>>115707715It has a real-life effect, too. So technically, it "works" an it's "real". Just an illusion though, no ghost or demon.
The same way your mind naturally "paints" a generic blur of colors in your eye's "blind spot" (there are little printout tests you can do to see your own blind spot, pretty neat), your mind can do a lot of other kinds of "filling in the blanks" when there is an absence of actual visual stimulus. In the dark and low-light of the bathroom, while looking at your reflection, as your eyes adjust and you start making out the vague images of your reflection, your mind starts to "fill in the blanks" with more "blurry/mushy" spots (like it does for your blind spot), making your own face look like it's distorted and bizarre, sometimes even warping around at the blind spots as if moving on its own.
Saying the words and waiting is just time filler while your eyes are adjusting and starting to make your reflection twisty. The candle (if you do it with a tiny birthday/tea candle) causes a tiny amount of dim light to flicker around sporadically, which causes the twisting reflection of yourself to look even more like it's moving, and with light reflecting off it at weird angles.
You can try it yourself for proof, if you want to give yourself a fucking heart attack. Just know that it's an optical illusion, when you try to make out details while your eyes adjust to darkness. You don't even need the candle or to say the words, you can just stare at the mirror in the dark while your eyes adjust and it'll work.
Sorry, no messy ghost gf for you. 
