We present a study of excited-state dynamics of water-soluble carbonyl carotenoids, crocin, norbixin, and astalysine in solvents with different polarity. While no polarity effects were observed in 2-propanol and methanol, polarity-induced lifetime shortening has been detected in water. For crocin and astalysine the S 1 lifetime decreases from 135ps to 61ps (crocin), and from 4ps to 2.2ps (astalysine) when going from methanol to water. The S 1 lifetime of norbixin is within the 15–18ps range in all solvents, an effect attributed to its carboxylic group, which isolates the carbonyl group from the rest of conjugation. No spectral bands attributable to the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) state have been found in any transient absorption spectra. The ICT–S n transition is made forbidden, we suggest, by the symmetric location of the conjugated carbonyl groups. In astalysine, we have found a clear signature of the S∗ state with a lifetime of 7ps (methanol) and 6.1ps (water).