Will Lightning Strike Twice for Skin Care King?

Will Lightning Strike Twice for Skin Care King?
By Alexandra Clough
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 22, 2008

Hydron Harvey is back! Only now, Harvey Tauman is better known as the Greyson Guy.

The man who built Hydron Technologies in Boca Raton into a multimillion-dollar empire by selling products on the QVC shopping channel has launched a campaign to hawk his newest skin care line, Greyson International.

Will he be successful? It’s not for lack of effort. In recent weeks, the ultimate skin care pitchman has started unveiling the Greyson brand. The company went public on the pink sheets in March (GYSN). And Tauman recently began touting his skin care repair system, including its signature product, Damage Control serum. “This may be the single most important product in our lifetime in skin care,” Tauman gushed – with typical hyperbole. (The product contains an enzyme that Tauman claims can repair DNA damage to skin caused by sunlight.)

Tauman’s zeal is what drove sales of Hydron Care products in 1994, when the products first landed on QVC. In one hour, Hydron racked up more than $800,000 in orders. By July, three one-hour programs sold $2.1 million worth of products.

But the salad days didn’t last. The Hydron board and Tauman soon became enmeshed in legal spats. Tauman sued for breach of contract and Hydron, which ousted him, claimed he pumped up earnings projections, among other things.

After the lawsuits were settled, Tauman quietly retreated, then labored for more than 10 years on the Next Big Thing, the Greyson product line. Now he’s pulling out all the stops to pitch the products and regain his informal title as skin care guru.

Tauman says he’s working out of Delray Beach now but soon will open a Boca Raton office and staff it up. All we can say is: Stay tuned.