Nuru Massage in London: What It Is and How to Book One

Nuru is the most misunderstood thing on our service list, mostly because the videos have got there first. What it actually is: a full body massage using a thick, odourless gel, with the masseuse using her whole body rather than her hands. Here is how one really runs, and what to ask for when you book.

What nuru means

Japanese, and it translates as slippery. That is the whole idea. The technique came out of Kawasaki in the seventies and the name describes the gel rather than any particular sequence of moves.

The gel is made from nori seaweed extract. It is clear, odourless, tasteless and considerably thicker than oil, which is what lets it do the job: it holds a film between two bodies instead of soaking into skin. It rinses off with warm water and leaves nothing behind.

What happens in one

A shower first, both of you, which is part of it rather than a preliminary. The gel is warmed. Most of the massage happens with you face down on a waterproof sheet or an inflatable mat, and she uses forearms, thighs, chest and back rather than hands alone.

The pace is slow and continuous. Because there is no friction, the sensation is unlike any other massage, and people who have had a lot of massages are usually the most surprised by it. It finishes with a shower.

Budget ninety minutes. An hour of nuru means rushing the shower at both ends and cutting the massage itself to about forty minutes, which is not really the thing.

How it differs from the others we list

Body to body is the closest relative and the two get confused constantly. Body to body uses oil. Nuru uses gel, which is thicker, does not stain, and gives a genuinely different glide. Seventy eight of our roster offer body to body.

Tantric is a different proposition altogether: built around breathing and pace rather than slipperiness, and considerably slower. Forty six offer it.

Erotic massage is the broad category the others sit inside. Nearly everyone on our books lists it.

Our guide to erotic massage in London sets the three of them side by side if you are deciding between them.

Where in London

Nuru is almost always an incall, and for a practical reason: it needs a mat, a shower and a room that can get wet. Very few hotel bathrooms suit it and no hotel wants the sheets afterwards. Ask for incall and it will go better.

The thirty three on our books who offer nuru are concentrated where the incall flats are, which in practice means Paddington, Bayswater, Marylebone and Earls Court. Central, easy to reach, and set up for it.

What it costs

The hourly rate on her profile, with no nuru surcharge on top. Where a surcharge does apply it is stated on the profile rather than mentioned at the door. Since ninety minutes is the sensible length, work from the ninety minute rate rather than the hourly one when you are budgeting. See what a London booking costs.

Anywhere advertising nuru well under the going rate is worth a second look, for the reasons set out in spotting a fake listing.

Hygiene, and the question people do not ask

Worth being plain about, since it comes up in searches far more often than in phone calls. Nuru involves prolonged full body skin contact, so anything that spreads by skin rather than fluid is not reduced by it. The gel is not a barrier and was never meant to be one.

What happens beyond the massage is a separate matter and the usual rules apply to it. Our guide on sexual health covers where to get real information, which is a clinic rather than an agency.

On the practical side: the gel is body safe and hypoallergenic, but if you react to seaweed or iodine, say so when you book.

Booking one

Say the word nuru on the phone. It is not a request anybody handling the call will react to, and it changes who we suggest, because the roster who offer it is a third of our books rather than all of it.

Tell us the length you want and whether you have had one before. If you have not, say so. It is the single most useful thing you can mention and it makes for a better ninety minutes.

Call +44 20 7846 3480, or browse the escorts who offer nuru first and ask for one by name.