We love our salt lamp!

It sounds a little odd at first: a lamp that looks like a pink or salmon-colored geode and is made out of a hunk of salt.

Would it make you thirsty? Would your sinuses get overly dried out? Is it a little too new-agey?

Himalayan salt lamps are hugely popular right now, thanks in no small part to celebrity mentions and the popularity of sea salt in general. The theory with the lamps is that the salt absorbs allergens and dust in the home via negative ions, thereby purifying the air (the nasty stuff has all positive ions, the thinking goes, and the lamps neutralize the charge).

While the detoxifying benefits of salt have a long history — or even the bonuses provided by a saline flush — studies on the effectiveness of the lamps are hard to come by. The good news is that you can find them everywhere and give one a try for as little as $20 or so. And fans point to the calming glow of the lamp as much as any other attribute.

As for the pink and the Himalayan? An article on Time.com said pink Himalayan salt “is made from rock crystals of salt that have been mined from areas close to the Himalayas, often in Pakistan. It gets its rosy hue from trace minerals in the salt, like magnesium, potassium and calcium.”

In the Circleville area we found one of ours at the Health Food Cupboard and the other at Moonstone Circle.