Holland America's Blend Bar lets cruisers craft custom lipstick
Holland America Line is rolling out Blend Bar, a first-of-its-kind beauty experience at sea that lets travelers design a personalized lipstick or lip gloss with help from an onboard consultant. Using more than 30 pigments and multiple finishes, guests can match a favorite shade or mix something entirely new. The service is available on seven ships now, with the entire fleet set to offer Blend Bar by mid-November. Pricing is $65 for a custom lipstick or liquid matte, and $60 for a gloss.
Key points
- Why it matters: Personalization continues to drive onboard spending and brand differentiation at sea.
- Travel impact: Guests can take home a named, custom formula as a souvenir of their voyage.
- What's next: Fleetwide rollout completes by mid-November, expanding access on all Holland America ships.
- Ingredients: Paraben-free, sulfate-free, cruelty-free, vegan, with SPF protection noted by the line.
- Where onboard: Located in the beauty section of shipboard shops, bookable for individuals or small groups.
Snapshot
Blend Bar is positioned as a hands-on beauty lab where travelers sit with a consultant to choose pigments, finishes, and flavors, then watch as their custom mix is melted and poured into a lipstick mold or gloss tube. The palette spans 30-plus pigments with four finish options, and more than 20 flavors and essences. Guests can add shimmer or iridescent effects, then assign a unique name that appears on the tube. A formula card comes with each purchase, making it easier to reorder the same shade later. The line says products avoid parabens, sulfates, phthalates, and GMOs, and are gluten-free and vegan. Blend Bar is live on Nieuw Statendam, Eurodam, Westerdam, Oosterdam, Zuiderdam, Volendam, and Zaandam, with the remaining ships adding the service by mid-November 2025.
Background
Cruise lines have steadily expanded experiential retail, moving beyond logo shops toward curated, interactive moments that double as souvenirs. Holland America has leaned into this shift with premium dining add-ons and sustainability-minded merchandise, such as recycled-material accessories in its shops. Blend Bar extends that strategy to beauty, tapping demand for bespoke products that capture a memory and encourage social sharing. For guests, the attraction is twofold: creative play during a sea day and a personalized keepsake tied to the ship and itinerary. For the brand, it builds loyalty, creates a reason to browse the shops, and generates incremental revenue without occupying large venue space. The timing before the holiday season also positions the experience as a giftable activity on longer winter voyages.
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Latest developments
Custom lipstick at sea rolls out across the full fleet
Holland America states that Blend Bar is already operating on seven ships and will be available fleetwide by mid-November 2025. The session takes place within the onboard shops and is open to all ages. Guests can select butter, crème, matte, or gloss finishes and then personalize with optional shimmer effects and over 20 flavors. Each tube carries the guest's chosen name once the mixture cools and is packaged. Pricing is set at $65 for a custom lipstick or liquid matte, and $60 for a lip gloss. The line highlights ingredient standards that are cruelty-free and vegan, and indicates antioxidant content with everyday SPF. As the rollout expands, expect visibility in pre-cruise planners and the Navigator app, along with small-group availability for celebrations or girls' night activations onboard.
Analysis
Personalization remains one of the most reliable levers for cruise retail growth. Travelers increasingly value experiences that feel exclusive and sharable, and Blend Bar checks both boxes while requiring minimal square footage compared with a bar or lounge conversion. The $60 to $65 price point targets premium cosmetics buyers and aligns with department-store benchmarks once the guided experience is considered. Ingredient claims, including vegan and cruelty-free positioning, meet current consumer expectations and help the offering resonate across demographics. Operationally, locating Blend Bar inside the shops should increase foot traffic and cross-sell opportunities without adding new venues. The mid-November fleetwide timing also captures holiday sailings, when onboard gifting and celebration packages peak. For Holland America, this complements other experiential pillars, such as specialty dining and destination-driven programming, to round out sea-day options and drive attachment rates. If guest satisfaction scores track favorably, expect limited-edition flavors tied to itineraries, refill or reorder programs via the app, and occasional bundled offers with spa or salon services to lift yield.
Final thoughts
For cruisers who love beauty and bespoke souvenirs, Holland America's Blend Bar offers a simple, memorable way to personalize a look and a keepsake. The consultative format reduces decision friction, the flavor and finish options invite creativity, and the named tube plus formula card make the memory repeatable. With a rapid rollout to the full fleet by mid-November, the experience should be easy to find on upcoming itineraries, especially on longer voyages with more sea-day time to play. If you are building a sea-day plan, slot this before formal night for a photo-ready shade. The move strengthens the brand's experiential retail strategy and gives guests a new reason to browse the shops, all anchored by the Holland America Blend Bar.