Shells minute to medium-sized, globose to conical, with the base very rounded, porcellaneous, with a calcareous operculum, flat or slightly concave on the inner face, tumid outside, and white; whorls convex, markedly patterned, brightly coloured. No periostracum.
 

« The shell has three to six whorls in the adult, with a trochoid to moderately high-spired outline. Whorls are more or less convex, smooth or with delicate microsculpture. […] Aperture is grossly ovate or rounded, with discontinuous peristome. Outer lip is devoid of any thickening. Inner lip may be flush with the surface of last whorl, or detached. Umbilicus may be totally absent […] but is occasionally conspicuous (as a rule in the smaller species). […] Protoconch-teleconch suture is not easily visible on adult shells but may be clearly seen on S.E.M. photographs of juveniles. » – S. Gofas: “The genus Tricolia (Phasianellidae) in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean”, Journal of Molluscan Studies vol.48(2), Oxford 1982, p.184.