A couple of months ago, I received the Liberator Esse Sex Lounger (Canadian link here). This is a sizeable sex couch and I thought it’d be a nightmare to transport! I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to receive, unbox, and set up. I’ll review the Esse in a separate post (update: here it is), but today I’ll walk you through what it was like to receive and set up this fabulous sex couch.
As always, please always refer to the manufacturer’s guidelines on setup; this is just my own personal experience with unboxing the Liberator Esse.
Step 1: The Box
I was expecting a giant couch-size box to be delivered to my door. The Liberator Esse is over 60 inches long, so I thought the box would weigh a ton and be impossible to drag into my home myself.
To my shock, the box was quite small — 16″ wide x 16″ deep x 30″ tall. Vacuum-compressed foam furniture is incredible! It was about 36 lbs, which was light enough for me to carry inside without breaking a sweat.
Liberator shipped this discreetly. I didn’t see the word “Liberator” on my package and the item description was “Orthopedic Pillow.”
I’m in Canada, and this shipped from the USA, so I was quite nervous about customs/duties fees. But I didn’t get any fees. Woohoo!
Step 2: Removing it from the Box
Because the contents of the Liberator Esse‘s box are foam and fabric, I was extra careful using a box cutter to get through the packing tape to open the box. You do NOT want to go too deep and slice right through the cardboard, because right underneath the cardboard is the fabric cover and a knife could tear it.
Once the top of the box is open, turn it upside-down and let the contents slide out.
You’ll receive one very tightly wrapped tube (which consists of the lounger and both pillows). Another bag will contain all the covers. Lastly, a small pamphlet will tell you how to set up the couch and give you a few ideas on how to use it.
Step 3: Unroll it, baby!
The next step is to find the start of the cling wrap and unpeel it so that you can roll it away. DO NOT CUT. If you try to use a box cutter (which was my first instinct), you will likely cut right through the plastic and pierce the Liberator Esse‘s foam.
When you unroll it as much as you can, you’ll eventually be able to make out the long couch and 2 pillows. Poke a little hold in the plastic to let air inside, which will allow the foam to start to expand; you’ll see it push against the sides of the plastic. When you’re ready, tear off the remaining plastic.
At the end of this step, you’ll have three black pieces. The white foam is inside these black liners. Though the liners are technically removable, Liberator doesn’t suggest removing them.
I took the picture above as soon as I pulled the pieces out of the plastic cling wrap. They look a little dimply and deflated because they are not fully expanded yet. They DO expand to be taut and firm.
Step 4: Add the cover!
The Liberator Esse‘s three covers are included in the other plastic bag that was in the box. They arrive ready to go — Though they’re washable, they didn’t smell weird or anything to me so I popped them right onto the couch.
It’s not super easy to put the cover on the couch (but this is the hardest part!). You’ll need a large enough space where you can lay the cover down (unzipped), and then move the couch onto the flat part of the cover. Then hold the couch in place while you pull the top part of the cover over the swoopy curves of the couch. Because one swoop is much taller than the other, if you get the orientation backwards it won’t fit…. if you’re having trouble zipping it up, make sure you didn’t make this mistake.
This is what my couch and pillows looked like as soon as I put the covers on. By this time, the foam had already expanded a lot and I could get on it immediately.
Step 5: Let it off-gas
This isn’t in any of Liberator’s instructions but, in my experience, large foam vacuum-compressed products need time to off-gas. I found this with my IKEA foam mattresses and it’s no different with the Liberator Esse. I’m sensitive to scents and I picked up a chemical/factory-type scent right away. We’re lucky we had a spare room to store it in (with good airflow) because it took just over a month for the scent to fade. I don’t think this was avoidable on Liberator’s part — products like this always seem to have this issue, especially when they’re large.
Step 6: Enjoy!
And that’s it! All in all, this was a very easy process. I’m still amazed at how small the box was compared to the final end product.
Be sure to keep your eye out for my full review in the coming months!
If you can’t wait that long and want to get your hands on the Liberator Esse now, I recommend:
- USA: Buy the Liberator Esse at Betty’s Toy Box ($675 USD but get 15% off your whole purchase with coupon code RUBY. That brings it down to $573, which is the best price available for this!)
- Canada: Buy the Liberator Esse at Naughty North ($1,400 CAD but get 12% off your whole purchase with coupon code MISSRUBY. That brings it down to $1,232 CAD)
Last Updated on February 25, 2023 by Miss Ruby