It depends, If npc's have informed you on the recipe, it should be acknowledged in a white big text across your screen with something like " added into the formula journal" or something and it dissapears off moderately fast, however going into the journal right after will always display the last update you had, and in this case, the formula, so you should already be in the formula section, with the new formula highlighted and the description on the right.It can be a bit confusing when NPC's talk about formulas and reading the description of it, since it seems to be explained differently in both context, and with that fact, you may have gotten a little confused on what formula you had. For instance, abigail described a formula (right before the beasts talks through alvin), however some may already have that formula, so nothing appears (and this causes further confusion, since you think its a new formula), tho you would notice what she says, and the action right after doesn't really reflect on the formulas description, but then again, it does make sense but just not right then.
The formua given by Abigail for the potion she makes for alvinn does one thing: Cause pain
The old villagers and beggars (both female) provide information from the books just for food. An old villager asked me for a potion of the White Gull (translating from CZ version) to ease the pains of her dying relative.Next time I play the witcher I will not buy the books, the women are a good source of info just for food I have no real use for anyway. 
Note the difference between Formulas and Recipes.The Formula for a Cat potion is Rebis + 2x Quberith That means you need to use one ingredient containing Rebis and two containing Quberith. For the Rebis component you could use Cadaverine, Death Dust, Celandine or a variety of other ingredients, similarly for Quberith.One example of a Cat Recipe would be Celandine + 2x Balisse. Another would be Death Dust + Mandrake Root + Abomination Lymph. There are many others, all deriving from the Formula.(Albedo/Nigredo/Rubedo complicates this slightly, but they're not required so you can just forget about them for now)When people give you a Formula, they frequently give you a Recipe as well. The Recipe is not the only one that works, and indeed is frequently suboptimal (in terms of rarity of ingredients). Make a list of which component each of the ingredients you have access to provides, and use that to write your own recipes.
Alchemy system is great in its simplicity. In fact, you don't have to remember much, once you obtain formulae in your journal. To be frank, I am bit lazy so most formulaes i got from books.Once you have formulae, It is quite easy to use it - just start meditation near the fire. If you have ingredients, the you can only click the name of potion and then program will automatically select right components, so you can just press mix command button (this is a basic mode). If you dont have the ingredients, hover the mouse over formulae name and see what it requires. In fact there is only six different kinds of primary ingredients (rebis, quberith, vermillion, vitriol, aether,hydragenum). Notice, that when you select formulae, there appears a some kind of filter on inventory - ingredients that are useless for this particular recipe are grayed out. Look out at the colours of ingredients, it may help you to select proper ones. You dont need to know what ingredient flower/beast contains - just make sure, that when you are selling out sth, you leave in your inv. at least one of each kind. Remember that you should have proper alcohol (strong) to mix potions. Personally I use cheapest alcohol for most potions, and mix grey gull to make the rest (this saves my gold, which I preffer to spend on books).When you want to go expert, you can first select formulae, and then swap components containing the same ingredients. You can do this to save your money (use cheaper, and sell out more expensive ones) or to gain additional effects with use of secondary ingredients (albedo, rubedo and nigredo). You gain them if all components have the same secondary ingredients.
If you discover a potion through random experimentation is the formula added to your journal, or do you have to be sure to keep careful notes of your experimentation so you can recreate it?
If you're short of an ingredient to make a potion, look at the appropriate entry under the Formula section of the journal and make sure you take note of any specific requirements. For example, to make Swallow you don't just need Strong Alcohol it must also be of the highest quality - that will be part of the description of certain drinks but not others.
Tawny Owl: Screen Effects (at least, from what I can tell are due to the Tawny Owl potion) don't always removes themselves after the potion itself wears off. Anyone ese experience this or other problems like it, and have a fix?
Is this because my toxic level is high? They are red spots that appear on the screen....not sure what it is. Any ideas?Thanks!
One of the coolest and most subtle effects I've seen in a game in a long while. I wasn't sure I was seeing it at first, and it took me a minutes to figure out what it was. I thought it was from the Swallow potion, but when that had worn off it was still there. I figured out it was the toxicity, and just sat there for a minute thinking about how awesome that was.
Yes I drank an unknown potion and then everything was in slow motion and I was seeing red spots too - It never seemed to get worse or wear off and I completed the better part of Act 1 like that and then started Act 2 like that only when I had a nap to level up did I return to normal - Something I think I shouldn't have because killing monsters and stuff in slow motion is great - I could take then out without any problems
The persistent slow motion was a bug. Blizzard does that for a few minutes. Toxicity is something else.
Are you sure you aren't just experiencing the "toxication" effect? Like red embers blinking all over your screen? If so that's a side effect of taking any potion and you can monitor your current "toxic" level by the green bar under your health/endurance.This "toxic" effect will only diminish through rest or taking a White Honey potion.- Zoink
I'm gonna brew up about ten each of the Zerrikanian Sun and Dragon's Dream grenades, so I don't want to buy just one or two powders at a time. Which grenades are you partial too?Also, is the effect "Fear" any decent? If so, I'll use the five billion piles of Stammelford's dust thr game throws at you to make a few.
I never saw that stuff coming in bulk. I usually went to Kalkstein and that other alchemist in Trade Quarters (the yard near the bank) and bought each in-game 24 hour cycle every component they had in stock until I had enough.That's the only clue that comes to my mind to get top quality powder hoarded