Various finishes can contribute to colour and style.

Aurora Borealis / AB:

A rainbow finish that is normally applied to one side of the bead. In the swarovski range the AB finish is available to be coated all over the bead. When coated on beads that are transparent it gives them a mirror type of appearance. This finish can be scratched off with force, but doesnt rub off with general wear. The AB finish is created when the beads are exposed to a chemical reaction between 2 metals while being in the oven and
finish is applied to the exposed surfaces of the beads.

Ceylon:

A transparent pearlized bead with a lustre finish applied all over.

Galvanized:

A metallic bead caused by plating it with zinc in varying colours. Its a common finish in seed beads. With this kind of finish excess friction of the bead may cause the colour to come off.

Glass Pearls:

A standard glass pearl hasa opaque white base glass bead that is then coated in a nitro-cellulose lacquer that contains pearl pigments. They are quite often coated on strands so the edges may need to be filed.

Higher Metallic:

Surface coated with gold and then layered with titanium.

Hurricane Glass:

A glass bead that contains varying colours of glass in a swirl kind of pattern. Due to the way that these beads are created - heating the glass rods with swirls of colours in them before pressing them, they are hard to replicate to be the same.

Matte:

A dull finish on the bead. Quite often they have the effect of being opaque and don't reflect any colours.

Marble:

A opaque colour base bead that has a mottled effect over the top. An antique style finish.

Marea:

On one side of the bead gold is coated and then a mirror finish is applied over the gold. This finish is reminiscent of oil on water - metallic with all kinds of colours.

Milky:

Opalescent in colour, that is milky but can still be seen through - so they have some degree of translucency.

Opaque:

A bead that is solid in colour and can't be seen through. Colours are quite often chalky in colour.

Picasso:

A antique mottled effect often applied to a czech glass bead on the edges. It is quite often in a mottled tan colour, but is also rarely found in colours.

Satin:

A silky lustre coating applied over a translucent bead.

Tortoise:

An effect with a translucent bead in which black mottled throughout the bead. It is varied throughout the batch, with some having large amounts of black and others containing little black.

Vitreal Finish:

On one side of the bead is silver coated and then a rainbow finish is applied over the top. It is a mirrored rainbow effect.