Philotheca cuticularis is a rounded shrub that grows to a height of and has glandular-warty branchlets. The leaves are crowded, more or less cylindrical, glandular-warty and long. The flowers are borne singly on the ends of the branchlets on a pedicel long. There are five sepals long and five elliptical, white petals about long. The tenstamens are free from each other and hairy.