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I like the concept of different ingredients having similar affects when mixed. I think this is one of the lanes of approach to your overall dillema, as well:
A recipe (or a users recipe card) could make the potion, but the longevity and strength of that potion with that recipe could be based on the users individual attributes. Perhaps interrelated with how much experience they have with a particular reagent - the more knowledge they have on it (the more they've used it in various ways), the greater the effects they can wring from it (to a point, more below). Thus a potion of invisibility from Clarice in Podunk could last quite a long time, because she made it with willowbark, chamomile and rat innards; the same potion made with the same ingredients by Fred - who has little experience iwth willowbark, and only heard of the recipe through word of mouth - leaves you translucent and lasts only a few moments.
Later it could be discovered that Fred can make a much stronger potion with fried bat guano, boiled chamomile and a mush of rat innards, dissolved into mineral water, with the same affect (invisibility) as Clarice's.
So you have recipes which can be bandied about, and will provide the users with quick, sure-fire solutions to what they want to make, but may not necessarily be the best for them. Even continued use of that formula won't make it their most effective solution, because they may not be using the ingredients which are most effective to their character.
The balance you're looking for is hard to achieve, and even moreso when what you're doing is making a sidebar to the true game dynamics. You want it to be effective and utilitarian, but not so simple as to be something everyone has.
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