Patent ID: 8425621

Claim:
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.