Bri Luna and The Hoodwitch: The Witch Who Made the Aesthetic Part of the Practice
A sourced profile of The Hoodwitch founder: how the site started, her book, glamour magic, and what her work changed in the modern witchcraft scene.
If you have looked at modern witchcraft online in the last decade — long sculpted nails resting beside a deck of cards, altars shot in deep saturated color, the idea that magic belongs in an ordinary Tuesday rather than a sealed circle — you have almost certainly seen a visual language that one person did a great deal to establish: Bri Luna, founder of The Hoodwitch. This profile collects what is publicly documented about her work, and states just as plainly what we are not claiming.
Contents
Bri Luna is the founder and creative director of The Hoodwitch, a platform she launched in 2013 around the phrase 'everyday magic for the modern mystic.' She grew up in Los Angeles, is based in Seattle, and publicly describes her practice as shaped by two grandmothers, one of Mexican Indigenous heritage and one Black and Southern. Her first book, Blood Sex Magic, was published by HarperOne on October 31, 2023. Her documented significance is cultural: she made witches of color visible in a space that was overwhelmingly white and Eurocentric when she started. That is a claim about influence, not about whether any ritual works.
Bri Luna launched The Hoodwitch in November 2013.
Source/tradition: The 19th, Oct 31 2023; thehoodwitch.com (About)
Her first book, Blood Sex Magic, was published by HarperOne on October 31, 2023 (224 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-308145-1).
Source/tradition: publisher and bookseller records; The 19th, Oct 31 2023
In 2019 Smashbox released a makeup collection created with The Hoodwitch, sold exclusively through Ulta.
Source/tradition: WWD 2019; FashionNetwork 2019
Her Instagram reach was reported at roughly 403,000 in March 2019 and roughly 500,000 in October 2023.
Source/tradition: WWD 2019; The 19th, Oct 31 2023 - snapshots, not standing figures
Brujeria and hoodoo are distinct folk traditions with their own histories and their own rules about transmission.
Source/tradition: ethnographic and religious-studies literature on African American and Latin American folk practice
Deliberate work on appearance - manicure, jewelry, dress - is treated by many practitioners as part of practice ('glamour magic').
Source/tradition: Luna's public statements; coverage in Vogue and Dazed
Ritual, glamour magic or card reading produce demonstrable changes in external events.
Source/tradition: no reliable scientific evidence; not claimed by the subject either
VERIFIED = verifiable in scientific or official sources · TRADITIONAL = historically or culturally recorded · LIVED PRACTICE = widely practiced, experiential knowledge · NOT PROVEN = spiritual interpretation, not scientifically established.
Quick answer
Bri Luna is the founder and creative director of The Hoodwitch, a platform she launched in 2013 around the phrase “everyday magic for the modern mystic.” She grew up in Los Angeles, is based in Seattle, and publicly describes her practice as shaped by two grandmothers — one of Mexican Indigenous heritage, one Black and Southern. Her first book, Blood Sex Magic, was published by HarperOne on October 31, 2023. Her documented significance is cultural: she made witches of color visible in a space that was overwhelmingly white and Eurocentric when she started. That is a claim about influence, not about whether any ritual works. Nobody is claiming the latter here, including her.
Who Bri Luna actually is
Luna is a writer, tarot reader, and business owner. She became widely known through The Hoodwitch, a site and brand she started in November 2013. On her own site she describes the project as a platform meant to empower and educate through meaningful rituals that support self-care and community.
What distinguishes her is less a technique than a stance. She has consistently treated magic as a cultural, aesthetic, and daily practice rather than a secret handed down to initiates. That framing is common now. In 2013 it was not.
The Hoodwitch filled a gap that was obvious once someone named it
In interviews, Luna has said that when she started the site she quickly realized she was one of very few visible witches of color on Instagram. The dominant look at the time, as she describes it, was black and silver, gothic, heavily borrowed from television. She wanted to build something that matched her own background and her own eye instead.
