When I first started playing The Witcher, I used the "click on the potion you want" method a lot, and this was a mistake. Sometimes the game chose items that I was saving for a quest, like, say, echinops rootstock. And it paid no attention at all to the extra substances, so it never made an albedo, rubedo, or nigredo potion.If you make a Cat rubedo, you get the see-in-the-dark properties of Cat, plus some healing. If you're playing on easy, or if you're going into a fairly low-level dark area, the rubedo can be enough that you don't need to take a Swallow.If I'm having a small fight, I probably only use Swallow, but if I'm preparing for a boss fight, I'm probably taking a whole bunch of things. I usually make Tawny Owl albedo, so when I'm doing extensive prep, I take that first, and the albedo makes the toxicity of the other potions less. You don't need albedo for more than one potion -- one albedo reduces your toxicity for every potion you take while it's active; you don't need to make every potion albedo. I usually make Swallow nigredo, since the Swallow gives me healing and the nigredo increases Geralt's damage. But Swallow and rubedo stack, so if you're going into a fight that you suspect will be especially tough, you can have Swallow AND rubedo, for extra-fast healing.