Textile finishing

1. A process for finishing textiles with oil components, comprising:

preparing an oil-in-water emulsion of one or more oil components using one or more alkali metal and/or alkaline earth metal soaps of one or more C 6-24 fatty acids as emulsifiers;

introducing a textile into the oil-in-water emulsion; and

reducing the pH of the aqueous oil-in-water emulsion by adding an acid;

whereby the reduction of the pH of the aqueous oil-in-water emulsion is sufficient to convert the alkali metal and/or alkaline earth metal soaps into free fatty acids;

whereby the oil components are released from the emulsion and absorbed onto the textiles, wherein the step of reducing the pH occurs gradually so that the textile absorbs the one or more oil components in quantities of at least 70%, based on the total quantity of the one or more oil components present in the aqueous oil-in-water emulsion.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more alkali metal and/or alkaline earth metal soaps of the one or more C 6-24 fatty acids are produced in situ from one or more C6-24 fatty acids and one or more alkali metal hydroxides.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the step of introducing a textile into the aqueous oil-in-water emulsion further comprises diluting the emulsion with water to form an aqueous liquor.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the pH is reduced with an organic acid.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the pH is reduced with an inorganic acid.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more alkali metal and/or alkaline earth metal soaps of the one or more C 6-24 fatty acids have a hydrophilic-lipophilic balance of 8 to 25.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the oil-in-water emulsion contains 1 to 90% by weight, of the one or more oil components, based on the weight of the aqueous oil-in-water emulsion.

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the oil-in-water emulsion contains 10 to 70% by weight of one or more oil components, based on the weight of the aqueous oil-in-water emulsion.

9. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the oil-in-water emulsion contains 30 to 60% by weight of one or more oil components, based on the weight of the aqueous oil-in-water emulsion.

10. The process according to claim 3 , wherein the textile to aqueous liquor ratios of 1:10 to 1:15 are adjusted.

11. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the acid is selected from the group consisting of acetic acid, lactic acid and glycolic acid.

12. The process according to claim 3 , wherein the step of reducing the pH occurs gradually so that the textile absorbs the one or more oil components in quantities of at least 70%, based on the total quantity of the one or more oil components present in the aqueous liquor.

13. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more alkali metal and/or alkaline earth metal soaps of the one or more C 6-24 fatty acids are prepared in situ by mixing the one or more oil components with the one or more C 6-24 fatty acids, adding water, and converting the one or more C 6-24 fatty acids into the corresponding soaps by the addition of one or more alkali metal and/or alkaline earth metal hydroxides.

14. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more oil components additionally contain one or more oil-soluble components.

15. The process according to claim 14 , wherein the one or more oil-soluble components are selected from the group consisting of oil-soluble plant extracts, vitamins, provitamins, perfumes, perfume oils, and mixtures thereof.

16. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of adding one or more oil components and one or more alkali metal and/or alkaline earth metal hydroxides to the residual liquor remaining after the step of reducing the pH, wherein the resulting product is the oil-in-water emulsion, and the steps of introducing a textile into the aqueous oil-in-water emulsion and reducing the pH of the aqueous oil-in-water emulsion by adding an acid are repeated.

17. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the step of reducing the pH of the aqueous oil-in-water emulsion by adding an acid occurs after the step of introducing a textile into the oil-in-water emulsion.

18. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the oil-in-water emulsion contains 10 to 70% by weight of one or more oil components, based on the weight of the oil-in-water emulsion.