Irritation mitigating polymers and uses therefor

A method for mitigating ocular and/or skin irritation induced by detersive compositions containing at least one anionic surfactant said method comprising contacting the skin with a detersive composition comprising a crosslinked nonionic amphiphilic dispersion polymer prepared from a free radically polymerizable monomer mixture comprising:

• i) 60 to 90 wt. % of N-vinyl pyrrolidone (based on the total monomer wt.);
• ii) 10 to 35 wt. % of at least one vinyl ester selected from vinyl acetate, vinyl propionate, vinyl butyrate, vinyl isobutyrate, vinyl valerate, vinyl hexanoate, vinyl 2-methylhexanate, vinyl 2-ethylhexanoate, vinyl iso-octanoate, vinyl nonanoate, vinyl neodecanoate, vinyl decanoate, vinyl versatate, vinyl laurate, vinyl palmitate, and vinyl stearate;
• iii) 0 or 0.5 to 5 wt. % of an C8-C22 alkyl (meth)acrylate selected from octyl (meth)acrylate, 2-ethylhexyl (meth)acrylate, decyl (meth)acrylate, isodecyl (meth)acrylate, lauryl (meth)acrylate, tetradecyl (meth)acrylate, hexadecyl (meth)acrylate, stearyl (meth)acrylate, and behenyl (meth)acrylate;
• and
• iv) 0 or 0.5 to 4.5 wt. % of at least one associative monomer and/or semi-hydrophobic monomer (said weight percent is based on the weight of the total monomers)
• v) 0.01 to 1 wt. % in one aspect or from 0.1 to 0.3 wt. % of at least one crosslinker (based on the dry weight of the polymer), wherein said detersive composition comprises;
• a) water;
• b) 1 to 5 wt. % of said crosslinked nonionic amphiphilic dispersion polymer;
• c) 6 to 20 wt. % of a surfactant mixture containing an anionic surfactant and an amphoteric surfactant;
• subject to the proviso that at least one of monomers iii) and iv) must be present and when both monomers iii) and iv) are present in said monomer mixture, the combined weight of said monomers iii) and iv) cannot exceed 5 wt. % of the weight of the total monomer mixture;
• wherein said associative monomer is represented by formula VIIB:
• R14 is hydrogen or methyl;
• R15 is a divalent alkylene moiety independently selected from C2H4, C3H6, and C4H8, and n represents an integer ranging from about 10 to about 60, (R15—O) can be arranged in a random or a block configuration;
• R16 is a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl selected from a C8-C30 linear alkyl, a C8-C30 branched alkyl, a C8-C30 carbocyclic alkyl, a C2-C30 alkyl-substituted phenyl, an araalkyl substituted phenyl, and an aryl-substituted C2-C30 alkyl, wherein the R16 alkyl group, aryl group, phenyl group optionally comprises one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of a hydroxyl group, an alkoxyl group, benzyl group styryl group, and a halogen group;
• and
• wherein said semi-hydrophobic monomer is selected from at least one monomer represented by formulas VIIIA and VIIIB:
• CH2═C(R14)C(O)O—(C2H4O)a(C3H6O)b—H VIIIA
• CH2═C(R14)C(O)O—(C2H4O)a(C3H6O)b—CH3 VIIIB
• R14 is hydrogen or methyl, and “a” is an integer ranging from 0 or 2 to about 120 in one aspect, from about 5 to about 45 in another aspect, and from about 10 to about 0.25 in a further aspect, and “b” is an integer ranging from about 0 or 2 to about 120 in one aspect, from about 5 to about 45 in another aspect, and from about 10 to about 0.25 in a further aspect, subject to the proviso that “a” and “b” cannot be 0 at the same time.