High-glycerin soaps, like Mama Bear’s and (a decade or so ago) QED’s and Col. Conk, make a wonderful lather in soft water. I don’t know how well they would fare in hard water, but the lather today from my tub of a vintage soap, QED Special 218, was totally wonderful, from fragrance (a dark pine fragrance, doubtless from pine tar given the color of the soap) to consistency (very thick and creamy). Today is, of course, the ideal day to use this soap.
The Chinese knock-off of the Edwin Jagger/Mühle head that Gillette uses on their Heritage razor shaved every bit as well as the real thing [update: probably because it is the real thing; the knock-off head is on the King C. Gillette razor (sold on Amazon, for example) — see Mantic59’s clarifying comment below. I was wrong. – LG], and I easily achieved a smooth result, to which I applied a good splash of Anthony Gold’s Red Cedar aftershave with a squirt of Hydrating Gel.