Enhancing Stone

I bought a house with unfinished grey riverrock fireplace. I want to enhance the color without making the stones dark. I bought an AQUA stone enhancer and sealer and it did darken my sample to nearly black. It said \"darkening\" on the package but I did not notice it. Are there other products that will not darken but leave a satin, low-sheen finish? Would varnish work? I never use the fireplace. When I wet the stone to clean it initially, some stones did darken with the water, but not to the extent of the sealer I used. Please help this middle school English teacher who is our out hewr element. Thank you very much for any help you can give me.

In our part of the country, the Midwest, where we are subject to the freeze-thaw cycles, we do not recommend putting any type of sealer on exterior stones.  Sealers can trap moisture inside the stone which can lead to the stone cracking and failing and it can also lead to a mold build up.  On interior projects, we do use enhancers when we want to darken the stone a bit and we use clear sealers to seal  while not changing the color too much.  Sealers of all types are available at most home centers or locations where stone is sold.  You are wise to always try a sample before doing the whole wall.