It was a match made in heaven—especially if your idea of heaven is lots of pampering and good-smelling unguents. Eric Malka was an entrepreneur with an unruly, coarse beard. Myriam Zaoui was a student of Indian ayurveda medicine and aromatherapy with a flair for concocting herbal salves. "On one of our first dates, we went over ideas for our own spa," says Malka, 36. One date led to another, and eventually to a marriage, three "barber spas" and the hottest men's skin care line in the country: the Art of Shaving, which weds old-world tools with luxe, modern products. "All men shave," says Malka. "We're just upgrading their ritual."

Among those who have signed on for the haute lather are Usher, who bought the lavender line of pre-shave oil, shaving cream and aftershave balm, and Ashton Kutcher, who opted for a facial mask. Bruce Willis and Nicolas Cage had shaves at the spa and took away brush-and-razor sets. (The sets start at $255 and go up to $2,300 for one featuring a sterling-silver brush with badger bristles.)

Well before the Queer Eye guys evangelized the merits of male skin care beyond Barbasol, Zaoui, 31, and Malka saw a market niche. "With guys, it's not about the $500 Jimmy Choo shoes," says celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch. "You got what you got. You've got to take care of that. You can't live like a Neanderthal forever." Men are taking the hint: The Art of Shaving (also available at department stores like Neiman Marcus, where is the top seller in its category) rang up revenues of $7.5 million last year.

Now based in South Beach, the couple, who married in 1997, began cooking up their business over their stove in New York City a year earlier. Zaoui created a pre-shave primer of castor, olive and clove oils and black pepper to prep Malka's wicked stubble for a better shave. Convinced they were onto something, they sold their BMW, leased a small shop and soon opened another in the city, offering old-fashioned shaves; they now have five, from Las Vegas to Miami. "It's a nice, quick way for guys to get a spa experience," says Zaoui, who trains the barbers. This year, they added a fragrance and are planning a line "for the neck down," says Malka, who is the numbers guy and "lab rat" for their 150 products and accessories. Is it hard work? "We don't consider it work," he says. "We're living our passion every day."