Surfactant amides and cosmetic or cleaning compositions comprising the same.

摘要

The invention relates to the preparation of amides, particularly alkanolamides an gluconamides and to cosmetic or cleaning compositions containing said amides. These are known as lather boosters but contains 1-10% of the corresponding amine. This unwanted component gives a characteristically 'fishy' amine smell to products, can lead to yellowing and can lead to undesirable bi-product formation on storage. It is desirable that these disadvantages are avoided. Our solution involves a selective reaction for amine which does not substantially effect the hydroxyl function. In one aspect of the present invention the amine is reacted with ethylene oxide in the absence of a basic catalyst to form the tertiary amine. Consequently, the present invention provides cosmetic or cleaning compositions comprising amide surfactants where the ratio of the amide to the corresponding amine is greater than 800:1 and the ratio of unethoxylated amide to the corresponding ethoxylated amide is greater than 1:1.