Make sense because how else would they even sell these potions.

"Yeah, there see

ms to be a wide range of brand name cosmetic potions which use their own secret
recipes" Taure

Everyday Potions: Brainstorming

Potions are badly underused in fanfic, and a lot of the potions we see in canon
are pretty obscure in terms of use. How often in life do you need to put someone
in a sleep so powerful they resemble a dead person?
So, I thought we could brainstorm other, more useful, potions that they might te
ach at Hogwarts. The kind of stuff that would be useful to make in day to day li
fe.
I can see several groups they might fit into, presented here with some examples:
Cosmetic
Salve to remove acne
Hair-growth potion
Teeth-whitening potion
Situational
Potion to keep you warm
Potion to purify water
Potion to breathe underwater
Medical
Pepper-Up potion (cures the common cold)
Sleeping potion
Wakefulness potion
Sobering potion
Contraceptive potion
Period-suspension potion
Mental
Recall potion
Calming potion
Sensory
Farsight potion
Auditory supersenory draught
Recreation
Zero-gravity potion
Hallucination potion
Transformation
Polyjuice
Aging potion
Growth potion
Poisons and antidotes

What other potions can you think of that might be useful that aren't in this lis
t? Maybe there are other categories too that you can think of.

It seems to me that potions often have advantages over spells.

The polyjuice potion, for example. You could achieve the same thing with human t
ransfiguration, but that leaves you vulnerable to untransfiguration. Polyjuice p
otion is less vulnerable. Human transfiguration at that level is also extremely
advanced.
Another example is the warming potion. I assume that a warming charm is a reason
able spell to say exists, though it isn't canon. But even so, you can imagine th
at the potion could be useful... for example, maybe you make a warming potion at
the beginning of winter, take a sip every morning and you're warm all winter. T
his keeps you from having to constantly reapply the warming charm when it presum
ably wears off. And maybe the warming potion only warms you up when you would ot
herwise be cold, compared to the charm which would constantly supply heat (thus
necessitating its removal when you go inside).
So in general, advantages of potions could be:
Duration of effect
Difficulty of reversal
Ease of use (for easy potions)
Unique effects
Ability to buy them and store them for use on demand
Disadvantages would be:
Brewing time
Ingredients needed
Difficulty of use (for difficult potions)
Lack of flexibility
Travelers tricks:
Internal warmth- keeps your body at optimal temp for 8 hours at a time. Can be u
sed as a fever reducer, but you're working against your body then
Rehydration
Anti-Bends (dissipates Nitrogen from sudden pressure changes) or even a wholesal
e Acclimation elixir
Skin hardener, for crawling in briars and the countering softener to take away t
he evidence of having worked in your lifetime
Translation tablets - makes what you say in your native tongue come out in a spe
cific spoken language. Doesn't mean you understand what you're saying or what's
said in reply...
Flibberton's fingertips; a fingerbone you stick in your ear that translates a sp
ecific language heard into your specific native tongue. Knock-off versions are a
bout as accurate and timely as the closed-captioning on CNN.
Spider-grip solution - so you can climb like some kind of spider-man. Better ver
sions includes a strength boost so that your rubbery core muscles aren't shredde
d in the process of wall crawling
Voluminous Varnish- covers whatever is applied with an Impervious-strength varni
sh. Often sold in explosive bottles for use in mass-manufacturing and pranking
Limb-lengthening potion - Mrs. Weasley mentioned this one; the short term versio
n makes you ten feet tall, and you walk like a giraffe. Long-term version (alche
mical) is for aspiring basketball players, orchard workers and circus performers