Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
eye-candy
also eye candy, "attractive woman on a TV show, etc.," by 1978, based on a metaphor also found in nose candy "cocaine" (1930).
Wiktionary
eye-candy
n. (attributive of eye candy English)
Usage examples of "eye-candy".
The shells were just point-of-purchase eye-candy, he said, made to wind up in the landfill if nobody recycled it, and usually nobody did.