[Warning: This post gets crazy sappy. I didn’t even bother with a picture because it would have to be of a smiling kitten or something. I’m in that kind of mood.]

Lovely readers,

Thank you so much for the flurry of sweet comments and tweets and such in response to yesterday’s graduation post! While I’ve been getting all misty-eyed about leaving my Beauty U ladies, I’ve also been thinking quite a lot about how much I adore all of you and this little community that we’ve built over the past ten months of beauty lovers, beauty critics, beauty consumers, beauty workers, and just all-around cool people. We pretty much rock, right?

So when Ariana asked yesterday, “I hope this won’t be the last we hear from you?” I laughed in a mildly evil oh-they-only-wish! kind of way. Because don’t you worry, Beauty Schooled isn’t going anywhere. I’ve got all kinds of ideas and plans in the works, which I promise to share in due time. What I can tell you now: We will still be talking about how the beauty industry makes us feel about our bodies. We will still be talking about the chemicals that go into everything we slather on our skin. We will still be talking about all our different kinds of beauty labor, what we love and hate about it and why we do it. And for sure, we will still be Pretty Price Check-ing.

But first: I’m, like, really tired.

So I’m going to take the next three weeks (I know! but don’t panic yet!) to clear my head, think about what I’ve done/am doing, and maybe just sleep. And to keep you entertained while I’m gone, I’ve come up with something great: A Best of Beauty U series, where we’ll replay my favorite posts on the whole experience from start to finish.

It’s going to be a bit repetitive for those of you who have been following along from the beginning, so I’ve also wrangled some very exciting guest posts, that may or may not be about cake and clean cosmetics. They’ll run in place of our usual Friday Price Checks. (Because I’ll be asleep, so I won’t know the current price of pretty. But you should keep on keeping tabs, and telling me about what I’m missing in the comments, or on Twitter, or via email,* kay, thanks?)

Plus, I know a lot of you are new (hi Jezebel readers! hi Gawker readers! hi Before It’s News fans!). And I was thinking oh how sad for you, to be showing up right when it might feel like the party is ending. I wrote some super good posts back before anyone was reading this thing. So this way, you can feel totally in on what the cool kids were doing from the get-go. And you’ll be all caught up by the time the party is ready to start back up for reals on September 20.

So thank you again for reading and commenting and clicking and all of that. Keep it up! (See that Digg button at the bottom of posts now? Try it, you’ll like it.)

And I’ll see you very soon.

-Virginia xo

PS. New commenters: Welcome! Please do comment away and just be patient. WordPress requires me to approve all new (and sometimes, it seems, haven’t-been-in-awhile) email addresses before your comments go live, to keep out the spam. I’ll be checking in sporadically to moderate over the next three weeks, but it might take a little longer than usual for your brilliance to appear on the site. Rest assured, I approve everything (good, bad and ugly) unless it’s clearly spam and/or the creepy sexual harassment junk that inevitably crop up when we talk about waxing, women’s bodies, and such. (Yeah. Sometime, I’ll do a post all ABOUT those creepers, because those guys have some stories to tell.)

*Um, if you’ve sent me an email in the past, you know, whenever, and I haven’t written back: Yikes, sorry. I did get it. And read it. I have a lovely folder of Beauty Schooled emails. That are on the post-three-week-nap to do list. xoxo