diff --git a/conda/conda-build.sh b/conda/conda-build.sh
index c44ff3bf27c572acf46e4fcc13a293c19f8c9fd3..2e528695f94da90d8e5c389cb6ed1f00f6aa796b 100755
--- a/conda/conda-build.sh
+++ b/conda/conda-build.sh
@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@
 
 if [ $# = 0 ]; then
   echo "Script wrapping conda-build to build Bob packages with defaults"
-  echo "usage: $0 <python-version> <recipe-dir>"
-  echo "example: $0 3.6 conda"
+  echo "usage: $0 <recipe-dir> [<python-version>]"
+  echo "example: $0 conda 3.6"
+  echo "example: $0 dependencies/libblitz"
   exit 1
 fi
 
@@ -11,9 +12,16 @@ DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
 export CONDARC=${DIR}/build-condarc
 echo "Using CONDARC from \`${CONDARC}'..."
 
-if [ -e ${2}/../version.txt ]; then
-  export BOB_PACKAGE_VERSION=$(cat ${2}/../version.txt)
+BUILD_OPTIONS="--no-anaconda-upload --skip-existing --variant-config-files ${DIR}/../gitlab/conda_build_config.yaml"
+
+if [ $# = 2 ]; then
+  BUILD_OPTIONS="${BUILD_OPTIONS} --python=${2}";
+fi
+
+# Exclusively for Bob packages, we also set the package version
+if [ -e ${1}/../version.txt ]; then
+  export BOB_PACKAGE_VERSION=$(cat ${1}/../version.txt)
   echo "Setting package version to \`${BOB_PACKAGE_VERSION}'..."
 fi
 
-conda build --no-anaconda-upload --skip-existing --variant-config-files ${DIR}/../gitlab/conda_build_config.yaml --python=${1} ${2}
+conda build ${BUILD_OPTIONS} ${1}