkali metal, ammonium or substituted ammonium counterion, An is an anion derived from an inorganic acid or from an organic acid containing less than 8 carbon atoms, and q has a value of 2 to 50, the porous structure of the polymeric material comprising continuously interconnected cavities or chambers resulting from the polymerisation of a high internal phase emulsion in which the internal phase is constituted by water in an amount of 75-99% by weight of the emulsion and the external phase by monomer and cross-linking agent.