The price they quoted me was $85/sq ft which I didn't think I wanted to do either, but then when they figured out the square feet it was about 14 sq ft less than what I was estimating. So total price came in OK from what I was expecting. It is sparkly, they have it in leathered finish which isn't sparkly, but I just keep coming back to it. I like movement rather than spots, if that makes sense. Isn't bianco antico white? I have white cabinets and so alot of granites with beiges or whites predominating don't look as good.

thanks for your reply - I am hoping some of the granite gurus will also chime in for opinions.

The slab of Cosmos Granite at my fabricator is outside where the sun makes it shine...it is fantastic. It reminds me of Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night. I have only seen this one piece, the sparkles are beautiful, and the swirls are such a nice creamy/quartz look to them. I also decided on Bianco Antico. The slab I will be getting is creamy and brown with lots of silver mica in it. Some people call it White Diamonds. There are lots of slabs that tend to go towards the black/gray family though. Look at redroze's kitchen.

I can imagine cosmos being used on a big island so that you could capture the entire "feel" of it, I'm not sure I would be crazy with a 25" wide piece on the perimeter.

Good luck!

hmmm, that's a good point beekeeperswife,. The big movement I love may not be as noticeable on a perimeter top, although the sitting bar is at the same level as the counter so it's a piece 96" by about 36".

I just went to the granite yard at lunch ( I call this the granite diet; no time to eat but enough time to see some granite). I saw the bianco antico and it's really nice, I had not seen that before.

thrilled to remodel: I did see another slab I liked. It's called Metallic, I must be drawn to the sparklies!

If you can find it you might look at a granite called "copacabana". Its not a common selection, but we think it is beautiful. It has lots of veins/movement vs individual "stones". The slabs we are looking at are about 40% black, 40% gold, 15% cream and 5% caramel. It also has some "sparkles" from something like a quartz. Its about $70/sq ft installed. Of the few samples I have seen on the web, they are much lighter than the slabs we have selected.

We have something similar to Astrix, it's called Saturnia. We put it on our island. It was too expensive for us to put in the entire kitchen and besides, this is the centerpiece of our kitchen, and we put india black pearl around the perimeter to accent.

Here is a link that might be useful:

OOPS -- sorry, I meant to attach a link to the picture that shows the island along with the countertops. Hopefully I've done it correctly this time!

Here is a link that might be useful:

I have Kozmus granite which sounds like what you are describing, perhaps just a different name or spelling. We did our kitchen 2 years ago and I still love our granite - it was worth every penny.

We will start our remodel in 2 days and have also fell in love with Asterix. I am not a big fan of granite but this slab just takes my breath away. We originally wanted to go with something lighter for our cherry cabinets but once I saw the Asterix, I changed my mind. The beautiful silver in the slab is what I'm attracted to. We were able to get it for $42 per sq/ft installed. Can't wait to see it in my new kitchen.

I am considering the same type or even the same thing, It is called Golden Cosmos here where I am. I will post a picture soon.

I also fell in love with this granite. It is actually the only granite that has even appealed to me.

When I found the slab that I fell in love with, the edges of the slab were dusty, which didn't seem right. Then the fabricator said that it was a softer granite and it will scratch, but he added that they will still honor the lifetime guarantee and will fix the scratches. I can't imagine what kind of mess that would make! I passed.

will work for roses - Asterix is a softer granite and I have been warned by my fabricator not to cut directly on the stone because it will scratch. I use a chopping board to cut everything so I'm not concerned. He also told me that once it's installed, it will be as durable as other granites. In the past few month he has put in Asterix countertops in half a dozen kitchens.

We fell in love with it at first sight. Very few granite yards even carry it and the ones that have it are having a hard time keeping it in stock. Hope you make the decision that's right for you. Good luck!

I just saw Asterix at a granite yard last week. It was meshed on the back. The salesman said it was more of a delicate granite due to all the silver in it (can't remember what he called it). He picked a piece of the silver stuff right off the edge of the granite and it crumbled easily in his hand. That made me nervous about using it in a high usage area like a kitchen. Lovely granite, though.

