Alchemy ( Skyrim ) Alchemy is a skill in and is one of the six skills that falls under The Thief play - style . Alchemy is the art of combining raw ingredients with matching effects to produce potions and poison . It is one of the three crafting skills in " Skyrim " , together with Smithing and Enchanting . It is affected by The Thief Stone and , as with all skills , by The Lover Stone . Mechanics . Racial bonuses . Bosmer , Breton , Khajiit , and Dunmer gain a + 5 boost to Alchemy at the start of the game . Ingredients . Ingredients are used to create potions that have specific effects . Each ingredient has four set effects . Each effect is labeled " unknown " until the Dragonborn uses an Alchemy Lab to combine ingredients that share one or more effects . Those shared effects will then be revealed permanently for those ingredients in the future , and one or more relevant potions will be available in the Alchemy Lab menu screen for convenience . The first effect can also be revealed by ' eating ' the ingredient , which immediately causes the effect on the player after consumption . All ingredient effects are temporary , and only Jarrin Root is potentially fatal if eaten , making experimenting quite safe . With perks , all four effects can be found by eating a single ingredient . Recipes . All alchemy merchants have recipes for sale in their shops . Recipes can also be found as loot . Recipes list ingredients that share a given effect which helps limit the experimentation required to find the effects of each ingredient . However , some of these recipes are inaccurate . Alchemy Labs . Brewing potions requires an Alchemy Lab , which can be found in various locations throughout Skyrim , such as alchemy supply shops , private studies , some inns , court wizards ' quarters , and can be purchased for player - owned homes . When interacting with an Alchemy Lab , the Dragonborn will see a menu . At the top is ' Ingredients ' , which opens a sub - menu which lists all the ingredients currently in the inventory . Below that is a list of all known effects on all ingredients in the inventory . Each of those open a sub - menu which lists only ingredients that share that effect . When all or part of the chosen ingredients fail to create an effect , attempting to combine the same ingredients again will darken the names of ingredients which were previously proven to produce nothing with the first ingredient selected . Potions and poisons . Potions and poisons , which are confusingly collectively called " potions " sometimes , are items produced as a result of brewing at an Alchemy Lab . In typical parlance , potions affect the Dragonborn . Examples include those that increase the maximum of ( " Fortify " ) , regenerate over time , or instantly replenish stats like Stamina , Magicka , or Health , that increase the magnitude of spells cast , that increase skills like One - Handed or Smithing , or that alter the player with Invisibility . Poisons affect others . Damage Health , Slow , Paralyze , Weakness to Fire , and Lingering Damage Magicka are common examples of a poison ' s effects . A brewed potion ( in the collective sense of the word ) always has a name describing its dominant effect . Unlike found potions , which can have alternate names and usually only one effect , brewed potions always have one consistent name , regardless of the number of effects contained . This can lead to some confusion when finding a potion to consume from the inventory . The value of a potion is derived from the number of effects and their magnitude , regardless of the utility of the potion . In fact , some craftable poisons can benefit the enemy , and some craftable potions can harm the Dragonborn . The Alchemy perk Purity removes this possibility for potions crafted in the future . Using a potion involves simply selected it from the inventory , while poisons are applied to weapons such as a sword or a bow by equipping the weapon to be poisoned and then selecting a poison to apply to it . Leveling . The following actions raise the alchemy skill : Books . The following books provide a permanent one - time increase to the player ' s Alchemy Skill . See each book ' s page for a list of possible locations . Quests . Completing a quest for an Alchemist merchant allows the Dragonborn to take some of the ingredients on display without it being considered stealing . The following Miscellaneous Quests increase Alchemy or improve the results of Alchemy . Perks . The following are perks that become available to select as the skill is leveled up :