Many people would change their fate if they could. Whether it’s seeking insight from a psychic or tarot card reader (the readings popping up on your TikTok FYP aren’t always for you, on the contrary), visiting a healer, manifesting, or even casting a spell — we’ve all considered in the idea of a little witchy intervention.
For Anastasia Bonnett, that curiosity became life-changing. Before opening a six-figure business, revealing two storefronts, and establishing one of the most famed spiritual shops, Moonlight And Sage — she would go on to change her fate, too, through TikTok. “So I just lost my job,” she sets up a camera on her balcony, during Covid, when companies were shutting down and furloughing employees. “If you need a [tarot] reading, they’re $5 on my Instagram.” And while this video isn’t what shot Bonnett into popularity— it was the plethora of videos that followed. This would later lead to the invention of her famed “love oil” that would go viral on the app.
“I was posting on TikTok, sharing tips and tricks, and teaching people about herbs and crystals. People kept saying, ‘You teach us how to make oils, why don’t you just sell them?’” she says over Zoom. Her first spiritual products, which were shown on TikTok, initially centered around love, protection, and beauty. From there, her collection expanded into a range of oils, fueling even more growth for her name and what later went on to be a business. For the rootworker and Aphrodite-devotee, it took months before she showed her face on the app. “I was scared to show my face with spiritualism. I wasn’t sure if people were going to accept it.”
But when it came to choosing TikTok, a personality-forward app, over other platforms, the decision felt natural. “People are nicer on the app,” she says. “You can share freely, and back then, the algorithm would just pick videos and send them out.”
That’s exactly what happened with a faceless video of her shaking a jar of her love oil. “Love oil is used to attract sexual, platonic love, or opportunities,” she described in said video. The 15-second clip quickly garnered nearly 600,000 views. And it makes sense, love can be messy and complicated, so if an oil claims to help narrow it down, why wouldn’t people be intrigued? Especially when the reviews speak for themselves. “I’ve been on a couple of dates and even gotten asked out more since wearing this oil,” writes Kaleigh in a review on the site.
Even Tefi, a popular influencer with 1.9 million TikTok followers, vets for her Carnelian rings from Moonlight and Sage in a Tiktok video. “I put them on, and the next day, I got an email from a magazine asking me to host their TikTok.”
From there, Bonnett began gaining traction with orders, fulfilling them from her California apartment until “the orders just became too much — there was no room in my house.” During that time, like many first-time small business owners, she made common mistakes, such as producing oils in tiny bottles instead of larger gallon-sized batches. When her advent calendars went viral on TikTok, it became clear it was time to uproot elsewhere — a small e-commerce space. “People were asking for more nuanced spiritual items, and we just reached a point where we were boxed out of our room,” she says. “It just came down to production.” Two years later, she opened her first brick-and-mortar store in downtown Oceanside, California.
As a first-time business owner, she says the challenges don’t stem from navigating wholesale buying or projecting margins. Since she handmakes 85% of her products, she lets her pricing be guided by intuition, saying, “Spirit tells me.”
Her oils initially sold for $12 but as the business has grown so have the prices. And even more recently, with rising gas prices, shipping costs, and the impact of Trump’s tariffs — particularly on imported herbs and crystals — she’s had to adjust. Still, she often chooses to “just eat the cost.” And that’s not the only unorthodox business practice she follows. She’s also one of the rare business owners who chooses not to pocket any of the company’s revenue. “I don’t cut a check. From the time I opened my business, I had $50 in my bank account. I’ve always put it back into my business.” That commitment has come in handy when facing the unfortunate downsides of running an occult store: “restraining orders, lawyers, and years of litigation.” Despite these challenges, she continues to pay her 16 employees and pays herself through the members-only monetized platform, Patreon.
Adding to her unconventional and a somewhat ironic approach for a TikTok creator who built her business on the app, Bonnett chooses not to sell her spelled products on TikTok Shop.
“TikTok Shop would be for me if I didn’t sell witchcraft,” she explains. “If I could put my oils on there, I would.”
It’s a frustrating limitation, especially since adding more products to TikTok Shop often leads to increased visibility and sales. Yet Bonnett remains committed to using her own domain and website as the sole platform for her products. Many business owners who launch on TikTok lean heavily on the shop feature, but their reliance was shaken when the app faced a brief, nationwide ban in the U.S. for less than 24 hours — a wake-up call for creators and entrepreneurs across the country.
Still, Bonnett isn’t even a recipient of the TikTok Creator Fund. Instead, she hosts live sales every Friday, timing the release of her newly launched products with “Venus days” — a strategy that has been a game-changer not only for her business but also for cultivating a community of over 1,000,000 followers across her two accounts.
“I’ll show them [the products], and they can go to the website. I can do a cute theme,” Bonnett thought in the moment of its’ inception. She often introduces ‘mystery bags’ and ‘exclusive to the live’ items, decorating her setup with themed adornments. The result: “It sold out in 10 minutes.”
Spirituality on social media has long been a contentious space, rife with fake psychics and spiritualists preying on vulnerable people. Bonnett is actively working to combat that. “I open up about everything I go through — it’s just not fair for me to show up on camera perfect and poised. That’s not realistic,” she says. She adds, “When it comes to spirituality, people often target those who are insecure, need money, think their husbands are cheating, or struggle with their weight. There are just certain conversations I won’t even entertain or allow in my space.” It’s likely you’ve been there, down and depressed and scrolling on TikTok, and you see the perfect video that’s describing your situation, “and then here comes a tarot reader like ‘555, 444 — stop scrolling.’ Like of course you’re going to stop and pay $55, the predation is crazy [on TikTok].” For her, the biggest way to keep people safe is “when they ask for spells that we don’t think is safe, we tell them.”
Spiritual practices are often perceived as a luxury service, with the Spiritual Products and Services Market valued at $180.18 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $249.03 billion by 2032, according to Business Research Insights. This growth is largely driven by consumers who aren’t initiated into certain practices or don’t believe they can perform these services themselves.
“[Spiritual services being seen as a luxury] is a nuanced conversation because people should be able to receive community without paying a lot, but I think not everyone has the time to learn, so that’s where the money comes in,” she explains. “I don’t want to price people out.”
Bonnett’s success has taken her online fame into in-real life with a larger second space just two blocks down the street. This time, she’s combined her e-commerce and retail operations conjoined. “I like having my crew under the same roof,” she says. The new space, replacing the old one, officially opened on “Venus Day,” March 21, with a line wrapped around the block — some shoppers even camped out overnight in anticipation. The next day, Bonnett returned to TikTok with a familiar, faceless video reminiscent of her early days. “It’s the morning after my opening, and I am very tired,” she said. “But I just really want to quickly come on here to say thank you.”
Read the full article here
