Grevillea candolleana is a shrub that typically grows to a height of . Its leaves are narrow egg-shaped to narrow elliptic or linear, long and wide, with the edges turned down or rolled under. The lower surface of the leaves is covered with soft, felty hairs. The flowers are white to cream-coloured, the pistil long and covered with shaggy hairs. There is a tongue-shaped, yellow appendage long on the style, that turns orange, then red as it ages. Flowering mostly occurs from August to November and the fruit is a softly-hairy follicle long.