That account is hers. What can be independently checked is the outcome. The Hoodwitch grew into a site with a blog, a shop, and a tarot booking practice, and Luna became one of the most frequently quoted people in mainstream coverage of contemporary witchcraft. Her press list includes Vogue, The New York Times, i-D, Dazed, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Nylon, and Vice; several of those are verifiable independently of her own site.
Two grandmothers, two lineages
Luna describes her practice as growing from two strands: the brujería of her maternal grandmother, of Mexican Indigenous heritage, and the hoodoo of her paternal grandmother, who was Black and Southern. The way she tells it is worth noting: as a child she did not read either woman as a witch, because the witches she saw on television looked nothing like them.
That observation runs through her work. Folk practice usually looks unremarkable from the outside. A shelf. A candle. A habit nobody explains because it is simply what the household does.
Temple Tip: keep three words apart
Brujería, hoodoo, and Wicca get flattened into one thing constantly. They have different origins, different rules, and very different answers to the question of who is allowed to practice them. If one of them draws you, read its own history before you lift tools out of it.
| Term | Where it comes from | Typical elements | Open or closed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brujería | Latin America, heavily overlaid with Catholicism | Saint imagery, candles, herbal baths, home altars | Varies widely by family and region |
| Hoodoo | American South, African American folk practice | Rootwork, mojo bags, oils, scripture used as formula | Widely held to be closed |
| Wicca | England, from the mid twentieth century | Wheel of the Year, covens, God and Goddess, degrees | Largely open, some initiatory lines are not |
Glamour magic, and why the nails are not decoration
If you know Luna's work, you know her manicures — long, elaborate, hand-painted. She does not treat them as styling. She treats them as glamour magic: deliberate work on how you appear. Vogue interviewed her on exactly that, and the subject takes up a substantial part of her book.
She also credits the Vietnamese-owned nail salons of her Los Angeles childhood. There were small altars in the shops, and it took her years to understand that this was working spirituality on a business floor, not ornament.
The practical core is less mystical than the term sounds. When you deliberately prepare how you show up, you change your own posture toward the day. Whether anything happens beyond that is a matter of belief, and we treat it as one.
If you want to go deeper yourself
A History of Magic, Witchcraft & the Occult
An illustrated survey that does what Luna argues for: shows witchcraft as a global, many-voiced history rather than one tradition wearing a costume. $35.00.
See the bookWhat is actually in Blood Sex Magic
Blood Sex Magic: Everyday Magic for the Modern Mystic was published by HarperOne on October 31, 2023 — 224 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-308145-1.
It resists a single shelf. It is part memoir, part grimoire, with cultural criticism and historical material folded in. The design carries real weight: deep reds, golds, lavenders and blues, family photographs, religious iconography. Luna has said she came out of film and television special effects makeup and thinks visually, and that the book is essentially her head made visible.
Topics include ancestor work, glamour magic, card reading, and rituals around thresholds and transitions. She also takes on subjects most self-help publishing avoids, and says plainly that she did so to remove stigma from them.
Reach: what is documented, and what is not
Social numbers age quickly, so here are only the ones with a date attached. In March 2019, trade coverage reported roughly 403,000 Instagram followers. In October 2023, The 19th described roughly half a million. Both are snapshots.
Also documented: in 2019, Smashbox released a collection with The Hoodwitch called Crystalized, sold exclusively through Ulta and the brand's own channel. Several outlets reported this independently.
Not documented, and therefore not asserted here: revenue figures, net worth estimates, or anything about her private life. Those numbers circulate. We are not repeating them.
Her critique of pop culture, labeled as a position
One recurring theme in Luna's public statements is how non-European magic is portrayed on screen. She has criticized American Horror Story: Coven specifically, arguing that it turned the historical figure Marie Laveau and the Vodou spirit Papa Legba into something demonic, while European-derived magic tends to get the heroic treatment in film.
That is her assessment, not a finding of fact, and we mark it as such. What is verifiable is that she has argued it publicly and repeatedly.
