Well, you could always take a leaf out of the old-school barber's book. Soak a flannel in water as hot as you can stand, and hold it to your skin for a slow count of 30 (until it cools too much to be useful). Then apply ordinary soap (I like Pears, since I no longer have any Valobra Glicerlanolina) and leave it on while you load your brush heavily, build up your lather in your bowl, rinse off with the flannel and lather up on your skin.
I use the shower to rinse everything off once I'm done, otherwise any remaining skerrick of soap residue will inevitably play merry hell with my skin later in the morning. Coupled with the rest of my post-shave treatment, this means I never have to worry about the post-shave effects of the shaving soap.