NOTD: Pure Torture by China Glaze...

For the darker side of love...

Pure Torture dates back to spring/summer 2005, and was part of the Voodoo That U Do collection [which also included Sweet Revenge, Hurts so Good, I'm Not Bitter, Pin Prick, and Voodoo That U Do]. 

I found Pure Torture for £1.99 during a bored 'n browsing "give me something pretty to look at" session (I shouldn't do that, as it almost always costs me money) on Amazon, and whilst Googling photos of it to help me decide if I wanted it, I came across conflicting information on this shade; some of the MUA reviews described it as semi-matte and matte and one review uses the word shimmer, whilst a blog I came across stated that the shade dries "shiny". Is it creme, matte, or somewhere in between? In the photos I found the shade looked like a straightforward creme, but was that due to the application of topcoat? And is there any hidden shimmer in the polish?

What's a girl to do when she's not sure what she would be getting? Well, for £1.99 I decided to go ahead & buy it, and find out for myself...

After the anticipation it turns out Pure Torture is a orangey red, with no shimmer or glitter. I don't know where the matte and semi matte comments came from - were there two versions of Pure Torture?)

 On me the orange tones are much stronger then the red ones; in fact in some lighting this shade seems straight up orange, while in others the red tones are more visible but still largely muted in comparison to the orange.

I think of the finish of this polish as a jelly, due to the sheerness and squishiness of the colour. I think that China Glazes non-shimmery shades have better pigmentation and apply better, and Pure Torture is no exception - in fact it has the best formula out of all the China Glaze polishes that I've tried. On the first coat the polish completely covers the nail evenly with no streaks.  I can see nail line through the slightly squishy colour, but I think that just wearing the one coat is perfectly fine under a glitter or if you're in a rush, and two coats still leaves some VNL, but is still something that I prefer doing (all of the photos on this page are of me wearing two coats). Three coats are largely opaque.

According to bloggers, Pure Torture is said to be pretty much the same shade as Roguish Red [the Wicked Halloween 2012 collection], so if you have that then you don't need this. Of course if you don't have that and you want this but can't find it, then you can pick up the still-easy-to-find Roguish Red for a reasonable price instead.