Varnishing - fixing(?) problems

I'm having trouble with the one side of the neck. One side I am very happy about, but the other once is not behaving. I suppose I have touched the corner too many times at some point. The corners are tricky because varnishing easily collects in the corner. In addition, I have always first varnished the neck, and then a little later the sides. For some reason on one side I have managed to not mess it up but this other one is getting bad. And I feel the more I try to fix it the worse it gets. I think I was too impatient in my initial fix attempts and tried to put too many layers on too quickly. Now I am slowing down and hopefully that helps. I am now trying to get the edge back to the same shade as the rest, and then carefully sand the dark parts down. After that it will be the final coat of coloured varnish before the 2-3 top clear ones. I will put now as few layers on as possible to minise the risk of messing the varnish any more.