Your purpose is beauty. It’s true!

Mercedes Lyson is the host of the Your Purpose Is Beauty podcast. She’s been making videos on YouTube about eco-beauty and holistic health and lifestyle since 2014. A self-described bifurcated person, she holds a PhD in Sociology from Brown University (’13) and worked as an academic researcher, yet has been on a lifelong quest for discovering, curating, refining, articulating, and presenting an evolving vision of beauty.  Her content spans product reviews and in-depth discussions of brands, makeup tutorials demonstrating products, and alternative health topics like acupuncture, detoxing protocols, homeopathy, herbalism, and energy healing. A researcher at heart, Mercedes strives to provide articulate, thoughtful, and above all honest reviews and discussions.

Mercedes started building a community on Patreon in 2017 as way to support the growth and development of L’Amour. A critic of blogging-turned influencer marketing, Mercedes made a commitment to not present sponsored work or ads on her platform, preferring to maintain a more journalistic approach with integrity in reviewing. Patreon is a way for followers to support independent creatives through monthly donations, while also receiving access to extra and exclusive content. The L’Amour Patreon community attracts warm-hearted independent thinkers and has become a space to delve into topics that are often polarized and “controversial” on mainstream social media platforms, mostly in the realms of alternative health, healing, and spirituality. 

In late 2019, Mercedes launched her latest project – a podcast called Your Purpose is Beauty. An avid podcast listener herself, especially since becoming a new mom in 2018, Mercedes wanted another medium through which to connect with an audience in an accessible way. Your Purpose is Beauty is centered around eco/organic, luxury, and niche beauty product reviews and critique, as well as intellectual discussion about the beauty and alternative health industries. Through interviews with brand founders, beauty professionals, bloggers/influencers, and creatives, the podcast also explores why people have chosen beauty as their profession or passion. 

A true Gemini sun, Mercedes has many other creative interests and outlets that influence her content. She has been an avid house music aficionado for the past 15 years and started djing on vinyl in the mid-2000s, going on to be part of an all-women DJ collective and then a solo DJ from 2010 – 2018 on the East Coast. She is also a student of Hellenistic astrology, specializing in Venus and cultivating a unique astrology of beauty approach in chart readings. More recently she has been returning to her family roots around sustainable agriculture and reforming food systems through a burgeoning interest in Western herbalism and integrating homesteading and traditional foods practices, influenced by Weston A. Price, into her home and family life.  She aspires to speak fluent French, make handcrafted herbal medicines, get weekly acupuncture, and 8 hours of sleep a night (among many other things!). 

Ideas covered in this episode:

* Mercedes’ journey into producing beauty content* Your purpose is beauty* The benefits of listening to podcasts* The concept of Clean Beauty* How to find an Eco-beauty Store* Mercedes’ favorite beauty products* Herb...