The most popular soapstone is the darker black species. By far and away the black soapstone species are in more demand than the green, dappled, gray. There is no good or bad, right or wrong but there are differences between soapstone species that you should be aware of.
Soft (high talc) soapstone scratch more easily than harder soapstone species (lower talc content) stones. Conversely the soft stones lend to sanding out scratches more readily.
The hard soapstone species lend making more suitable sinks in terms of standing up to the abuse the bottom of a sink is subjected to. I have a soapstone sink in my home and we choose a softer soapstone. We choose this material because we liked the color and we do not mind the patina. In fact we encourage the patina as it goes with the rustic farmhouse style that is our home.
There are several options to darken your soapstone, the most well known is mineral oil and in the past few years the Dry Wax has proven to be easy to apply and longer lasting than the traditional mineral oil treatment. The Third option that I discovered recently struck me by surprise when I saw it only because I never thought of it until I saw it and that is ager.
What is ager? It is a darkening agent or a color enhancer for natural stone. we use it every day in granite production but never thought of using it for soapstone until i saw it and what is nice about it is that it is nearly a one and done treatment that theoretically never needs to be re-applied.
With all these options ranging from Mineral oil to Ager starting with a black soapstone goes along way to giving you the look you want with out so much effort to maintain it on your part.
Anyone that has soapstone will tell you there is no comparison to granite or marble or quartz because they are soapstone people!
Dan DiTomaso
Stone Master inc
Kennett Square PA