Nicole Paxson Helps Women With Lupus Feel Beautiful And Confident - The Lupus Foundation

Main Category: Lupus
Article Date: 31 Oct 2008 - 6:00 PST

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Teen girls are often naturally self-conscious about their looks. Imagine being a 12-year-old girl out on a school field trip and suddenly having welts and rashes appear on your arms. This is how Nicole Paxson eventually learned that she had lupus, an unpredictable and potentially life-threatening autoimmune disease that affects mostly young women.

The fall issue of the Lupus Foundation of America's (LFA) national magazine Lupus Now® showcases how Nicole Paxson used positive energy to transform her daily frustrations of living with lupus into a successful business enterprise. Self-conscious about her looks, Paxson began experimenting with blending different types of brands of makeup to cover up the rashes on her skin, but never found the perfect formula.

"I would mix and layer, filling containers with things I'd concoct," says Paxson. She turned her bathroom into a cosmetics lab, and eventually took her samples to a cosmetics lab in Florida where she spent many hours working alongside the chemists to develop her own products.

The result is Nicole Paxson Cosmetics, a collection of foundations, concealers, and bronzers all with UVA and UVB protection and sun protection factors ranging from SPF 15 through 30. The line includes Monarch Crème Foundation, Tropic Queen Bronzer, Lotis Concealer, and Painted Lady Powder, each named after a type of butterfly. The butterfly connection is no coincidence. The association with the lupus butterfly rash is implicit, but the insect's beauty is the subtext.

"My goal was to make the everyday woman want to get out of bed and feel beautiful. I was always jealous that my girlfriends could lie in the sun, stay up late, and roll of out bed looking beautiful. I couldn't. But now the playing field is leveled," Paxson says.

While she still struggles with the physical, psychological, and emotional aspects of living with lupus, she's determined to focus on the positive aspects of the hand she's been dealt. "It was completely meant to be. Not only did lupus give me a purpose in life, it gave me stability and level-headedness, and it never allowed me to take anything for granted."

Paxson, daughter of media moguls Marla and Lowell "Bud" Paxson, who founded Home Shopping Network and PaxTV, also donates a percentage of the proceeds from her cosmetics line to lupus research and awareness programs. In addition, she has given more than $30,000 worth of products to fund-raising events such as golf tournaments and galas. To date, Bud and Marla Paxson have personally donated over a million dollars to lupus research, and have helped raise several millions through fundraising efforts.

Now 25 and having lived with lupus for 13 years, Paxson's best advice to anyone recently diagnosed is "Be strong, listen to your doctor and accept it - the longer you're in denial, the longer it will take to get [the disease] under control. You need a support group, so get involved with other people with lupus."

To read the complete article, or to order a subscription to Lupus Now® magazine, go online to http://www.lupusnow.org , contact your local LFA chapter, or call 866-4-THE-LFA. Published three times per year for people with lupus, their families, and health professionals, Lupus Now® includes the latest information on new treatments, clinical trial updates, lifestyle and wellness features, personal stories, and more.

The Lupus Foundation of America is the foremost national nonprofit voluntary health organization dedicated to finding the causes of and cure for lupus, and providing support, services, and hope to all people affected by lupus through programs of research, education, and advocacy. For more information about lupus go to http://www.lupus.org.

For more information about Paxson's cosmetics line, visit her website at http://www.nicolepaxson.com.

The Lupus Foundation of America