A Mount Vernon handmade soap business grew from a mother's effort to ease her son's eczema

In Mount Vernon, Westchester County, a small handmade skincare business called Decota Naturals began as one mother's attempt to help her son. Deandra, the founder, started making oils and body butters for her son, who had bad eczema that left his skin peeling and was not helped by steroids. With her own mother offering to fund a business, she turned those recipes into handmade soaps and launched Decota Naturals at a local pop-up in October 2020, where she nearly sold out on the first day. More than five years later, the business has expanded, and customers say the products are like skin food, reporting that long-standing eczema, inflammation and scars have cleared up.

In Mount Vernon, in Westchester County, a small skincare business has grown out of a very personal mission. Decota Naturals, a line of handmade soaps and skincare products, started not as a business plan but as a mother's attempt to help her own child. Today, more than five years on, it has become a local success story built on those early efforts.

At the center of the story is the founder, Deandra, and her son. According to Deandra, her son had eczema at the time, and it was pretty bad. His skin used to peel, and the steroids and other treatments he was given simply were not helping. Watching that struggle pushed her to look for something different that might bring him relief.

Long before there was a business, Deandra was already making products at home for her son. She was making the oils and the body butters herself, something she says she always did for him. That hands-on experience with natural ingredients would later become the foundation of everything Decota Naturals offers.

The push to turn those efforts into a company came from her own mother. Deandra recalls that her mom actually came to her asking whether she wanted to start a business, and offered to fund it. With that support, Deandra stumbled upon handmade soaps and realized that this was a way she could continue to help her son while building something of her own.

After perfecting her recipes, Deandra officially launched Decota Naturals at a local pop-up in October 2020. The response was immediate. She says she practically sold out of everything she had that day and was over the moon, admitting she had not expected the level of support she received. That first day convinced her that she could really do this.

In the years since, the business has continued to grow. More than five years after that first pop-up, Decota Naturals has only expanded, and Deandra says she is proud of just how far she and her products have come. What began as a single mother's kitchen project has steadily turned into an established local brand.

For Deandra, the most meaningful part is the feedback from customers. She says people love to describe the products as skin food, and she often hears that their eczema has cleared up, their inflammation has eased, and scars they had carried for years, which nothing else had helped, have improved with the oils or the soaps. That response, rooted in the same problem she first set out to solve for her son, is what keeps the business going.

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