targeted volume of fat containing the gnrs in a preferred embodiment the optical elements may include beam expanding lenses to allow adjustment of the beam spread to cover different size target areas following irradiation of the gnrs in the fatty tissue to liquefy the fat 20 the liquid is aspirated using syringe 26 that is inserted into the pocket of liquefied fat the invention further includes a kit for performing selective fat removal in conjunction with an existing nir laser unit the kit includes the gnrs 8 in solution and syringes 24 and 26 the syringe for extracting the liquefied fat may be replaced by a fine cannula connected to a vacuum source that is capable of generating suction at the distal end of the cannula sufficient to draw the liquefied fat from the target area and into a collection vessel the inventive technique is possible because nir light of low power is minimally absorbed by endogenous components in the body such as skin water hemoglobin furthermore low power near infrared light does not cause photodamage to tissue nir light is currently used for imaging using indocyanine green icg an fda approved imaging agent able to absorb and emit in this region while skin and adipose tissue do not absorb the nir wavelengths gnrs do enabling.