It is a beautiful stone. As a fabricator I recommend only using an eased edge detail as the stoneis exremely difficult to fabricate due to it being hard/soft. Ask your fabricator to give you a small piece if he has some and you will see it crumble. Also, make sure your fabricator and you check the stone very closely for small cracks and fissures which makes this stone break very easily.

Well guys, I thought this was THE granite. I always assumed, since I have white cabinets, that I would get a dark granite and then, if I could do an island, it would be dark or black with a lighter top, maybe butcher block. But the dark granites had movement that was very directional and so on some of the cabinets it seemed like stripes. I tried to get over this but I couldn't.

Then I saw this granite slab of desert dream. Not directional movement, more like amoeba movement! Areas of colors in gray, taupe, yellow, browns. Do you think this would look ok with white cabs? The sinks on the picture are where I was trying to visualize by blanco anthracite sink versus one in metallic gray. What kind of island would you do with this granite on white thermofoil cabs and maybe a tumbled marble backsplash? Like I said, it isn't at all what I thought I would want, but it seems to be.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

I am in love with this slab. I found a good fabricator who has shown me his work with this, the only thing I'm concerned about is how it will hold up over the years. Has anyone had this very long?

I know this is an old post but felt compelled to comment. I was getting ready to purchase a new home that had a very large U-shaped kitchen with 2 large islands. The builder has used Santa Cecilia as the granite for the entire kitchen, which was way too much of the same thing. I purchased a brand new house that had a U-shaped kitchen with 2 large islands. I fell in love with Cosmos/Kosmos/Astrix as soon as I saw it in a kitchen showroom and decided I wanted to put it on both islands. I visited the granite store and picked out a great slab of the mostly black but with many, many swirls of all different colors and beautiful silver flecks (mica) throughout. It was not cheap at $125/sq ft installed. The day of the install, I arrived home to find the larger of the two islands done. However, they had drilled the hole for the faucet in the smaller sink island to big so they were going to have to replace that material. I also noticed that around the hold for the copper veg sink, it looked like someone had melted a black Crayola Crayon and filled in areas that had splintered during fabrication. It was a total mess. I called the fabricator the next day. After a long discussion, they agreed to replace the granite on both islands. They indicated they had sufficient material left from the slab for the smaller island to fabricate the replacement but it would be 4 - 6 weeks before they would get additional slabs of the material for me to choose for the large island. They replaced the granite on the small island within about a week. When I arrived home, I knew in an instant it was a different granite as it was only black and silver with no other swirls of color in it. Another long call and they agreed to replace the small island granite again. So I decided to take the day off when they were doing the 3rd replacement for the small island and 2nd for the large. Not long after they started it was obvious that they had measured incorrectly for the small island as there wasn't a millimeter of overhang. The brought the big piece in for the large island and I noticed they fabricated it with a double ogee edge that was a mess with "black crayola crayon" filler all along the edge. As was mentioned in a previous comment, the fabricator was very clear that a simple eased edge was the only option for this granite. So yet another phone call that we reached agreement they would replace the material yet again on both islands. Finally on the 4th replacement for the small and 3rd replacement for the large, it was right. It turned out to be stunning with the farmhouse copper sink in the small island and the large expanse of granite only broken by a corner copper veg sink in the larger. I can tell you that I took very good care of this granite but when it came time to sell the house 5 years later, it still looked good but there were hundreds of small scratches on both surfaces cause by the movement of dishes over the surface. I never cut anything except using cutting boards. So would I say the granite is durable after installation, no, definitely not. For as beautiful as it was, I would not use that granite again. BTW, the fabricator also decided they weren't going to work with this granite any longer adding $100/sq ft to the price or $225 per sq ft. I wish this story weren't true, especially since I had to live without a functioning kitchen sink for 3+ months, but every word is absolutely true. That'll teach me for remodeling a brand spanking new kitchen before the first meal had been cooked in it.

Thank you for your post. I too, loved, this granite. The colors are so perfect, the movement subtle but flowing. The sparkle in the sun, a gem! But, I agree for a large kitchen, too pricey and too subject to scratching. Maybe a bathroom, small space may be the better location