Amy Galloway: Bringing Out The Beauty
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By Roxy De Guzman
Amy Galloway grew up around paint-stained newspapers and books about makeup. Her creative young mind loved to use art as an outlet, as a way to express herself freely. When her paints were finally able to catch up to her eager imagination, the newspapers her mom put out for her to paint on were quickly covered in her colorful splatters. Now, she works with a very different canvas: the human face.
Amy understood the language of makeup before she even learned how to read. On a trip to the bookstore, her seven-year-old self was drawn to a Kevin Aquino book full of incredible beauty transformations. Although she didn’t even know that he was a makeup artist at the time, she judged the book by its cover and quickly found it to be a huge source of inspiration in her passion for art and makeup. Soon enough, she started mimicking the looks on herself.
On the surface, it can be easy to assume that Amy’s path toward a career in the world of beauty would be silky smooth: she wanted to become a makeup artist, so she did. But once you take away the stage lights and concealer, you will find a foundation of difficult decisions, hard work, perseverance, and kindness.
“Right before I moved to LA, I had some serious life decisions to make,” writes Amy. “My father in Ladysmith, B.C., was ill with cancer… I had recently lost my job in Portland, Oregon, and decided to go back home to take care of my dad.”
With a backpack full of one week’s worth of clothes, Amy went back home to Canada. But bad news often comes in clusters– Amy soon found out that she was never issued a social security card, and therefore she’d be unable to work. Thrown unexpectedly into a world of unthinkable possibilities and enormous responsibilities, Amy’s brain immediately went into fight or flight mode.
Humble to the core, Amy found gratitude for her father’s automotive business as it gave her a way to make money without a job. With the help of a childhood friend who let her borrow a truck, she soon found herself working from dawn to dusk scrapping and recycling metal from her father’s business in order to feed him and have gas money to take him to hospital visits. Before she knew it, she had been back in Canada for a year.
“Eventually, my father passed away and I was emotionally, mentally, and physically drained,” Amy continues. “I had hit rock bottom. I still had no car, no cell phone, and no idea where I was going.”
In the midst of one of the darkest periods of her life, Amy had to find a way to get back to her art. She needed her creative outlet more than ever. So, with a tight grip on her passions, she reconnected with the dream she’s had since she was a sixteen-year-old assisting on photoshoots: to move to LA to pursue a career in makeup. Luckily, Amy was well-versed with the amount of hard work it would take to make it in LA. And soon enough, she found herself in California.
Before she had enough money to buy a car, she spent months growing uncomfortably familiar with the bus that took her to her minimum wage job in Santa Monica. But she still had hope in her heart and the street smarts necessary to begin using her Instagram as a business and networking tool to get on photoshoots and perfect her skills. As much as she loved to create her own art, she also acknowledged that she, too, needed to be sculpted and shaped as an artist. She strived to get the experience and practice that would eventually turn her into the makeup artist she had always wanted to become. From 2018 to 2021, she found herself giving up her days off from her job to work for free on photoshoots. Luckily, she loved her work as a makeup artist, so those long hours on photoshoot sets became her happy place.
A truly self-made woman, Amy continues to work hard and to strive for more. Before every shoot, she makes sure to deliver her best work by taking the time to study her client’s bone structure, preferred makeup style, and color charts. Now, Amy has built up her portfolio with a roster overflowing with LA’s top models, influencers, and events. She has done makeup for the Daytime Emmys, Glamour Bulgaria, and over a dozen more magazine covers.
All the while, she has managed to use her time, her platform, and her extensive network to create positive change in the world. She is passionate about working with charities that help domestic violence victims and people with disabilities. In addition, she makes sure to use every shoot as an opportunity to uplift other women and create a safe space within the tumultuous beauty industry. She loves forming genuine connections with her clients by showing them how beautiful they really are and spreading her messages of kindness and gratitude. Now, she is so excited to be able to share her story and spread her positive messages to a larger audience.
“I hope whoever reads this story that is on the verge of giving up when times are tough can get out there and take some risks,” continues Amy. “I have been sculpted into this strong, amazing woman that I never thought I’d become. I never graduated high school. I never had money to go to college. But I had my hands and my risk-taking mind set to take me places I never dreamed of… The risk is worth it!”
Drawing inspiration from the likes of Thierry Mugler, Jora Frantzis, and Gigi Goode, Amy Galloway is truly a woman who pushes limits in terms of style, hard work, and dedication. She hopes to pass on the inspiration she drew from them by using her own story to motivate others to lead their lives with purpose in order to succeed. With a strong belief in consistent work ethic (and the track record to prove it), Amy continues to advocate for the idea that finding your passion is the key to success because of the dedication it can inspire.
With the impressive projects that she’s completed in the past, Amy is empowered to achieve her current goals. Right now, she is hoping to accomplish at least 5 more magazine covers by the end of the summer. She knows that her hard work will ultimately pay off when she is able to achieve one of her biggest life goals: to work on a cover with Vogue.
As a makeup artist, Amy’s job is to add a bit of glamor to the faces she works with. It seems that she has found a way to do the same with her personal life. With a makeup brush in hand, Amy continues to bring out the natural beauty in people and situations that need her extra sprinkle of positivity. Now, she only hopes to inspire others to do the same.