Last Updated on August 13, 2026 by omgbart
I hate writing this post.
At one time, I learned a lot from Serious Skincare. But seeing the brand blatantly take my content and reuse it, without permission, as a creative asset on their product page to entice a purchase? I have zero respect left.
The concept of taking someone’s content without permission isn’t new. Neither is passing it off as your own. And honestly, learning that a brand which made millions ripping off other brands would eventually rip off me too isn’t exactly a shock. What do I mean by that? More below.
What Is Serious Skincare?
Back in the very late ’90s, I stumbled on Serious Skincare while watching TV. It was a segment on HSN (Home Shopping Network), where a white-lab-coat-clad aesthetician named Lesa Stock was explaining international units of Vitamin A in a moisturizer. That was when I bought the Two Million IU Vitamin A Cream. It was great.
Lesa Stock was accompanied on set by Jennifer Flavin Stallone, who, as a self-proclaimed model and wife to Sylvester Stallone, poured her heart out about how acne almost derailed her career, all while showing a candid photo of herself with one side of her face meant to exaggerate acne that was, in reality, borderline non-existent. I’ll say this: the Glycolic Cleanser was pretty spectacular and really did work. So did the benzoyl peroxide treatment, Clearz-It.
And Then Lesa Disappeared
As the brand’s popularity grew, Lesa stopped appearing on air. At one point, the HSN host said something like “Lesa has been under the weather and will be joining us next time.” She never did. Nothing was ever made clear. Lesa’s daughter, Cecilia, must have become an esthetician herself, because she started appearing on air as a sidekick, showing product application on models and explaining formulas from the part of the set made to look like a treatment room.
Sadly, Jennifer Flavin Stallone never developed the poise needed to project vital product information to at-home viewers. Her enthusiasm was actually grating and her public speaking skills needed work. Quickly, I started referring to her as Jennifer You Guys Flavin Stallone, because of how amateurish the segments started to sound.
Serious Skincare vs. Innovation
Very quickly, Serious Skincare turned into a dupe brand. Having seen the potential in TV shopping sales, the brand needed to grow, and there’s only so much you can generate selling acne kits, especially with Proactiv dominating the ad space with countless infomercials, magazine spreads, and the like.
So Serious Skincare started ripping off everyone else with a good idea, whether that brand was DTC or already established in the about-to-boom beauty space. I’m talking about Serious Skincare creating their own version of La Mer, and of the Crema Nera that Armani launched back in 2007. Both attempts fell flat. But the brand couldn’t stop. I remember the Glycolic Gommage (which I actually liked) launching on air as their dupe of Glamglow’s then-best-selling Youthmud.
That’s when I ordered from Serious Skincare again. I was happy with the mask. It was an elevated version of something I’d used a decade earlier called the Triple Acting Glycolic Mask. But sharing my enthusiasm on Instagram just gave the brand an idea: stealing my photo for their own use. Without asking. Without compensation.
Here’s my photo, live on their product page, used to sell the very product I paid for and photographed myself.
And here’s that same photo, sitting in my own camera roll, dated well before it ever showed up on their site:
The creator economy is a real thing. So are copyrights. The ‘rules don’t apply to me’ attitude from someone who built her media career ripping off other brands’ innovative formulas is honestly pretty depressing.
Funny thing: Serious Skincare has a legal disclaimer on their website protecting their own interests.
But when it comes to everyone else, apparently those same rules go out the window. I emailed the sketchy address listed on the site. My note bounced right back. Maybe their billing department doesn’t exist anymore either.
Where Are They Now?
You don’t hear much about Serious Skincare these days. The only time I’ve seen Jennifer Flavin Stallone was in a tabloid connected to a donation or a fundraiser for a certain orange tyrant currently dragging the US to the brink of destruction. Takes one to know one, I suppose.
The heyday of Serious Skincare is long gone. After their decades-long HSN run, Jennifer Flavin Stallone packed up and left for ShopHQ. That… kind of backfired. The line is now on QVC (after the station merged with HSN), but the prices seem outlandish for what once made SSC (that’s what we called it on message boards back then) such a favorite.
It saddens me that a brand which helped shape my interest in skincare could be this dismissive of the people who helped build its success. In an age where information is permanent and visible, all I’ll say to anyone reading this: my blog gets close to 5M impressions a month. Those who never heard of Serious Skincare just did. And those who miss it have no reason to anymore.
Have a good day now. xB
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