Not sure if this has been brought up but Alchemy skill gains are vastly slower than any other. I started as a Dark Elf, which means 20 Alchemy, and I've successfully crafted 278 potions/poisons, I've attempted 873 through experimentation. One thing that ticks me off is I get no gains from a failed try and pretty much no gains from a successful try. If it followed the same rate as armour/weapon crafting I'd be around 85 Alchemy. You should get small gains on a failed "Unkown" attempt as it shows you are learning through experimentation. Which is how it actually works with Chemistry.

So after 60 hours of play with me concentrating on Smithing and Alchemy I can now create a Potion of Minor Health that restores 25 Health. Even though the enemies I face kill me in 3 hits with me being 260 HP, an being level 31...
Yay!

I find and buy VASTLY better potions than that, Even the Poisons are rubbish because my skill is so low. I've spent around twice the time in Alchemy than Smithing yet my Smithing skill is 72.

Noone ever uses Alchemy?

nope, it just seems a waste of time to me.

I think Alchemy is great. I use it a lot. I pick up every ingredient I find. I don't know how many potions I've created but it didn't take me long to get to 100%.

Seems fine to me, though I think I get a 20%xp bonus from a guardian stone. I'm ~96 alch atm.Each to their own I suppose, but I like it. I can sell potions for about 1k apiece, have near infinite healing potions and poisons that can lower poison resistance, slow and nuke all at the same time, for multiple hits.

It goes up faster if you have the Thief Stone and a Well Rested bonus. Also, don't count out Alchemy-buffing enchantments.

...strictly speaking chemistry is planned in advance these days. Functional group theory, retrosynthetic design etc - but, yeah I agree with the sentinment, if you try something out, whether something happens or does not is irrelevant, you know in future that this idea works. You learn less from repeatting something you KNOW works than you do trying something new that does not.

im only lvl 13 but also found it pretty difficult to create good potions and especially poisons - and to find the ingredients for them...so would you recommend me getting into alchemy or not waste my time?

I love Alchemy. Once you get to a point where you can make good potions, it can be a good money-maker, and it also allows you to use magic and alchemy interchangeably sometimes (don't have a certain spell? You may have a potion that does the job, and vice versa). So in playing as a mage, I do a lot of Alchemy.

I think the initial idea that eating an ingredient lets you know its first effect is GREAT. And the mixing and matching works great too. Now once UESP is up and running with all the info, and we all know all the ingredient we need for alchemy, it will make things much easier, though I probably won't use it except for some key potions.

And I love that you need to find an alchemy table to do it. It always seemed so unrealistic in Oblivion when you carried four fragile glass pieces of alchemical equipment around with you through battles with orcs and all the dungeon-diving.

It depends on your class I suppose. If you're a rogue type it's a no-brainer. You can buy/steal all the ingredients you need from alchy shops, and normally net a decent profit when you sell the pots back to them. The recipes get easier the more you do it as you'll naturally find and record more recipe combinations as you go.

You get skill gain from failed lockpicking attempts. I don't see why not for potions. I always thought is was dumb, considering how many plants I waste.

Not keen on it but will use until I can find a cure disease and poison

Don't just try out random indegredient combinations. Eat one of each to get their first effect and the game will automatically start filling out your recipe list. Then when you start making these recipes you'll start finding even more from their combinations. I have all the recipes and I've never bought one, or randomly put things together.

The skill increase rate depends on the price of the potion you're making. I made 50 restore health potions at the price of about 15G and got about 2/3 of a skill increase. I made 4 potions with multiple effects at the price of 350G, and whoop insta skill increase ^^

Increasing Alchemy skill is a lot easier than most people think, since they think quantity over quality

Yep. I always do it in this order.

1) High value multi-effects (Paralysis, Invis, etc)
2) General multi-effects
3) High value single effects
4) Everything else

That way you maximise your skill/ROI.