I've never seen soapstone in person but a friend of mine did her counters in honed black granite and it's beautiful. Something you might consider if you don't care for shiny.

Soapstone is a good deal softer than granite, which has some good and bad features. The good things are: it is impervious to chemicals, so no stains (they use soapstone for laboratory counters and sinks), and scratches can be sanded out. The bad thing is that it is softer than granite, so it can scratch easier (but scratches can be sanded out).

There is NO surface guaranteed to show nothing 100 % of the time. Soapstone is an almost perfect surface, in that while it is matte and "soft" it is NOT porous, therefore very anti microbial. That said, it will get tiny scratches, dings, , but is easily sanded away wit a small piece of ordinary sandpaper. You can use a wax, an enhancing seal such as mineral oil, It has been around for centuries, is virtually impervious to heat and is indestructible. The next best most "perfect"? Actually.......that's Corian......followed by butcher block, some quartzite and followed by all the rest, inclusive of marble if you can live with naturally occurring PATINA from use.

https://geology.com/rocks/soapstone.shtml

As stated above - soapstone can be fixed. We installed it in the kitchen below (with quartzite on the island) for an engineer client. Been there over 4 years - they still love it!

beersnob75, we have Jet Mist granite (black with white flecks and small streaks that overall reads charcoal to black) in a brushed finish. We do a lot of cooking and crafting in our kitchen and find that surface to be very forgiving. Quick wipe with a damp cloth and it looks perfect again.

We also have soapstone for our fireplace surround and hearth, and on a coffee table insert (the latter gets more abuse than our kitchen counters, I sometimes think). As Jan Moyer said, soapstone is great because you can wipe, scrub with soap and water and even sand lightly to get rid of stains...we have done all three. However, be cautious about oiling or applying other finishes to soapstone. As it is porous, it absorbs finishes, and these will permanently change the colour unless you sand down more than you would to remove a small stain on non-oiled. And sanding an oiled soapstone means you have to oil again, and the newly exposed areas may take a while to catch up in colour to the non-sanded areas. Our soapstone is a blue-grey, but when we wet it to clean it, a lot of green comes out, and we don't want that. You can see our soapstone around the fireplace and part of the table insert (lower right in photo). We didn't want the soapstone to be really dark, but it sounds as though you are looking for a black or near-black colour. If so, make sure you wet any slab you pick for your counters to make sure you like that colour. Also be aware that soapstone is prone to scratching, as Jan said, and chipping at the edges. Like marble, it will patina. But my husband and I would get it again in a heartbeat for where we have it. I am glad we ended up getting the brushed dark granite for our kitchen counters, though.

I have soapstone and love it. I waxed mine twice (same day) when it was first installed and haven't touched it since. That was last spring. I don’t use anything on it to clean other than soap/water. Before I got it, I was under the impression that it would require a lot more maintenance but I have not experienced that. I did get one very small nick in it shortly after it was installed but I really have to look to see it.

"However, be cautious about oiling or applying other finishes to soapstone. As it is porous, it absorbs finishes,"

I have to disagree. Soapstone is NOT porous. It is SOFT, but not porous. It does not absorb anything - any and all things applied to it sit on top (unless it has scratches and then whatever is applied on top will also go into the scratches). Oiling or waxing the surface does change the color, but the product has not been absorbed into the stone. You can spill anything you want on soapstone (whether treated or not), let it sit until it's good and dry, and simply wash off with soap and water. Really.

Please read Jan Moyer's comment and link above.

IMO, soapstone is the best countertop ever, and no, I don't sell the stuff. Past experience (and doing my own research) talking here.

cac546, as I said above, I do not sell soapstone, nor am I a pro on Houzz, but I have had years of experience with it. I do not think the sun will cause fading at all, because I have seen it used as steps to houses near the only mine in the US (in VA) - it is/was so common there that even tiny little homes have soapstone front steps and walks. Not to mention fireplaces, kitchen and bathroom countertops, etc. My assumption is that most of the nearby families worked in the mine and got to take the stuff home to use. All that said, if it is oiled or waxed, it may need to be redone more often outside but I don't have any direct knowledge. Soapstone is pretty darn amazing stuff.