Oh, Nerds, what a delightful product you are! Your baffling longevity as a major player in the candy wars is perplexing, but not entirely unwelcome, as you’re delicious. And who doesn’t love filling-busting, red dye-and-corn syrup nuggets enrobed in carnauba wax? No one who grew up in the ’80s, that’s who. And 11-year-old boys.
Despite never having much of a sweet tooth, I always savoured the Nerds my Nanny would lug home from trips she and my grandfather took down south. Grape and watermelon Nerds were all right, with strawberry-lemonade being the very best, and the possibility of finding a lone lemonade Nerd marooned over on the strawberry side always felt a bit like divine intervention from the Wonka gods instead of an issue of faulty packaging.
Here I took inspiration from a pink-to-purple thermal polish that’s always reminded me a bit of chunky Nerds encased in jelly, Polish Me Silly’s Grape Intentions, and widgeted together a couple of the candy’s lumpy little namesake mascots on my index and ring fingers.
Finger Candy 