I was just remarking to my husband that the kind of large pastels I am doing now probably would not have been possible without the explosion of pastel manufacturers that have come about in the last decade or so. Previously, to a great degree color mixing in pastel had to be done more optically, rather than relying on the enormous number of shades we have today. This probably makes the question of fading presently more dicey. I will probably continue doing pastels trying to use some common sense and avoiding especially those colors called hues.
There is a new UVA protectantant spray on the market from
www.goldenpaints.com, but iI doubt that that is the answer.
I noticed that some of Mary Cassat's pastels have faded, worse her paper changed color. I think people should be much more careful about the paper they use as well. There is a parallel problem with pastel or colored papers. Many are touted as lightfast and are not as they are dyed. One popular paper MiTeintes, I believe is dyed, not pigmented, therefore it will fade or discolor. There are many others which have a similiar problem. I believe it behooves the pastel artist to seek out lightfast papers, the ones that are pigmented. Unfortunately, they are more expensive and generally handmade.
I also noticed that Rembrandt is advertising a comlpletely revamped line.