Reference Guide: Chessex Borealis

Updated Dec 2023

Most people who develop an interest in dice and dice collecting almost inevitably eventually stumble across the Chessex Borealis line. You know, those semi-translucent dice with the very fine glitter. They’re really quite pretty, offered in several different colors, and actually available in two types of glitter. Which, admittedly, is veering into slightly dice-nerdy territory, but the old glitter vs. the new glitter identification is something that collectors hold near and dear to their heart.

Two Types of Glitter

So what are these two different types of glitter and why not just stick to one?

The answer is simple: The glitter change by Chessex was not voluntary. This happened around 2016, when the glitter material that Chessex had been using for many years in their Borealis lines became a controlled substance because it was starting to be used in the production of Euro bank notes. It was no longer possible to obtain it, and Chessex had to look for alternatives. This is when they changed from the so-called “old glitter” to the “new glitter”.

The Borealis dice that are currently readily available for purchase use a newer type of glitter (labelled NG by collectors), and since 2020 they also contain luminary (glow-in-the-dark) particles. All lines with the old glitter (OG) have become out-of-print and are hard to obtain outside of the collector’s market (with Borealis Maple Green being more recently out of print, which you can read about further below).

But what is all the rage about the old glitter, you may ask. Why is it so popular that collectors are hunting for it? It’s hard to explain if you’ve never seen the two glitters in person. But next to the rarity aspect that may entice some collectors, the old glitter is just, simply put, a lot prettier.

It’s hard to capture in photos or videos, but the old glitter has more depth to it, and the color shifting effect is more pronounced. In some Borealis lines, the dice themselves are more translucent, which makes the glitter effect more stunning. This may be a subjective statement, but the old glitter versions just look better.

Differences in Glitter Type

How exactly are the two kinds of glitter different? This is where it gets tricky, because–again–this is hard to explain and showcase. Most people who have seen the two glitters side by side with their own eyes will likely be able to tell you which is which, but for those who haven’t or need a refresher, we will try to do our best to show the differences in the glitter in photos.

What complicates matters is that not all Borealis dice use the same color glitter. In some, it is mostly green, in others mostly blue, in yet others gold or rainbow colored. For Borealis Purple and Sky Blue, if you see glitter that has a distinct green tint, your dice are going to be old glitter. Old glitter in Pink, Teal and Royal Purple has a distinctive teal tint. In some lines the old glitter dice are more translucent, particularly in the Pink and Teal lines.

Sometimes OG dice are labeled as “OOG” (old old glitter), which is a misnomer because it implies there is a third type of glitter, which there is not. OOG usually indicates that the die is more translucent, which Chessex has confirmed to be an unintentional production variance. This is especially prominent in the Smoke and Magenta lines, and gives the glitter more depth. OOG dice have the same type of glitter as OG dice.

In addition to the glitter aspect, there’s also that of the luminary particles, which were added in 2020 to all still existing Borealis new glitter lines, while those without luminary were all discontinued.

There is no hard cut-off date for when the switch from OG to NG was made, this happened gradually, starting in 2016 and was subject to the amount of remaining OG stock Chessex still had of the different designs. For a certain period of time, it was not unusual to find that single dice in NG sets were actually OG, most often seen with the Pink d8 and the Purple d6.

Not all Borealis colours have different glitter versions, and the list is somewhat complex, please take a look:

Borealis Colour	Old Glitter	New Glitter	New Glitter Luminary	Discontinued
Aquerple	X	–	–	yes
Blood Orange	–	–	X	no^a
Canary	–	–	X	no^a
Clear	X	–	–	yes
Confetti	X	–	–	yes
Green	X	–	–	yes
Icicle	–	–	X	no
Kelp	–	–	X	no^a
Light Green	X	X	X	no^b
Light Smoke	–	–	X	no
Magenta	X	X^c	–	yes
Maple Green	X	–	–	yes
Orange	X	–	–	yes
Pink	X	X	X	no^b
Purple	X	X	X	no^b
Red	X	–	–	yes
Rose Gold	–	–	X	no^a
Royal Purple	X	X	X	no^b
Sky Blue	X	X	X	no^b
Smoke	X	X	–	yes
Teal	X	X	X	no^b

^a limited run Lab Dice – may or may not get full release in the future
^b only lines with luminary are in print, all others are out of print
^c only polysets

Some people may be curious if there were changes in the new glitter when Chessex switched from non-luminary to the luminary lines. I inquired with them and got the following answer:

The glitter used in the luminary Borealis dice that have non-luminary new glitter equivalents is the same.
The glitter used in Borealis Light Smoke is the same as in new glitter Borealis Smoke.
The glitter used in Borealis Icicle, Canary, Blood Orange and Kelp is a composition of available new glitter material that’s the same as that used in other Borealis new glitter dice.

