Blends of O-acyl-isethionates and N-acyl amino acid surfactants

A process of producing an aqueous blend of an O-acyl isethionate of Formula I, and an N-acyl amino acid based surfactant of Formula II,

• wherein:
• R is selected from the group consisting of saturated and unsaturated C5 to C21 alkyl groups,
• R1 is selected from the group consisting of H and C1 to C4 alkyl,
• R2 is hydrogen, or R2 is an organic group having a structure which corresponds to a side chain bound to an α-carbon of a naturally occurring α-amino acid,
• R3 is selected from the group consisting of COOX and CH2-SO3X, where X is selected from the group consisting of Li+, Na+ and K+,
• R4 is selected from the group consisting of H and methyl, and
• M is a cation selected from Na+, K+, NH4+, and a quaternary ammonium cation derived from a tertiary amine,
• said method comprising:
• A) reacting more than one equivalent of a fatty acid chloride with alkali metal or ammonium salts of a hydroxyalkyl sulphonate to obtain a compound of Formula I, and
• B) reacting unreacted fatty acid chloride in the product of step (A) with an amino acid reactant in the presence of a base under aqueous Schotten Baumann reaction conditions to yield compounds of Formula II.