Nuru massage in Amsterdam, and the shower it depends on

Where it comes from

Nuru began in Japan in the late twentieth century, in bathhouses where warm water and bathing were central to the evening. The name is usually glossed as slippery. The gel is made from a seaweed extract, and the format spread through Europe in private rooms rather than bathhouses.

How it is worked

Warm gel, poured and spread over a sheet, with slow gliding movement across the whole surface. The gel stays slick for a long time, so there is no dragging and little need to reapply it. The pace is slow throughout, and she reads the session as it goes.

What the hour holds

The first part of the visit is set-up: a waterproof sheet over the bed, the gel warmed in a bowl of hot water, the heating turned up. She explains how the session runs and where her limits sit before anything begins. The gel is applied warm and spread slowly, and the pace stays unhurried throughout. At the end, the shower: she will show you how to rinse the gel off quickly, and her sheet leaves with her.

Who asks for it

The visitor staying in a room with a proper walk-in shower. A guest who has done an oil session on an earlier trip and wants to try something new. A cold, wet evening when the warmth of the gel is the whole point.

What it leaves you with

An unfamiliar sensation after a day of familiar ones. Visitors who try it once on a trip often talk about the warmth and the slowness more than about anything else.

At your address

Nuru massage in Amsterdam at your hotel room or apartment with a walk-in shower, from one hour to three, with gel and waterproof sheet brought along.

Length

An hour at 180 euros works, but the set-up and the shower take part of it. Ninety minutes at 270 is the length that leaves the session itself unhurried. Two hours at 360 suits an evening with nothing after it.

Near it on the board

Body-to-Body Massage · Soapy Massage · Tantra Massage · Sensual Massage