Born out of a deep personal experience, Relaks is fast becoming a household name in the wellness world. In this edition of Launchpad, our latest series bringing you fresh stories about notable culture projects shaping today’s world, Ezikeoha Clara Oluchi, founder of Relaks, shares the evolution of the company, from a deep search for relief from anxiety to a solution that now eases the pain of others.
In a world where adults are meant to chest it, man up and stay untouched with pain, Relaks is offering an opportunity to be yourself, interact with yourself and live at your best. Through its diverse offerings of wellness products, it invites adults to let go of their baggage and reconnect with their inner happiness.
What inspired the creation of Relaks, and how did your journey into curating wellness and relaxation products begin?
Relaks was born out of deep personal necessity, and every aspect of the brand reflects our intentionality. A few years ago, I lost my mother, and that experience triggered the most intense wave of anxiety I’d ever known. I began searching for ways to cope, heal, and simply feel a little better. That journey led me to art therapy, specifically, adult colouring as a tool for calming the mind.
However, when I searched for quality colouring books for adults in Nigeria, I found nothing that truly met my needs. Eventually, a friend gifted me one, but it was clearly designed for children. The illustrations were too basic, the paper quality was poor, and the pens bled through the pages. I kept searching across local stores, Instagram, TikTok, everywhere. The few decent options I found were abroad, and the shipping costs were simply unrealistic.
That’s when I realised there was a clear gap in the Nigerian market, not just for adult colouring books, but for wellness products purposefully designed for adults navigating real emotional and mental challenges. Because I have over eight years of experience in marketing, I immediately recognised the potential of this idea as a solution rooted in both empathy and opportunity.
I decided to create the solution I couldn’t find. With my background in English and my understanding of consumer needs, I started building a product for myself first and once I saw how much it helped, I knew I had to share it with others.
Thus, Relaks was born to extend beyond being a product for adults like me who need a moment to pause, breathe, and reconnect to one that offers a soothing space to unwind and let go of every emotional baggage.
Are you an artist, or how did you get drawn into the world of colour and creativity?
Interestingly, I’m not an artist in the traditional sense. Occasionally, I enjoy drawing, and I do appreciate artistic things, but I’ve never considered myself to have a deep or natural affinity for the arts.
What I do love, however, is new experiences. I’m endlessly curious. I love to travel, explore new cultures, and immerse myself in activities that shift my perspective or stir new emotions. That’s really what drew me into colouring. It wasn’t about being an artist; it was more about reconnecting with a childhood activity that once brought me joy and discovering how much of a potent healing tool it could be as an adult.
Your brand name, Relaks, is a stylised variation of the word Relax. Was that intentional?
Absolutely. The name Relaks was very intentional. From the beginning, I knew I wanted the brand to communicate its core message at first glance. I didn’t want people to wonder what we were about. The goal was that the moment you see or hear the name, you immediately understand what we’re offering: calm, ease, and a sense of peace.
As someone with a background in marketing, I was also thinking strategically. I needed a name that would be simple, memorable, and SEO friendly. But most importantly, I wanted a name that carried the brand’s essence without needing too much explanation.
During the early brainstorming stage, Relax came to mind almost immediately. There wasn’t a second option; it just felt right. I added a simple twist by replacing the “x” with a “k” to make it playful, distinctive, and something I could call mine. It felt fresh but still familiar. And that’s how Relaks was born.
Relaks beautifully blends aesthetics with intention. How do you approach product design and packaging, especially with such cohesive visuals across your range?
Honestly, I credit a lot of it to my years of experience working with brands through my marketing agency. Over time, I’ve learned what works, what resonates, and what creates lasting impressions. So from the very beginning of Relaks, I knew that everything from our colours to our packaging had to reflect clarity, calmness, and deep intentionality.
Our book covers, for example, are minimalist by design. We deliberately avoided loud patterns or obvious colouring book visuals because we wanted users, especially adults, to feel comfortable taking them anywhere: on the train, at a café, at work or anywhere else they need to be. We didn’t want the books to scream “This is for kids” or attract unwanted attention. Instead, they’re sleek, subtle, and private, almost like a journal.
So yes, while the aesthetics are beautiful, they’re never just for show. Every visual decision we make is grounded in our mission: to help people feel better, gently and intentionally.
You have products for adults, kids, and even families. What made you choose such a wide, inclusive audience instead of focusing on a niche?
Yes, we started with a niche, but what we’ve created now is an inclusive ecosystem of calm that welcomes everyone into a shared relaxation experience.
At its core, Relaks was created for adults, and that remains our primary focus. What I noticed early on was that adults are often overlooked when it comes to care, calm, and creativity, and that was the vacuum we set out to fill.
Interestingly, something happened not long after we launched. Parents, particularly mothers, started reaching out and sharing how their children were naturally drawn to the colouring experience, too. Many of them told us, “I can’t relax and colour alone. My child wants to join me!” And that got us thinking: what if this could be a shared experience?
So, while we stay rooted in our mission to serve adults, we have expanded to include kids and family-focused products. We began to see the beauty in shared relaxation, a parent and child sitting together, unwinding with crayons and colouring books, experiencing calm as a unit.
Your brand places strong emphasis on self-care, calmness, and mental wellness. What personal values or life experiences drive this focus?
At Relaks, we’re not just selling colouring books. We’re offering an experience designed to soothe, restore, and remind people of their right to slow down.
This focus on calm and self-care is deeply personal to me. I’ve experienced anxiety firsthand, and after the loss of my mother, that anxiety intensified in ways I couldn’t have imagined. During that time, I was desperately looking for ways to cope, to breathe, to feel human again. That search led me to colouring, and what started as a simple activity became a lifeline.
