Caran D'ache Neocolor II Lightfast ratings

Caran D'ache lightfast test in window with southern exposure approximately April to December 2019

I have been playing with the Neocolor II water soluble crayons a little bit. They are fun, and very nice to use. I find them fairly soft and they dissolve easily in water. You can use a wet brush to take some color off the tip of the stick for small bits of color, or scribble all over a page and then apply water in selected areas. Once they have been watered down they don't smear on the paper. A solid crayon mark does smear.

In 2015 the Wild Portrait Artist blog posted this lightfastness chart (scroll down for the chart, which comes from Caran D'ache) and an interesting bit of information. It's the only information I can find online. The chart from Caran D'ache is out of date - some of those colors have been discontinued. And there are some newer ones. I don't have them all, I think there are a total of 84 colors. I got most of mine at Artist's and Craftsman Supply. I can't find a web site for the Portland stores, but here is their Facebook page.

I prefer to do my own tests, using paper I like, in this case Strathmore Imperial watercolor paper. I decided to make a quick test to put in a window with full sun exposure. I scribbled in the top area of the box and used some clean water on a watercolor brush to pull the crayon into the lower part. The right side of each column was covered with a dense paper. The top three rows are colors that are listed as fugitive. Some of those turned out to be pretty lightfast. Unfortunately I forgot to date the test. I am guessing it was in a window with sun or bright light from April to the end of December. I scanned the test on January 1, 2020, a few days after taking it out of the window. I will tell you what I see on the actual test because computer colors are so varied. The image will enlarge if clicked.

Periwinkle Blue has a very slight change, mostly in the watered down area.
Light Olive changed a tiny bit, the watered down area is a tiny bit lighter.
Olive also a bit lighter in the watered down area. It seems to change in tone from a warmish olive to a cooler olive where it fades.
Carmine is very faded in the watered down area.
Pink may have slight fading but it's almost undetectable. I may just be expecting to see fading there.
Russet may have very slight fading.
Ochre is extremely different in both areas - it goes very much to greenish yellow.
Brown has no change.
Raw Umber fades slightly in both areas - mostly apparent in the watered down section. It's still a beautiful color.
Lemon Yellow is so light it's hard to say, but I think it faded a bit in the sun.
Yellow also may have faded a tiny bit in the sun exposed side.
Orange is noticeably faded in both areas.
Salmon is a tiny bit faded.
Vermillion may be a bit faded, it's hard to say, I may have not applied the color evenly.
Scarlet seems slightly faded in the watered down area, or maybe the color wasn't even.
Purple may have a very slight change.
Lilac may have faded a bit in both the solid and the watered down areas.
Violet I believe is a bit faded in the watered down area.
Ultramarine looks okay.
Light Blue may be a bit faded in the watered down area.
Cobalt seems okay.
Turquoise is okay.
Yellow green I'm not sure about.
Emerald Green seems okay.
Malachite Green maybe be a bit faded but I may not have applied the color evenly.
Prussian Blue seems fine.
Black may be faded in the watered down area or I may not have applied the color evenly.
Grey looks slightly faded to me.
Light Grey seems slightly faded in both areas.
White - I'm not sure why I tested white, maybe to fill in the last box. Can't see any change.

I would not hesitate to use any of the colors where I wasn't sure about the fading. I think in an artist's book they would be fine. The question remains how they would do in a gallery setting if displayed for a month under fluorescent lights, which can fade colors a lot. If you can accept a slight shift in darkness, where the color remains the same, I think all but the Olive, Carmine, Ochre and Orange might be okay. The question is - can you accept a slight shift over time? With collage I always feel things will change anyway. Papers can yellow, magazine colors will certainly fade. It's an inherently un-archival medium.

It was especially interesting to me that many of the supposedly fugitive colors are not bad. I always look at the grey to see what their range is. The Raw Umber is a beautiful brownish grey, the Black is very dark and dense where it's applied solid. The watered down part is pretty, a nice grey. And the Grey and Light Grey are on the cool side.