Key Aspects:
- Holland America Line debuted its Blend Bar on seven ships, where cruisers can create a personalized lipstick from a wide choice of colors and flavors.
- The beauty experience, which includes guidance from an onboard consultant, will be available fleetwide starting in mid-November 2025.
- The Blend Bar carries a charge: Guests pay $65 for a custom lipstick or liquid matte, and $60 for lip gloss.
The use of lipstick dates back some 5,000 years, and while the practice is still embraced by millions, how many can say they have created their own personal formula and color?
Probably not too many, but Holland America Line is out to change that, with a new guest experience that invites cruisers to design a signature lipstick for themselves at the line’s new Blend Bar.
With assistance from a beauty consultant, guests can devise a lipstick or gloss from a choice of 30-plus pigments and 20 flavors, resulting in what the line calls a wearable memory of their cruise vacation.
“Today’s travelers are looking for more than just a vacation — they want exclusive experiences like Blend Bar that feel personal, immersive and meaningful,” said Carole Biencourt, vice president of onboard revenue for Holland America Line.
“We’re excited to launch the first lipstick blending bar at sea, where our beauty-loving guests can express themselves and create a unique souvenir of their time on board,” Biencourt added.
The Blend Bar, the first of its kind in the cruise industry, is operating aboard seven ships — Nieuw Statendam, Eurodam, Westerdam, Oosterdam, Zuiderdam, Volendam, and Zaandam.
The ships are operating itineraries across the globe, making the Blend Bar accessible to cruisers from various countries. Westerdam, for instance, will begin a series of Far East cruises on October 12, 2025, while Zuiderdam is wrapping up her Canada/New England itineraries and will begin sailing seasonal cruises from PortMiami on November 8, 2025.
Blend Bar will be available on the line’s remaining four ships — Rotterdam, Koningsdam, Noordam, and Nieuw Amsterdam, by mid-November 2025.
Here’s How the Blend Bar Works
Holland America Line’s new Blend Bar is sure to appeal to cruisers who appreciate the glamour that comes with matching a lipstick to a special outfit, or for whom the choice of a particular color is a personal statement.
Read Also: Holland America Ships by Size: Largest to Smallest
At the Blend Bar, a beauty consultant helps guests choose pigments and decide on a finish of either butter, creme, matte, or gloss. Once the colors are selected, guests can add flavors and other elements that can result in a frost, shimmer, or iridescent look.
After the elements are blended, they are melted and poured into a glass tube mold. Each guest is invited to name their creation and will receive a formula card detailing the specific ingredients they used. All pigments contain antioxidants and SPF (Sun Protection Factor).
Guests can rest assured that all of the ingredients are vegan and gluten-free, and contain no parabens, sulfates, GMOs (genetically modified organisms), or other harmful elements.
More From Cruise Hive
There is a cost to experience the Blend Bar. Guests pay $65 to create their custom lipstick or liquid matte, and slightly less, $60 per tube, for lip gloss.
Holland America Line, a premium brand of Carnival Corporation, is known for offering unique experiences onboard its ships. In 2024, for example, it partnered with Lindt & Sprüngli, the creators of Lindor truffles and chocolates, to bring exclusive desserts onto its ships.
That same year, the line arranged for one barrel of specially brewed Kentucky bourbon, from the Buffalo Trace Distillery, to be served in the ship’s Ocean Bars while supplies lasted.
