Testing color on the gold color isn't the best idea. Surrounding colors help define individual color appearance - in a word it's called context.

So, what that means is in context of that gold color, all of those colors are influenced and they will show up looking different when they aren't on top of the gold.

What is a lighter version of sherwin williams rivers edge/china doll?

We have all major brands plus a few boutique brands in The Paint Color DNA Table and the only China Doll we have is from PPG. But here are a few colors just like River's Edge only lighter. Val = Valspar.

Buy white poster board and redo all your color tests. Painting a swatch on another color won’t give you true color.

River's Edge and China Doll are the same color (China Doll was renamed River's Edge)

As you go into the lighter neutrals the undertones are very sensitive to the lighting of the room.

The 4 lighter neutrals that I would test would be these:

Thank you! This is so helpful