The Beauty Spells To Cast This Halloween, According To Real Witches

If a witch told you that she could do a spell to make you beautiful, would you say yes? Witchcraft has held the weird occult girl side of the internet under its spell for the past few years. The weird occult girl in question - Me! - has been flooded with videos on Glamour Magick featuring everything from mirror work and protection spells to sigils and subliminals. But can you really use magick to change your appearance?

Scribbling “445 cc, moderate profile, half under the muscle” on a piece of paper and waking up with Kylie’s boobs might seem like the perfect spell, but Glamour Magick—aka glamoury—is about something a bit deeper than surface-level appearance. Even the use of the ‘K’in magick ties to the archaic roots of this type of spell work, with modern witches and occult practitioners using "magick" to signal a serious spiritual discipline instead of pulling a rabbit out of a hat at a kids party. 

Beauty increasingly feels like it’s an AI generated formula engineered to feed an algorithm. But, after a decade of modeling, I’ve come to the conclusion that the most attractive people aren’t always the ones with perfectly symmetrical faces. It’s the ones with an X Factor. And maybe that X stands for magick… Read on to find out how witches really use glamoury.

Semra Haksever, aka Mama Moon, is a London-based eclectic witch, author, and oracle card reader who credits her bloodline and her Turkish grandmother’s coffee cup readings for her lifelong practice.

Mat Auryn is a professional psychic, witch, occult teacher and bestselling author who has practised witchcraft for nearly three decades since discovering it through cult classic 90s film The Craft.

Isimeme, aka TheGoddessCoven, is a practising witch and occult content creator who blends her spiritual practices with her New York life and shares in-depth Glamour Magick guides and witchcraft teaching on TikTok and YouTube. 

So if Glamour Magick isn’t about simply changing your physical appearance, then what is it about? “You are not necessarily trying to become somebody else or hide who you are, you are connecting to a power and invoking something that is already there,” Semra Haksever, aka Mama Moon, tells me. 

“Glamour” comes from the Scottish “glamer”, meaning an occult spell or charm of illusion. Further roots come from the Middle Ages, when learning and occult knowledge were associated with deception as women were persecuted in the Great Witch Hunts. 

Isimeme gives us a snappy history lesson on the shifting definitions of glamoury throughout history. “In medieval times, it was very normal for women who were of marrying age to seek the help of witches to attain beauty and attention for potential suitors. As women got more agency, glamour magic became less about beauty and more about power and influence,”  she explains of the relationships between women, glamoury and power. Glamour magick is also used for protection. “During slavery, glamour was used frequently by hoodoo practitioners to disguise themselves from being caught fleeing their plantation, and even in some instances to make their children completely invisible to the eyes of those who wished to hurt them.” Today, Isimeme sees glamour magick as tool of feminine empowerment. “We can use it to become more beautiful, confident, successful, and even to make others view us in the way we wish they would.”

“I define glamour magick as the art of influencing how others perceive us through the intentional projection of energy,”  psychic Mat Auryn explains. “Glamoury works primarily through the Lower Self, which is the instinctual, emotional, and animal aspect of our being. People often say that confidence is sexy, and I think that's a perfect example of the principle behind glamoury. There's an almost animalistic quality to attraction that goes beyond physical appearance, and glamour magick works with that same instinctual dimension of perception, intentionally amplifying and projecting qualities that influence how others respond to us.” 

“I love enchanting products with incantations and affirmations,” Haksever tells me, “Painting a face with your magical products is transformative. It's not about performing femininity for somebody else's approval.” Her ritual starts with a new lipstick: hold it in both hands, tell it what it brings you, then visualise a future version of yourself wearing it. For eyeliner, bathe it in incense smoke and set the intention for clarity, like “open my eyes to new opportunities.” Enchanting your perfumes as you apply them is also a magickal hack.

For a beginner witch, Auryn explains how you can tap into the octopus-like ability to change your appearance using a spell from his book Psychic Witch. “You invoke your Lower Self and visualize its shadowy energy surrounding you like a cloud of octopus ink. Then focus on the image of how you want to be perceived, holding that image in your mind's eye while gazing into a mirror. You use that experience to overlay your desired image onto your reflection, impressing that quality into the energy you're projecting.”

Halloween is when the veil between worlds thins, and many witches use this time for tapping into alchemy and magickal transformation. “Rather than simply dressing up for fun, you can approach your costume as an act of magick,” is Auryn’s holiday-specific recommendation. Choose a costume that represents a quality you want, then enchant it before you put it on. Your makeup, jewelery and perfume count too. “You're essentially stepping into an archetype and allowing yourself to experience what it feels like to embody that energy.” 

“This could be a great time to throw away an old piece of makeup. Let it symbolise a version of yourself you’re ready to leave behind,” Haksever says of harnessing the impactful energy of spooky season. Auryn agrees, explaining “I encourage people to reflect on what they've accomplished over the past year, what patterns they're ready to leave behind, and what they want to cultivate moving forward.” Pair it with tarot or another form of divination for maximum power, asking to be shown what you need to release and what you want to draw into your life.

Not every witch recommends spellcasting on Halloween itself. Isimeme warns against working with the energy unless it’s for ancestral work, and instead suggests saving your witchcraft for the next New Moon on November 9th. “I would recommend using it to kickstart this new era for yourself. You could do a ritual bath to commemorate entering this new era of confidence, success, and prosperity.”