See the original instead of copied photos
You will not find photographs of Bri Luna in this article. Lifting images of a person off the internet infringes copyright and personality rights, even when the coverage is friendly. If you want to see and hear her, go to the source: thehoodwitch.com, Instagram (@thehoodwitch), and her YouTube channel.
Two long-form conversations where she speaks for herself, embedded through the official player:
Practically: how to work with this
- Start with your own people. The strongest move in Luna's work is not a spell. It is the question: what did your family already do that nobody ever called spiritual?
- Take the ordinary seriously. A candle on the kitchen sill is not a lesser ritual than an elaborate ceremony. It is the one you will actually keep.
- Treat aesthetics as a tool, not as evidence. A well-set table changes how you sit down at it. It does not need to do more than that.
- Do not lift from closed traditions. Hoodoo and many Indigenous practices have their own rules about transmission. Read the debate before you buy the kit.
- Audit who you listen to. Reach is not a credential. Our guide on how to spot a fake spell caster lays out the red flags that matter before money changes hands.
If card reading is where you want to begin, start with how to prepare for a tarot reading, and read what to do when two readings contradict each other before you get discouraged. For ancestor work specifically, our walkthrough on setting up an ancestor altar is the practical companion.
Which way into everyday magic fits you?
One question, three doors. Which pulls harder?
Voices from practice
We do not invent testimonials. What can fairly be described is a pattern that shows up repeatedly in public discussion: many practitioners say that a voice like Luna's was the first thing that made them consider that their own grandparents' habits had anything to do with spirituality at all. Others say the opposite — that the heavily visual side of the scene reads to them as self-presentation more than practice. Both reactions are common, and both are reasonable.
What we don't promise
We do not promise results. Neither Luna's rituals nor the practices in her book have been tested for efficacy, and no serious person claims otherwise. Magical practice is not medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice, and it does not replace any of them. If you are struggling, please get real support. Ritual can sit alongside that. It cannot substitute for it.
We also do not promise completeness. This profile is built from publicly available sources. We deliberately leave private matters out, including some that have been documented.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Bri Luna?
Bri Luna is a writer and the founder of The Hoodwitch. She grew up in Los Angeles, is based in Seattle, and publicly describes herself as Afro-Mexicana. Her first book, Blood Sex Magic, was published in 2023.
What does “The Hoodwitch” mean?
The name joins “hood” — the neighborhood — with “witch.” It signals that for Luna, magical practice happens in ordinary daily life rather than in a closed circle.
When did The Hoodwitch launch?
In November 2013. Coverage from October 2023 marked the site's tenth anniversary, and her own site gives the same origin.
What is glamour magic?
It refers to deliberate work on your own appearance — clothing, jewelry, manicure, scent — treated as part of practice. Whether anything follows beyond the shift in your own bearing is a matter of belief and has not been tested.
Can I practice hoodoo?
Hoodoo is an African American folk practice with its own history, and many practitioners consider it closed. If it interests you, read that conversation first rather than picking techniques out of it.
Why are there no photos of her here?
For legal reasons. Photographs of people are protected by copyright and by personality rights. We use an image we created ourselves and embed video through the official players instead.
Sources & further reading
- Nadra Nittle, “The Hoodwitch's Bri Luna — one of the nation's most influential witches — releases first book for Halloween,” The 19th, October 31, 2023 — long-form interview.
- The Hoodwitch, “About” page and press index, accessed August 10, 2026.
- Bri Luna, Blood Sex Magic: Everyday Magic for the Modern Mystic, HarperOne, 2023, 224 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-308145-1.
- “The Hoodwitch Teams With Smashbox on Crystal Collection,” WWD, 2019 — the collaboration and the March 2019 follower count.
- “Smashbox collaborates with The Hoodwitch for crystal-themed makeup collection,” FashionNetwork, 2019 — independent confirmation.
- Vogue on manicures as glamour magic; Dazed on inclusivity in the modern witchcraft scene.
