Deborah Anastos created Sand Witch.

MCT / Jim Anness Jim Anness

RIVER EDGE, N.J. — Ah, beach season. A time for slipping on that new suit, lounging in the sun and cavorting in the surf.

Now if somebody could please do something about all that sand.

If that’s your sentiment, Deborah Anastos might be your somebody. Her creation is called Sand Witch, a silky, food-based powder beachgoers can rub on to stay sand-free.

A Jersey Shore product launch is under way, with radio and print ads slated to run this week. Anastos, 44, said she may even stroll the boardwalks with free samples, after getting encouraging feedback at a recent trade show in Atlantic City, N.J., and from the three spas where Sand Witch Inc.’s powder is sold.

But if Anastos is thinking big, she’s also carefully considering how to get there. “I think if I don’t move deliberately here that a bad move could topple us,” she said.

Already a seasoned business owner, Anastos initially tried to manage things herself — the table-with-one-leg approach, as she puts it.

GREATER STABILITY has come through three people: her husband, Brett, and two close friends — one providing the muscle and moral support, the other dollars and advice.

Anastos, a former drug user who speaks openly about her 17 years in recovery, said knowing when to ask for help is a critical part of starting a business.

“I want to stay humble enough to know I need that kind of support,” Anastos said. “By myself, I’m not really tethered to the earth.”

Sharing duties has allowed her to save money. Anastos — who also runs Designs by Deb LLC, a seven-year-old graphic design and marketing business — created the pamphlets, labels and Web site herself.

Her best friend and sole employee, Kim Branco, helped with packing and moving. Funding came from fellow entrepreneur John Quinn, who also provided free storage space in a medical building in Saddle Brook, N.J.

Anastos’ expenses have run to about $75,000. She said she saved about $10,000 by using an online legal service, LegalZoom.com, to trademark her logo, business name, catchphrase and product.

“I first went to a local attorney, who told me it was impossible to patent my product,” she said.

Anastos has no shortage of enthusiasm or ideas, including going national or even beyond. Prospective sales reps have already approached her, she said. But her husband, who spent 15 years in sales and the last eight as a real estate agent, cautioned her to choose carefully.

“If you hire someone who’s not a good representative, not only will they not sell the area, they’ll turn the area cold,” he told her.

For eight years, Anastos worked for a real estate management firm, where she’d often watch the clock for her signal to leave. “My boss would say, ‘Debbie, you look like a caged tiger,’ ” she recalled.

HER HUSBAND’S salary helped put her through Bergen Community College, which led last year to a bachelor’s degree in communications from Rutgers University. By then, Deb the designer was looking for a new gig.

She first got her idea more than a decade ago, after a friend mentioned using baby powder at the beach. Anastos wanted to create something safe for infants — research shows that talcum powder can pose serious health risks when inhaled — and heavy enough that a modest wind burst wouldn’t blow it out of someone’s hand.

She started combining food-based ingredients last year in the living room of her River Edge, N.J., home. “My husband would come home and there’d be powder everywhere,” she said.

By February, she had it down. Around that time, Anastos became close with Branco after designing a logo and brochure for her personal-training business.

“I saw how she was trying to carry Designs by Deb while launching this new business,” Branco recalled. “I just said, ‘Let me help you.’ ”

BRANCO demonstrated how the powder works one afternoon. After spraying her foot with saltwater indoors, she dipped it in a kiddie pool filled with sand. Then she rubbed some of the Sand Witch powder on her foot, ridding it of sand and preventing any more from sticking.

The tan-colored powder, which comes in a “shimmer” version, can be rubbed on after sunblock but needs to be reapplied following a swim.

Anastos said it also keeps grass clippings, dirt and sawdust from clinging to skin. Each bottle sells online for $5.99.

Quinn carries the product through his spa in Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J. “My biggest complaint about the beach is the sand,” he said. “So when I when I heard about something that would get rid of it, we started talking.”

Calling himself Anastos’ “consultant and bank,” Quinn is also a long-standing customer of her design business. Observing her work ethic over several years gave him confidence in his investment, he said.

Anastos’ next move is to design a more upscale look for her spa products.

“I always wanted to offer something for the regular moms who save all year to take a week or two down the Shore,” she said. “But then there’s a whole crew of wealthy women and the young girls who want the shimmer. At that level, it’s a luxury item.”

And Anastos sees at least one more market: all those beach babies whose moms and dads prefer to leave the beach — every last grain of it — behind.