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If cleanliness is next to godliness, you're in need of a little religion.

Your path to enlightenment: Shop in the City's French hard-milled soaps.

There is a bit of a soap-opera saga behind them.

Linda Getchell has been in business on 50th and Xerxes for about 28 years. She used to own a vintage fabric shop, which sold table clothes and fabrics in perfect condition. Then about 16 years ago, her son Jake Sanders decided to open a store based on his family's impeccable taste and his mom agreed to be his collaborator. They opened Shop in the City about six years ago.

What about the soap, you ask? After discovering it on a trip to France and having it sent for her personal use, Linda started selling it at her antiques store. It has been a staple since, developing such a following that they now come embossed with the store name.

Crafted from essential oils and an olive and/or almond oil base, they last forever and don't cause soap scum. You can use them in drawers to lightly scent clothes. It's recommended that you simultaneously using them as soap to unlock their fragrance. (It has been making our bathroom smelly honey sweet.)

While the soaps are available in all sorts of scents (milk, verbena and lavender at the moment), the old standby is the honey lavender. It's the formula that helped cure Linda's rosacea (you can use them on your face and body) and the others' skin issues. They're natural and soothing.

For you, that could be a small miracle.

French soaps, $6.95 for a large bar and $4.95 for a small, available at Shop in the City, two locations, 3018 W 50th St., Mpls., 612-922-6222 and 4737 Chicago Av., Mpls., 612-825-2808.

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