I’m sure many of you have looked to the sky in some tough situations.

However recently Gaga teamed up with Cyndi Lauper to become ambassadors of cosmetic brand M.A.C’s “Viva Glam”. Viva Glam is M.A.C’s special brand aimed at raising money to fight AIDs across the globe. You can find out more about the the charity here, and shop the whole range here.

Together, to celebrate becoming ambassadors, the pair created two limited edition lustre lipsticks, Viva Glam Cyndi and Viva Glam Gaga. At £12.50 ($14) a pop , Cyndi’s lipstick is a berry pink shade, meanwhile Gaga’s is a much lighter, bubblegum colour.

As a Gaga fan and someone who will support a good cause, I decided to try out Viva Glam Gaga, despite not being much of a lipstick wearer – I’m more into what goes on my eyes than my lips (they’re thin, so Im scared I’ll look like a little girl playing with mum’s makeup). Anyway, I bit the bullet and gave it a try, here’s my run down.

1. Firstly, I was impressed at the speed in which M.A.C deliver. It came a day after I ordered. However, I was quite curious about WHY M.A.C needed to put one lipstick in such a huge box:

Even though everything about the box is recyclable, surely this much packaging must take something from the donating to their campaign (Yes, my postage cost was pretty low, and the cost of these types of boxes plus actual delivery doesn’t quite add up. Of course, if the boxes are bought in great bulk they are possibly extremely cheap)? Either way, I really didnt need such a huge box for something so small, think of the environment M.A.C!

2. Onto the lipstick. The first thing that got me was the lovely vanilla smell. Doing my research, I discovered that all M.A.C lipsticks actually have this smell. Goodo. I have some makeup of my own which smells like ear drops (my mascara, I will leave names out, for now)….

3. I was doing a bit of research the day before I bought it, and heard a few horror stories about it. Looking at people’s camera shots, the lipstick also looked so bright, like Barbie pink. I can safely assure you all it is not Barbie pink, just a nice, light pink with a slight blue hue.

4. Time to apply!! Once again, I read stories such as it won’t suit many people, and can’t be incorporated into many looks. I have to say, I don’t agree. Don’t forget, this is a lustre lipstick rather than matt, so you can layer it on depending on how dramatic you want to be. Here is a photo of a more subtle everyday look – only two layers:

At first, I was a bit freaked out as it started off quite purple combined with my natural lip colour. Though after being patted down with my finger and once it set to my lips, a soft pink appeared. Very feminine, not to brash, and not at all Barbie. However, if your lips are dry like mine were today, this lipstick will definitely highlight the flaws – so go moisturise? Hah!

5. Another rumour I heard was it makes your teeth appear yellowish. Now, with subtle appliance this is not true. Though when I applied more layers to go full on Gaga I could understand why some people could suffer with this; it is very intense with a lot of coats, so could easily knock the gleam off those pearly whites. Still, even when bolder I did not really have that problem. So unless you already know you have this problem with certain lipsticks, I’d give it the go ahead. Here it is brighter. Sadly my iphone isn’t quite advanced enough to pick out the true colour (edited slightly to remove the sun glare), but you get the idea:

So, for what my opinion it’s worth, I would fully recommend this lipstick. Not only is it good quality, and lasts quite well (you may need to re-apply once on a night out to hold its intensity), but you are giving to a good cause. I love this so much, I will be sad to see this go. Grab it while it’s still in production!

Spending too little time focusing on this blog right now. Trust me, it will get love come next month, but for now, it’s a bit of a barren wasteland.

Why? As much as I love writing about anything and everything, I wasn’t allowing myself to on here. That’s the problem. If I open this up to anything, I may actually use it more.

Of course, all my stories will need a more formal place to go. So, although I will leave the posts already made live, I shall be moving them, plus anything new, to its own page located at the top of the blog over the weekend.

In that case, I look forward to discussing anything and everything with you in a much more chatty environment. Who knows, I may even change the colour of my  logo finally

- Beth

• I write on The Next Web (.com and UK channels) now and then about internet-related tech. The stories generally go down quite well as I like fishing out the quirky news. View my archive here and here. As you can see, my updates haven’t been quite as regular due to it being my last year at uni, so various things such as dissertation work, student newspaper stories and general uni essays have gotten in my way. Speaking of student publication…
• … The student newspaper I am Culture Editor for – The Linc –  now has a magazine supplement inside. The Linc Magazine will contain Culture, Lifestyle and Fashion articles, and I look forward to you reading the Culture section…
• The Linc was also nominated for a BBC Innovation Award. Although we came back empty handed, it was great to be recognised.
• I am looking for some more work experience. Newspaper, magazine, online, I don’t mind what you are, I’ll do it!]
• Er… I turned 21. I also got some Lady GaGa (I’m a big fan, okay?) tickets. Maybe I’ll take my nice camera with me to the gig, I haven’t got that far yet.
• I’m also thinking of starting up another blog. I guess you could call it a news blog, but I think theres a couple of legalities I need to work out before setting it up.

Well, that’s about all I can think to fill you in on. Enjoy reading my archives on the website I just dropped to you, come back soon, as I’m going to start adding little bits and bobs from the web that I find interesting etc that I’m sure you will enjoy. Plus, I’ll actually update more instead of being lazy.

I would say Happy Valentines, only I’m not into that ‘holiday’ so happy Sunday!

My only resolution for 2010 will be to update my blog a lot more- I write almost daily now for The Next Web, which is some of my best writing, so really need to share with you!

Plus The Linc were nominated for a Guardian Media Award, which i eed to tell you all about too. Expect these posts shortly.

Twitter users blessed with the new Retweet functionality, as explained in our visual guide, will be logging in to find that the new beta feature is no longer available. The removal of the new feature comes only days after it was introduced, with Twitter putting the removal of the feature down to numerous bug errors.

Check out the rest here.

Up until last year, US rock band From Autumn to Ashes had been very quiet.

This may have been because of the departure of their vocalist, Benjamin Perri. However luck was on the band’s side as drummer Jeff Gretz stepped up to front the group shortly after 2007’s album Holding a Wolf by the Ears was released.

Since, the band has been growing from strength to strength, touring the world. Bandidge speaks to FATA’s Brian Deneeve (guitar and vocals) on gigging and …erm… tampons.

Read the rest at http://www.bandidge.com/interviews/f_fataint.html

There are not many musicians out there who have come out of Lincolnshire. However, there was one band, I Was A Cub Scout, who looked set to change that. From playing to crowds at Leeds and Reading to the duo’s quirky music videos on MTV, it was going well. Until they split.

But drummer Will Bowerman, 21, didn’t give up there. Now he has worked with the likes of Panic at the Disco and Babyshamles, and is currently drumming for electropop newcomers La Roux.

Catch the rest of the article here.

Here’s a preview of my debut article, which can be found here:

When doing typical tasks such as browsing the Web or writing a document, there’s nothing more annoying than Apple’s new multi-touch gestures on the MacBook Pro trackpad.

Check it out at http://www.twitterbulletin.com/2009/08/25/twitters-bid-to-trademark-tweet-fails/