diff --git a/test-release b/test-release
index e89d5da..d7bf091 100644
--- a/test-release
+++ b/test-release
@@ -24,16 +24,18 @@ $bin/twine upload --repository testpypi dist/colorama-* \
 # cd elsewhere so we cannot import from local source.
 mkdir -p $sandbox
 (
-    cd $sandbox
-
     # Create a temporary disposable virtualenv.
-    $syspython -m venv --clear venv
+    $syspython -m venv --clear $sandbox/venv
 
     # voodoo sleep. I saw the following install fail, due to expected version
     # not being listed at test.pypi.org, but then a few seconds later, re-run
-    # manually. it worked fine.
+    # manually, it worked fine.
     sleep 5
 
+    version=$(grep __version__ colorama/__init__.py | cut -d' ' -f3 | tr -d "'")
+
+    cd $sandbox
+
     # Install the package we just uploaded.
     # (--extra-index-url for this project's requirements)
     venv/bin/python -m pip --quiet install --index-url https://test.pypi.org/simple --extra-index-url https://pypi.org/simple colorama==$version