In this work we study the deformations of a Hopf algebra $H$ by partial actions of $H$ on its base field $Bbbk$, via partial smash product algebras. We introduce the concept of a $lambda$-Hopf algebra as a Hopf algebra obtained as a partial smash product algebra, and show that every Hopf algebra is a $lambda$-Hopf algebra. Moreover, a method to compute partial actions of a given Hopf algebra on its base field is developed and, as an application, we exhibit all partial actions of such type for some families of Hopf algebras.