If you’re a trained and experienced beautician with a fantastic reputation on land, a career change to a superyacht beauty stew might just be the perfect alternative.
How amazing would it be to continue doing something you love and that you’re good at while potentially travelling the world, making friends for life and earning a salary and tips that could quite literally change your life (if you’re sensible ha ha)!?
As the size of superyachts get bigger, so is the size of the crew and owners are often looking to find skilled professionals to add yet another layer of glamour and luxury to the onboard services.
Health and wellness are a priority, trips are getting longer and the yachts are traveling further afield, so having a beautician at the ready to top-up those treatments is essential and a real bonus for guests looking to charter.
A lot of the 90m+ superyachts even have an onboard spa with treatment rooms, steam and sauna rooms, cold pools and an unlimited product budget!
And right now, beauticians of all kinds are in high demand! Whether you’re a nail technician, masseuse, make-up artist, hair stylist or all-round beauty treatment boss, you could be in with a real chance of becoming a superyacht beauty stew. Your salary could start at around 2,800 Euros per month and go all the way up to 5,000 Euros with holiday leave being anything from 60 days to six months!
Not all beauty experience will be considered
For anyone looking to get their first superyacht role, it’s a hugely competitive market and can take months or even years to get your first big break. But if you have a secondary skill like beauty, it can be a huge bonus.
A lot of ‘green’ stews have hospitality experience but that’s not going to make you stand out these days. Nor is being newly qualified. You need to have some kind of longevity in your land-based career and at least a real interest in luxury brands even if you aren’t in a position to be able to use them right now.
Diaries full of standard Shellac, bikini wax and the odd full body massage booking is probably not going to cut it either. Focus more on facials, skin treatments and full beauty experiences if your plan is to be a superyacht beauty stew at some point.
The more experience you have, the more likely you are to get a more beauty focused role onboard and maybe even be in with a chance of joining a yacht with a fully equipped spa.
Superyacht beauty stew responsibilities include:
- Being on standby for any beauty treatments the guests want throughout the trip
- Managing and maintaining all beauty products onboard
- Cleaning the spa and/or treatment areas to make sure they are guest-ready at all times
You will be expected to do a wide variety of beauty treatments onboard, but massage and facials would be the most popular. Nails, waxing, and eyelash treatments are less common, but it totally depends on the owner and guests and length of trips.
There may be opportunities for you to broaden your beauty horizons too – if there is a product/ treatment that the boss is specifically into and you are not trained or experienced in it, then more often than not, the owner will happily send you on a course! All expenses paid.
Your other duties
The reality with any superyacht role with a secondary skill is that you will still be expected to perform standard crew duties 80% of the time.
As a beauty stew, you’ll most likely join the housekeeping, laundry or service interior team, responsible for chambermaid or waitress type duties – at the highest standards expected in 7-star hotels and Michelin star restaurants.
One day you could be doing back-to-back treatments and on the next trip, back-to-back linen washes and bed changes, so you need to have realistic expectations.
In return for your specialist skills, superyacht beauty stews can expect to earn a very attractive monthly salary from the outset, with tip potential on charter yachts.
And although you’ll probably be doing much less beauty than you are now, your fellow stews will no doubt be on-hand to help you maintain your level of skill and experience!
But if you are at the top of your game, you could be the perfect candidate to run an onboard spa, which would mean more beauty time, less stew time, and more money!
Are you suited to superyacht life?
Of course there are many pros to travelling the world on a luxurious floating hotel while doing a job you trained for, but being a superyacht beauty stew also requires some other soft skills and personality traits.
You’ll be working long hours, often doing basic jobs that are not beauty related at all, and you’ll be living away from home with complete strangers (at first, anyway).
It’s a high-pressure environment too with a big focus on exceptional service and absolute perfection (sometimes demanded by unreasonable and rude guests) so you’ll need a great work ethic alongside thick (and beautiful) skin!
Ready to take on a new challenge? First, invest in your STCW and ENG1. It will cost around £1,000 to become fully qualified in the UK but you’ll get that back in your first wage packet! Then register with us and we will be in touch to discuss potential roles.
