Shell up to 20 mm in length with 1.5 protoconch whorls and 5.5 telcoconch whorls; Protoconch small. Whorls rounded. Microsculpture unknown. Axial sculpture of last telcoconch whorl consisting of 9 broad, rounded, nodose ribs; apertural varix with short, frondose blunt spinclets. Spiral sculpture of alternatively high, rounded, primary and secondary cords. Aperture moderately large, ovate. Outer lip crenulate, erect, with 6 weak, elongate denticles within. Columellar lip narrow, smooth, weakly erect, adherent adapicallv. Siphonal canal short, sealed. Pale brown. Aperture pale brown, columellar and outer apertural lips white.

Ocinebrina helleri mostly resembles O. aciculata but differs in having narrower, more rounded axial ribs, and in having small, webbed or squamous, blunt spinelets on the outer apertural lip. The spiral sculpture is also different. O. aciculata having similar-sized, rounded cords, and not alternatively strong and high primary cords and low, narrow, secondary cords as in O. helleri. The shell is narrower than O. aciculata compared to its length, and the apertural varix is markedly higher. It differs from O. edwardsi and from O. nicolai in having an erect columellar lip, narrower and higher axial ribs, fewer, usually more regularly shaped spiral cords, a narrower and more erect apertural varix, and more rounded teleoconch whorls.

Known from a few localities in the northern Adriatic Sea. in the Sea of Palermo, and from Livorno, Italy, (coll. R. Houart) to 26 m .