The Borealis Luminary Edition

As if the glitter differences aren’t complicated enough, in November 2020, Chessex introducted new, revamped versions of Borealis Light Green, Pink, Purple, Royal Purple, Sky Blue and Teal that outwardly look pretty much the same as the initial new glitter versions, but have an additional feature — glow-in-the-dark luminary particles.

You will be able to see these particles in normal light if you look very closely, and you can definitely see them under blacklight or in the dark, appearing as green-glowing flecks inside the dice.

The Luminary Borealis use the same glitter as the new glitter Borealis. Chessex gave the Luminary Borealis new, unique number codes that differ from those of the regular new glitter Borealis. All regular new glitter Borealis dice went out of print at the time that the Luminary lines were released.

Perhaps a bit of a blessing is that at least Chessex was smart enough to change the Chessex codes for the new luminary versions so that you can tell luminary and non-luminary Borealis apart. 🙂

Borealis Colour	Non-Luminary Code	Luminary Code
Light Green	CHX 27425	CHX 27575
Pink	CHX 27404	CHX 27584
Purple	CHX 27407	CHX 27577
Royal Purple	CHX 27467	CHX 27587
Sky Blue	CHX 27426	CHX 27586
Teal	CHX 27486	CHX 27585

Telling the Glitter Apart

Unfortunately, the insert cards in the Chessex dice boxes are no help in distinguishing between OG and NG, since Chessex didn’t change the card labels when they changed the glitter. The only way to really tell the two types of glitter apart is by looking at them. Below are some photos that might help you figure it out.

Borealis Light Green

Old glitter color: deep sky blue, sometimes described as sapphire blue
New glitter color: light blue
Die color: the same or very similar; NG is sometimes described to have an oily look, although newer versions of this set are known to have a higher degree of clarity

The glitter effect in the OG dice seems to be flat on the surface in daylight, but can show more depth if photographed with a flash. Flash photography can also also cause the Light Green old glitter to have a funky blue-ish purple color effect in photos that people sometimes call “glitchy”. I haven’t been able to reproduce it myself, unfortunately, otherwise I’d be happy to show you.

Borealis Magenta

Old glitter color: gold, more coarse glitter
New glitter color: gold, fine glitter
Die color: the same or very similar; some OG dice can be more translucent than others (labeled “OOG” by some collectors)

Magenta glitter is difficult to identify, especially if you don’t have a direct comparison. It can help putting the die directly on a flashlight. If there is blue glint to the glitter, it’s OG. NG would not have any blue glimmer if being illuminated.

Pipped Magenta dice were never produced in NG since pips don’t sell as well as the polysets, and the stock for the old glitter versions never ran out prior to discontinuation. Hence all pipped Magenta dice are OG. Borealis Magenta was discontinued in 2018, before the luminary particles were added to the Borealis line.

Borealis Pink

Old glitter color: greenish teal
New glitter color: light blue, finer glitter
Die color: NG dice are only semi-translucent and have an oily look, OG dice are almost translucent

Borealis Purple

Old glitter color: gold with green tint
New glitter color: gold
Die color: the same or very similar; somewhat translucent with darker swirls

Borealis Royal Purple

Old glitter color: teal
New glitter color: blue, finer glitter,
Die color: the same or very similar; some OG dice can be more translucent than others (labeled “OOG” by some collectors); NG dice are sometimes described as having an oily look

Borealis Sky Blue

Old glitter color: gold with green tint
New glitter color: gold, finer glitter
Die color: the same or very similar; somewhat translucent with darker swirls

Borealis Smoke

Old glitter color: full rainbow spectrum with warmer colors
New glitter color: silver, turquoise and purple
Die color: the same or very similar; some OG dice can be more translucent than others (labeled “OOG” by some collectors)

Borealis Teal

Old glitter color: teal
New glitter color: blue, finer glitter
Die color: NG dice are only semi-translucent and have an oily look, OG dice are almost translucent

Borealis Aquerple, Clear, Confetti, Green, Orange, and Red

Some older Borealis lines, namely Aquerple, Clear, Confetti, Green, Orange and Red, were never made with new glitter, and production of these lines was stopped long before the old glitter became unattainable. These only exist with one type of glitter (the “old” one). Additionally, Confetti, Green, Orange and Red were only released as limited editions, so a smaller amount of them was made than Aquerple and Clear, which makes them hard to obtain and sell for high prices on the collecting market.

