Patent ID: 7217340

Claim:
A process for softening a paper product comprising: providing a paper product; contacting the paper product with a composition, wherein the composition comprises: i) an amide-substituted quaternary imidazolinium salt present in the amount from about 0.25% to about 20.00% by weight based upon the total weight of the composition; ii) a nonionic surfactant in an amount between 20.00% and 90.00% based on the total weight of the composition; and iii) a polyhydroxy compound having an average molecular weight which is any molecular weight in the range of 92 to 4000 in an amount from about 1.00% to about 10.00% by weight based on the total weight of the composition, wherein the amide-substituted quaternary imidazolinium salt comprises a cation having the structure: in which R 1 in each occurrence is independently selected from the group consisting of: hydrogen or a hydrocarbyl group comprising any number of carbon atoms between 8 to 22 and wherein, R 2 is selected from the group consisting of: hydrogen, or any C 1 to C 12 hydrocarbyl group, including mixtures of cations meeting this description.