So yes, Relaks was born out of my own pain, but it’s now dedicated to helping others through theirs. Especially adults, because we are often the most neglected when it comes to emotional wellness. Children are celebrated, protected, and nurtured. Adults? We’re just expected to cope. But many of us are struggling quietly with anxiety, grief, burnout, or depression, and we don’t always have a safe outlet.
If someone were to interact with your colouring book for the first time, what do you hope they feel or take away from the experience?
This takes me back to something that happened shortly after I launched Relaks. I had given a copy of our book to my younger brother. At the time, he understood the idea in theory, but I could tell he wasn’t deeply moved by it yet. A few nights later, I came downstairs and found him quietly colouring. He hadn’t even noticed I was in the room. When he finally looked up, he said, “You’re right. I get it now.”
That’s what I hope everyone feels when they first interact with our book, that moment of quiet understanding, of emotional connection and inner peace.
So, if someone is picking up our colouring book for the first time, I hope they feel new, nostalgic, and quietly magical. I hope it softens them, grounds them, and brings them a little bit of peace they didn’t know they needed. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll feel compelled to share that joy with someone else. Because that’s what Relaks is all about. That’s always been the motive.
Nigeria is a tough place to run a business. What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far, and how did you manage to push through?
One major issue we faced was with Meta; our Instagram page was taken down multiple times, and as a brand that relies heavily on digital visibility, it was a really difficult period. It tested our resilience and creativity in keeping our community engaged while we worked behind the scenes to restore our online presence.
Beyond that, we’ve faced many of the other typical challenges that come with building an intentional brand in a market like Nigeria. When you’re creating something meaningful, especially in wellness, you go through endless redrafts, product testing, returns, and refining. But I don’t see those as roadblocks. If anything, I see them as necessary steps toward delivering the best possible experience to our customers.
So far, no challenge has been insurmountable. And we know there will be more to come as we grow. But we’re ready. We’re committed to quality, clarity, and calm, and if the process is a bit chaotic along the way, that’s a price we’re willing to pay to get it right.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned since launching Relaks?
I’ve learned many lessons since launching Relaks, and I can confidently say that I’ve been personally refined through the process. This brand started as a solution to a personal struggle, but along the way, it has reshaped my perspective on people, business, and empathy.
If I had to highlight the biggest lesson, it would be this: treat adults like children.
It might sound odd at first, but hear me out: We often assume that adulthood means you’ve figured things out. But the truth is, so many adults are simply children carrying unresolved hurt, silent battles, and unacknowledged needs. People want to be spoken to with warmth. They need tenderness. At Relaks, we approach our customers with kindness, softness, and grace. We use endearing words, gentle tones, and thoughtful language. And the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
If there’s one thing you could have done differently when starting out, what would it be?
Truthfully? Nothing.
I know that might sound unusual, but I genuinely have no regrets. I’m proud of where we are, and I’m grateful for every part of the journey, even the moments that didn’t go exactly as planned. Relaks wasn’t created with the expectation that it would become “the viral colouring book,” as many people now refer to it. It started from a deeply personal place, and the growth we’ve seen has been humbling.
What kind of experience do you hope each product delivers to your audience?
More than anything, I hope Relaks makes people feel happy. That kind of quiet, intentional happiness that doesn’t come from external validation but from within.
I want each product to be a gentle interruption in someone’s day, a chance to pause, breathe, and reconnect with themselves. I hope it’s an experience they always want to return to. We’ve seen customers who’ve coloured through entire books and immediately asked when the next edition is coming. That tells me we’re creating something worth coming back to, something that people crave in their everyday lives.
Are there any exciting collaborations, product drops, or events we should be looking out for in the coming months?
Absolutely, and I’m so glad you asked this.
We’ve been quietly working on something incredibly exciting. It’s a brand new product, and while we were initially set to launch it during the summer, we made the decision to pull back and refine it further. That’s how seriously we take our intention and quality at Relaks. But trust me, it’s fresh, novel, and nothing quite like what we have in the Nigerian market. It carries the same originality and purpose that made Relaks what it is today. Whether we launch it before the end of the year or open 2026 with a bang, you can rest assured it’s going to be big.
We’re also bringing back something our community has been consistently asking for: the Furbags. That drop is happening before the year wraps up, and we’re just as excited about it as our customers are.
And here’s an exclusive: Relaks may be launching a limited-edition Christmas collection. Big things are coming, and we can’t wait to share them with the world.
It’s 2030. What does Relaks look like now?
By 2030, Relaks is global, no question.
We’re only five months in, and already our products have reached Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Asaba, and even the UK. If we’ve achieved this much in under half a year, just imagine what five years of focused growth and purpose will bring.
I see Relaks as a household name in wellness, not just in Nigeria, but across continents and cultures. We’ll be a multimillion-dollar company, present in several countries and languages, yet still deeply rooted in the mission that birthed us: to help people feel better, even in small, quiet ways.
What advice would you give to young Nigerians, especially creatives, who are looking to build a brand?
Start with purpose. That’s my core advice. Purpose is the foundation that holds everything else up, the engine that drives your brand through both the highs and the lows. If you’re only chasing money, burnout will catch up with you. But when you’re building something to solve a real problem, something that actually helps people, everything becomes more meaningful and sustainable.
So my advice is: identify the real problem you’re solving and be sure it truly matters. Build with your whole heart. Do your market research. Surround yourself with the right people. Ask for help. Seek mentorship. Be consistent and stay consistent.
I’m also a Christian, so I’ll add: pray. Let God lead you, especially in those uncertain moments. I’m not even where I want to be yet, but I believe, deeply, that when you stay rooted in purpose, keep showing up, and stay focused, it will work out in the end. For you, and for the people you’re building it for.