Borealis Maple Green

The Maple Green Borealis line was released in spring 2019 when Chessex unexpectedly found remaining stock of the old glitter in one of their warehouses. Chessex announced their discontination in summer 2022 due to the glitter supply finally running out. Even though the Maple Green dice are one of the more recent Borealis lines, they technically use the old glitter.

Compared to the older Borealis Green line, the Maple Green dice have yellow ink, while the Green ones have white ink. The color of the Maple Green dice is a slightly darker green, the glitter color is similar — a yellowish gold.

Borealis Icicle, Light Smoke and Rose Gold

In November 2020, Chessex released two entirely new lines of Borealis — Borealis Icicle, and an updated version of Borealis Smoke, called Light Smoke.

Both of these are much like the luminary clear Nebula lines — a clear die base with different colour swirls inside, and the signature luminary particles that glow in the dark. And of course the colour-shifting fine glitter we know from the Borealis line.

Icicle is a clear luminary die base with white swirls and blue-purple shifting glitter and blue ink, Light Smoke is a clear luminary die base with black swirls and silver-blue-purple shifting glitter and silver ink. The glitter in Light Smoke is the same as in Smoke NG. The old version of Borealis Smoke was discontinued when Light Smoke was added to the Borealis lineup in 2020.

In late 2021, Chessex released wave 5 of their Lab Dice (new designs produced in a limited capacity to test popularity), part of which was a new Borealis design coined Borealis Rose Gold. They have a clear base with swirls of metallic copper and light blue glitter. Ink colour is blue. It is not yet determined whether Borealis Rose Gold will see a full release beyond the limited Lab Dice run. All three lines have unique Chessex number codes.

Borealis Canary, Blood Orange and Kelp

In July 2022, Chessex announced that three new Borealis colours would be part of the Lab Dice wave 6 release. We finally got the much requested colour yellow being added to the Borealis line-up, as well as a new shade of orange (very similar to the limited edition Borealis Orange of old) and a teal-green colour (dark green swirls in clear material). All three of these contain luminary particles, street date release was Nov 02, 2022.

Borealis Blood Orange vs. Orange

For those curious how the new version of Borealis Blood Orange from the 2022 Lab Dice (wave 6) compares to the old Borealis Orange that has been out of print for decades, I’ve taken a few comparison shots.

They’re really not all that different, and I daresay if you gave a mixed set to someone who isn’t terribly visually acute and doesn’t know anything about dice, they wouldn’t necessarily notice the dice are different. Probably the most noticeable difference is still the old vs. the new glitter. The old glitter has this deep shimmer that’s more green than gold, and the new glitter is mostly just gold without any green sheen. The Blood Orange might also veer a tad more towards red than yellow in terms of the overall hue of orange, but in my opinion not very noticeably so.

The last photo was taken in the half dark to capture the amount of luminary in them. The particles are fairly sparse, and I’m glad they didn’t go overboard with them for this release.

Borealis in a nutshell

Chessex was forced to change the glitter for the Borealis lines because the material was starting to be used in European currency and thus became a controlled substance they no longer had access to.
The change from the old to the new glitter occurred some time around 2016, but there is no fixed cut-off date as the change was gradual. For a certain period of time, new glitter sets tended to have single old glitter dice in them.
Borealis Aquerple, Clear, Confetti, Green, Orange and Red and Maple Green were only made with old glitter. There are no new glitter versions of these.
Borealis Confetti, Green, Orange and Red were limited runs, and thus are now very hard to find (and usually expensive to acquire).
Pipped Borealis Magenta dice were never produced with new glitter. All pipped Magenta dice are OG.
Borealis Maple Green was a line newly released in spring 2019 with Chessex’ last remaining stock of the old glitter that had been found in a warehouse. They were discontinued in summer 2022 due to the glitter supply running out.
Chessex changed all existing Borealis lines in Nov 2020 by adding luminary particles to the available new glitter designs. All non-luminary Borealis lines except Maple Green were discontinued. Borealis Magenta had been out of print for two years by this time.
Two new Borealis designs were introduced in Nov 2020 (Borealis Icicle and Borealis Light Smoke). The regular version of Borealis Smoke was discontinued at the same time. Both use the newer glitter and have luminary particles inside.
In 2021, one more Borealis design with luminary was introduced as part of the Chessex Lab Dice wave 5, called Borealis Rose Gold.
In 2022, three more Borealis colours with luminary were released as part of Lab Dice wave 6, Borealis Canary, Blood Orange and Kelp.
Sometimes old glitter dice are labelled OOG (old old glitter), which is a misnomer because it implies there is a third type of glitter, which there is not. OOG usually indicates that the die is more translucent/higher clarity, which gives the glitter more depth.