This tutorial comes from a nice video by Nick Saporito.
I think that some people prefer to follow tutorials from written ones, better than from videos.
Having done it in PDF, I post it for them.

Oh wow... really well done!!!

Isabella

Result does look pretty cool, Issabella.

Very nice, Issabella. I have seen this previously but never got to it. I like to watch the video, but like the PDF better to follow. Thank you for making it.

Thank you so much, Vincent, Sallyanne, LyleJK and Pat. Happy if it helps.

Awesome effect!

Nice effect!
I think it would be even better, if the visible face area had somewhat distorted and wavy look.
It looks bit flat and "surface" to me in the middle area, compared to edge areas where the smoke frills are.
But awesome, will try the tutorial later.
Your example has a background, I'm guessing the outcome will turn out with a partial transparency.

You could probably do that by duplicating the output, convert to b/w, then use that as a map for displacement. I haven't yet tried this tut, but I'm pretty sure it can be done easily enough....