Liquid thickener for surfactant systems

The present invention relates to alkoxylated, lipophilic polyol compounds having about three moles of lipophilic substitutuents per mole of polyol and, more specifically, to the use of such compounds as thickeners in liquid surfactant compositions. Compositions comprising alkoxylated lipophilic polyol compounds, e.g., ethoxylated, esterified methyl glucosides, are disclosed wherein at least 5% of the polyol derivatives have about three moles of the lipophilic substituent per mole of polyol. Quite advantageously, the disclosed polyol derivatives can be dissolved into aqueous solutions to provide liquid thickeners suitable for thickening surfactant-containing compositions, e.g., shampoos, at cold processing temperatures.