It is possible to make a kaleidoscope using conventional mirror but the results are not very satisfactory. Reflections are created by the glass surface as well as by the mirror coating. These two reflections overlap, producing an increasingly blurred effect round the kaleidoscope image.

Front-surface (aka first-surface) mirror is essential to obtain crisp multiple reflections that are at the heart of the Kaleidoscope image, without loss of definition. The best FSM has an aluminium coating on the front surface of thin float glass.