Stone Tips
Stone is a natural material and small samples cannot be considered as other than broad representative of the material of the same name. Imperial Stonemasons' samples cannot represent the appearance of a large slab in all cases due to the variations that occur in any of our natural material.
All Imperial Stonemasons' stone cut to size products are treated with "Lithofin" sealant before dispatch. The sealant penetrates the surface of the material in order to help repel liquids, mainly water based solvent.
Honed (matt), flame textured or bush hammered surfaces are less durable as the stone is no longer protected by a polished surface and therefore is more susceptible to staining and particularly absorption of oils, water and alcohol. Granite, marble and limestone surfaces should be cleaned, resealed and waxed with "Lithofin" sealants or a similar range of product recommended for stone impregnation and maintenance.
Maintenance
Natural stones - especially calcite-based stones such as marble, travertine, limestone - have a delicate chemical composition that may interact in damaging ways with the chemistry of cleaning solutions that were not specifically formulated for the task. Once you know what to use, all you have to do is follow the basic advices listed thereafter:
GENERAL
Spills can be very different in nature from one another. Most of them will turn out to be detrimental to stone if unattended. Orange juice, lemonade, wine, vinegar, liquors, tomato sauce, yogurt, salad dressing, perfume, after shave, wrong cleaning products and so on, through a long list, most likely won't damage granite and green marble surfaces, but will etch polished marble, travertine or limestone. Therefore, try to pick up any spill as quickly as you can get to it. Do not rub the spill, only blot it. Do not use any generic cleaning product on your natural stone, unless the label specifies that it's safe on natural marble.
KITCHEN COUNTER TOPS
While any spray cleaner off the shelves of your local supermarket could prove itself too harsh - therefore damaging - for the delicate makeup of calcite-based stones like marble, travertine or limestone, theoretically it could be safely used to clean granite and green marbles (at least most of them). However, all true granites and all green marbles need to be sealed with a good-quality impregnator-type penetrating sealer, and these sealers - although invisible - must be dealt with from a maintenance point of view. In other words, while generic spray cleaners wouldn't damage the stone itself, they could turn out to be detrimental to the impregnator-sealer, which will eventually lead to staining of your unprotected counter top. In order not to take chances, it is safer not to let any spill sit too long on the surface of your counter top.
VANITY TOPS
Regularly clean your vanity top by using natural stone spray cleaner. As far as the mirror over your vanity top is concerned, it is probably safer not to take may chances with a regular glass cleaner as possible over-spray could spill on the marble surface and may damage it. Therefore, clean your mirror with the same solution of water and natural stone spay cleaner; even if you over-spray it, nothing will go wrong with your vanity top.