Hi! I did not mean to imply Carnelian gets darker. Carnelian is a translucent stone, meaning you can see through it. More importantly, translucent stones will change color depending on the underlying material it sits on. In the case of a bracelet, it will sit on skin. If you wear a 20 motif, it will sit on top of clothes.
If you hold the bracelet up in the air, the carnelian shade will look different, and if you place it on a white sheet of paper, it will again look different. That was the point I wanted to make. You need to love it when it sits on your skin, and in my opinion, while wearing it at home, at night, in indoor lighting.
Carnelian will never be red... it will either be orange-red (drop of yellow) or brick/claret red (drop of brown). You get the idea... you just need to pick the secondary color you can live with in the absence of pure red.
Black is nice and bold, but black to me is not a happy bold. If you want a happy bold color, blue agate and orange-red carnelian would be the top two picks for me. On blue agate vs. carnelian since we're splitting hairs... Blue agate is gorgeous to me. I love that pop of blue, super stunning. The tradeoff is, to me, blue agate is a summer color, and I can't see myself wearing that with the dark colors of winter. Carnelian is year round... summer and winter.
All that said... I know you did not mention YG MOP. Have you considered MOP? It's not a happy color as you wanted, but to me it pops! MOP just glows against skin, and it matches everything. Just another idea in case you might be interested in MOP.
It's 100% preference on what you like. Good luck to you!
