ANSWR

ANSWR is a direct-to-consumer beauty brand founded in 2019 by Georgiana Grudinschi, originally under the name O'Wow Beauty. It originated in Finland, where Grudinschi grew up after her family left Romania, and the company built its first operations around an at-home keratin treatment sold directly online [9]. The brand later rebranded from O'Wow (also styled OWOW) to its current all-caps name, ANSWR [10].

The company positions itself as a "home salon" brand, offering products that aim to reproduce salon treatments at home at lower cost. It remains active: its webshop carries a current product range, the site is dated 2025, and the brand holds PETA cruelty-free certification.

ANSWR traces back to the founder's own experience with professional keratin treatments. Grudinschi has said the idea began with a single salon visit: "It all started with the keratin treatment. My first one done at the salon left me amazed by the results but shocked by the price tag." She has also described being prompted to act after learning that salon keratin treatments could contain formaldehyde, which led her to develop what she framed as a more convenient and health-conscious alternative [10].

The business launched in August 2019 as O'Wow Beauty [9]. According to one founder interview, it was bootstrapped with personal savings and a small family loan rather than outside investment. Grudinschi's background featured prominently in early press: born in Romania, she and her parents left the country in 1997, and she spent part of her childhood in a refugee camp in Finland [9].

The brand's first product was an at-home keratin spray that launched at around £40. Press reporting describes rapid early growth. In its first months the company was small, but by November 2020 it recorded £30,000 in sales in a single day, and it turned over £1.4 million within less than two years of launching [9]. A 2020 founder interview reported that the team had grown to around ten people and that the business had reached roughly half a million in sales in its first month [10].

The company has since described wider reach, stating that it sold more than 100,000 products across over 28 countries within about three years of launch. At some point after this early period, O'Wow rebranded as ANSWR [10].

ANSWR appears to be independent and founder-led; no parent company is identified in available sources. The company's headquarters city is not stated publicly.

The brand's geographic base is reported differently across sources. Third-party coverage consistently ties its origin to Finland, where the founder is based and where the company began [9]. The same reporting notes that Grudinschi also operates part-time from the United Kingdom, which functions as a secondary base rather than the company's origin. On warehousing, accounts differ over time: a 2020 interview placed the company's warehouses in Finland and the United Kingdom [10], while the brand's current FAQ states that it dispatches from two warehouses, in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands [3]. These describe shipping and warehouse locations rather than a single manufacturing site, and the footprint appears to have shifted as the company scaled.

ANSWR describes itself as a "Home Salon Beauty Brand" and frames its mission as making salon-level results "simple, affordable, and accessible from home." The company says it wants to "challenge the 'experts-only' mindset" so that customers can manage professional-style treatments themselves, summarising its aim as "salon-grade results without the salon markup." Its stated values centre on simplicity, affordability, accessibility and self-reliance in personal beauty routines.

Commercially, the brand operates mainly through its own online store but has also been sold via third-party e-tailers such as Beauty Bay. Early press noted that the company spent heavily on paid social media advertising, reported at roughly £42,000 a month, reflecting a marketing-led direct-to-consumer model [9].

The brand's flagship product is its at-home keratin treatment, which the company markets as "the world's first-ever at-home keratin treatment that works on a structural level" and which it says delivers smoothness for up to three months from a single application [4]. The treatment is applied as a spray, left to develop, rinsed, dried and then sealed with a straightening iron. Its active ingredient is glyoxylic acid, and the formula uses what the company calls VeratinTech, described as a fully vegan keratin technology drawing on amino acids sourced from wheat and soy. ANSWR states that glyoxylic acid is safe to use during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Beyond the keratin line, the range includes the Volumewave heated styling brush, an at-home lash extension kit using pre-mapped clusters, a shampoo and conditioner pairing built around AHA and pineapple extract, and styling and hair-removal products. The company says its products are free of formaldehyde, sulfates, parabens, silicones and alcohols. It also markets several products with input from named stylists and lash educators.

On ethics, ANSWR states that it is vegan and uses no animal-derived ingredients, and it describes itself as a PETA-certified cruelty-free brand [3].

The founder and brand have been the subject of several press profiles. The Sun ran a feature on Grudinschi and the then-OWOW business, framed around her move from a refugee background to a multi-million-pound haircare company [9]. The brand was also covered in a 2020 founder interview by niafaraway.com and in a Romanian-language business profile by retail.ro. The company's own site additionally lists a range of publications under an "as seen in" banner.

ANSWR is an active brand. Its direct-to-consumer webshop is operating with a current product range, the site carries a 2025 copyright, and the company retains PETA cruelty-free certification. The brand reports sales across more than 28 countries, with operations connected to Finland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.