Skin treatment product

Claim 1

A skin treatment product for absorbing axillary perspiration comprising an effective amount of 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 ##STR6## 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 - ##STR7## (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 OSO 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 ion, 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.