The other-than-glossy engineered stone finishes have mixed reviews. I've had customers who have had theirs for years, love them, and look like the day they were installed. Rummage around this site and you'll find plenty of regrets too.

Thank you. Yea I started reading all the reviews last night- good and bad- and don’t know that I’m willing to take the risk. I’m a school teacher so I have to be careful with how I spend my money. :)

What did you decide? I am also debating sleek concrete but worried about the non polished finish?

Thank you kindertina! I love to do my research too! This was so very helpful

I'm confused - Sleek Concrete doesn't come in a honed finish - only a concrete finish. The sample you tested - was it the concrete finish? According to the website - the honed finish and concrete finish are different finishes. It seems the finishes are: glossy, natural, honed, concrete and rough.

The honed and concrete finishes are nearly identical. https://www.caesarstoneus.com/customer-care/finishes/

I guess when I wrote my post I was trying to emphasize that it was different from their Concrete color polished quartz.

I am trying to decide between polished and honed so I need to be sure what finish you actually tested - don't mean to be too specific and mince words but there is a difference between the finishes. Concrete has the word textured in it and honed does not. I am trying to make sure I have all the information to make an informed decision. Sorry if I came across obtuse. I am glad you love your countertops.

@pkirkha1 Thanks for asking for clarification... what I said was confusing. I tested both the raw concrete and sleek concrete, both in concrete finishes (the only finish they come in). Caesarstone also has a color named concrete which only comes in a polished finish, so when I wrote the original post I was trying to highlight the fact that it was the matte finish concrete I was asking about. It's interesting that they describe the concrete finish as textured... I found it to be smooth. My countertops are pebble grey in a polished finish (but that color also comes honed). I don't know if this is helpful, but instead of paying any money for the samples, I contacted my local sales rep in CA and requested them. She sent me around 10 colors that I was interested in free of charge and large samples (like you'd find in stores). Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you!!!!! Yes, so helpful!

I totally got the sleek gray and hope it isn't too beige. Nowhere has samples I can grab without waiting. Ugh. Design during covid is nightmare.

I got to see 10X 6 (or so) pieces of Sleek Concrete (Caesarstone number 4003) and Raw Concrete (Caesarstone number 4004) side by side at my local IKEA. IKEA sells Caesarstone quartz under their product name Kasker. Way cheaper, but then you're gambling on their fabricator contractor/third party. (fingers crossed).

Side by side, Raw concrete is a very slight yellowish compared to Sleek, but I highly doubt you'd ever see the yellowish tinge unless you have it up against a grey that reads other than yellow. I preferred the Sleek myself.

Hope that helps!

@Anna SFO thank you! I ended up doing the polished pebble grey. My coworker wanted the same for her IKEA kitchen and got hers through them. Here’s a photo of my kitchen. By the way, we are in the Bay Area too 😁

Your kitchen looks beautiful!  

I'm testing Sleek Concrete, Raw Concrete and frosted glass tiles with a product a specialty tile store recommended.  The warehouse guys were super nice and explained in detail how best to work with it and swore it would work perfectly for 4 years.  Interestingly, a different very high-end store said there's no issue at all with frosted glass backsplashes. Hm.

I bought red wine just for the test!  I'll post results after.

@kindertina We are also in the bay area and considering Raw Concrete. May I ask which distributor you contacted that sent you the samples? We went to a popular stone showroom in the peninsula and I was given a measly 2"x2" sample.

You can get samples
directly from Caesarstone.  Also, there's a page on Ikea's site that links to Colors4U, or something like that, Caesarstone sample for Ikea. It's not obvious/easy or direct to navigate to, I sort of stumbled onto it. They send mostly 4x4x 3/4 samples.  I've gotten the thin 2 x2 samples as well, and that's what I'm going to do my red wine test on.

@aha106 I went directly through Caesarstone. The sales coordinator’s name is Tammy Alcantara- 510 292 7292, Tammy.Alcantara@caesarstoneus.com. Also CC Nichole Brown, Nichole.Brown@caesarstoneus.com. I had to follow up a couple times but did finally get several large samples.

@kindertina Thank you! I saw on the website you can order samples too for $30, but even those only come in 2x7. I will try contacting them directly.

@aha106 you’re welcome! You shouldn’t have to pay at all when you email them directly.