Ending color of items

Is there a way to know what color your dyed items will be? What happened is I made a dark pink dye from purple and a dye remover. When I put it on my warriors knights boots (which are gold) they became a lighter hot pink. But when I put it on my mesmers enchanters boots/stockings (which are green) they became a darker green. Tried a dye remover before I applied it and the same thing happened. I know it has to do with the color of the armor but thats a big difference.

Wish someone could come up with a formula or explanation for this, so we all can stop trial-and-error.

I saw a female Mesmer yesterday with I think 15K enchanters armor, and it was a beautiful gold color, which I know lots of people are having trouble trying to make. I asked her what she dyed it with: the answer was just yellow dye! I think she used dye remover first on the default armor, but when I try this I don't see any difference.

I tried to make a "white" dye for my Mesmer's 15K enchanters dress, by pre-mixing yellow + 1 dye remover. When I did this I got what looked like orange in the bottle, but when I appied it, I got the nicest mint green. I am quite happy with this, looks better than gold, but it is just an accident that I came up with it!

So it seems that the end result is definitely influenced by what you are applying the dye to.