We have a hard variety, Belvedere, from M. Teixeira, and love it. It’s impervious to everything, doesn’t etch or stain, is durable, easy to clean...and beautiful!

The key to a happy soapstone counter, is to purchase from a soapstone dealer/fabricator, and not a stone yard that mostly sells granite, quartzite and marble. Soapstone‘s composition is different from other stones. Fabrication involves sanding to a particular grit, not polishing. Sand to the wrong grit, and the soapstone won’t perform as it should.

Thank you- for your advice. I will be more aware of the sanding procedure. It’s nice to hear you are happy with the product as I am leaning to choose soapstone.

I just had a harder variety of soapstone installed, Beleza. Pick a harder one if you want to avoid scratches. I'm super pleased with it! Plenty of threads here on soapstone in the Houzz forum if you want to read more.

I love our soapstone SO much!!!! So glad I went with it after everyone tried to talk me out of it. It’s like velvet. Of course, it’s not perfect but that’s what I love about it.

Ps, ditto on finding a fabricator who is more experienced with soapstone. I was lucky and fell into meeting ours by chance, as they were next to our cabinetmakers (in MN check out NVR Surfaces!)