I used to use the stick - smearing it across my chops & face lathering with the small, stiff Commodore X1. It really worked best with that and not the bigger, softer Kent BK4 I have.
Then I grated a few sticks into a glass ramekin and just started using that to lather up into a bowl.
There's still something very special about the smell of Palmolive to me, and I think I've figured out what it is. When I was small and stayed the odd night with my grandparents, my Grandad used to lather up with Palmolive (from a can) and shave over the kitchen sink. The smell has lodged in my brain as a happy, childhood memory. He's still going at 96, though being pretty much blind these days he uses an electric shaver (after mixing up his deodorant & shaving foam and foaming up his armpits).