I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to (or has an opinion about) add glycerin directly on the soap when making lather? I want to try this because I'm really not interested in using a bunch of different vessels just to make my lather, and my soap is already in a bowl/mug.

I've got super hard water, and so I have issues getting a decently moist and slick lather when I don't go with my ultimate combo: L'Occitane Cade soap and Nivea shave cream. I'm hoping adding glycerin to the mix will help here. The other soap/cream combo I've been trying is MWF (grated and pressed into a mug) with Kiss My Face or Spiek. Neither one performed all that well when I tried it.

My method for lathering is to load the brush with soap, put some dabs of cream all around my face (saw a barber do this once) and face lather away for about a minute or two. I figure if I add the glycerin to the top of the soap before this, it'll get into the brush and onto my face.