Nuru massage in Amsterdam at the far end of the evening

Nuru is warm gel, body weight and almost no friction. She covers both of you in a thick, odourless gel and the massage is delivered through full body contact rather than through hands alone, which is why guests describe it as sliding rather than as being worked on. On a late night site it needs one honest caveat: nuru is the format most affected by the hour you book it. It wants a surface for the gel and a shower afterwards you would actually be willing to stand in, and both of those are easier to organise at eleven at night than at four in the morning. Booked early in the night with ninety minutes on it, it is one of the most striking sessions available. Booked at the last edge of the night with sixty minutes on it, the rinse eats the end of the booking. The gel comes off with warm water and leaves nothing behind.

Where it comes from

The technique comes from Kawasaki in Japan, where bathhouse attendants developed a body slide using nori derived gel, and the name is simply the Japanese word for slippery. It travelled first to Europe as a novelty and then, once the gel became reliably available, as a technique in its own right. What the hotel room version drops is the whole bathhouse apparatus, the tiled floor and the drainage, which is precisely the part a room at two in the morning cannot supply.

The technique

The therapist uses her whole body as the instrument: forearms, hips, back, the length of her legs, with the gel removing the friction that would normally limit how much of her weight can travel across you. Pressure is produced by weight rather than by grip, so it arrives broad and even instead of pointed. She changes direction frequently and without announcement, and the lack of a predictable sequence is deliberate, since a body that cannot anticipate the next stroke stops bracing for it. Gel is added and warmed through the session rather than applied once at the start.

What to expect

Before she arrives, turn the heating up properly, because gel on skin in a cool room is the single thing that spoils this session and hotel rooms warm up more slowly than people expect. She brings the gel and a waterproof layer for the bed, so nothing belonging to the room is used. The gel is warmed and applied to both of you, unhurriedly, and the first contact is the moment most guests remember, because the temperature is right and the friction is simply not there. The work runs the length of the body, her weight carried on her arms, direction changing without any obvious break. Towards the end the pace drops and the pressure comes off. Afterwards there is a warm rinse, which takes a few minutes and is part of the booking rather than an interruption of it. Her limits are stated at the start of the visit and hold throughout.

Who it suits

The guest who wants the session to be an event rather than a wind down. Anyone who has had ordinary oil massage often enough that it no longer surprises them. Nights that start early rather than nights that start at three. It is less suited to a room with a shower you have already decided you dislike, to a booking of sixty minutes at the very end of the night, and to a first session with the house when what you actually want is sleep afterwards.

Benefits

Almost nothing else produces the same amount of continuous contact, and a body that has been braced all day tends to give up somewhere in the first twenty minutes. The absence of friction does something specific at a late hour: there is no edge for the mind to catch on, no sharp moment to anticipate, so attention slides off the clock entirely.

Arranged to your address

Nuru massage brought to hotel rooms and apartments across central Amsterdam through the evening and into the night, gel and waterproof layer carried by the therapist, outcall only.

Nearest on the list

If you are weighing one technique against another, these sit closest to Nuru Massage: Body-to-Body Massage · Soapy Massage · Tantra Massage · Sensual Massage.