Hey, I love the soft, warm glow from these things too! No shame.

I too have been crushing on these for some time. I am so torn; sometimes I think that they are tacky and silly and sometimes I think that they are quite dreamy...I may never be able to break this deadlock in my head and by one.

They actually do have a real (positive) effect on mood.

put a red bulb in em. cool

Love it - it reminds me of rough alabaster. I am, however, cursed with an overactive imagination. I had a flash of a steadily atrophying lamp due to a pet with a newly aquired salt addiction...

I just recently purchased one of these, only it is a candle version, and am thoroughly impressed. I was skeptical at first but the health food store I work in got them in and had them lit at the front of the store. What a difference!! I can't pinpoint exactly what they do, but they really made me feel 'fresh' and I had energy the whole day.
I brought mine home and light it every night. The more you use it the better, as they need to stay dry to be most effective.
I am finding I am more productive at night, and enjoy the light it gives off. As well, when all three of my roommates got sick I stayed healthy the whole time. They supposedly remove the negative ions from the air, don't ask me what that means, but I recommend them for sure. Even if you just like the light they give off it will improve your mood.
Also, my store sold clear, yellow, orange, red and green lights to go inside them (yellow and orange were by far the nicest) so make sure you get a replacement bulb (we give them for free!).
Enjoy!

If you live somewhere with high humidity I'd not get one. The salt attracts moisture and you end up with a pool of salty water under the lamp, which rusts the electrics inside.

Ha! We have a pair of these, and our friends can't see them without calling us hippies.

yes you do need to to put them on a plate to collect the runny salt during the humid months, i'd advise.

and i've a kitty who is thoroughly disinterested in licking the salt, but humans, when told what it is, can't resist.

Jean-Michel Frank's chunk-of-quartz lamps from the 1930s are much much more stylish.

I have one and it casts a lovely light, which is pretty much all I ask for in a lamp.

Yes, I have licked it. Pink salt from the Himalayas really does taste different. I got some smaller chunks of the salt to place in a bowl near the lamp because people WILL desire a lick, they just do. Fond as I am of my friends , not so much for their saliva on my living room furnishings.
The pets display no interest at all in the lamp and the humidity gets high here a lot and has had no effect on the lamp that I can see.

Amber light is supposed to be conducive to relaxation and sleep. I have two salt lamps I light every night and have never experienced salt shedding of any sort. They are like little campfires, very soothing.

i thought it got rid of the positive ions, the negative ions are the ions that are good for you, like being at the beach. my (very stylish) grandma has one and won't stop talking about it! she lives in phoenix and swears that the lamp makes her mood improve like it does while she's in Santa Barbara vacationing.

I love these lamps! As someone with a home populated with mid-century modern pieces, antiques, some choice IKEA finds, and art from around the world (I travel for work a few times a year, and try to bring something interesting home), I love a bohemian eclectic esthetic (say that 3 times fast).

A rock lamp sitting on a 200 year old Chinese buffet next to an industrial mid-century-esque metal and wood stool with a Hopi grass basket hung on the wall...that's the sort of decor that says "home" to me.

Instead of "hippie-esque", I think of it more as "Miranda July goes globetrotting."

And now excuse me, I'm going to buy a few of these rock lamps for my bedroom...