Single color overlay bottles are made with one color base glass and a contrasting color overlay. The base color is most frequently either clear or opaque white. The lesser quality overlay bottles are all single color overlay, but some very high quality bottles are also produced. When determining the value of a Peking Glass bottle the details in the carving is the most important aspect.

Bubble Glass snuff bottles are made by heating the molten glass to a very high temperature and forcing air into the mixture. Impurities are also added to the mixture to produce the snowflake glass. Most of the Bubble Glass bottles are clear glass but some colored bubble glass bottles are made as well.

Multi-color overlay are made by using different colors side by side on the top layer. Two basic grades of these bottles exist. The first and least expensive uses random placement of the color. The second and better quality, the different colors are part of separate components of the design.

Seal Type overlay bottles have a very delicate "seal" carved on the bottle. This seal is the Name of the Artist, Name of the School in which he works, or the Dynasty after which the design was made.