A good anti-aging set covers the few steps that matter and skips the filler. Retinoids and daily sunscreen are the two things with the strongest evidence behind them, and nearly everything else supports those two. So when you look at a set, check that it has a retinoid or a real alternative for night, and plan to pair it with a sunscreen you will actually wear. Goop Beauty's 3x Retinol Face and Eye Kit and Estée Lauder's Advanced Night Repair set are built around the night routine, and the Kiehl's Destination Radiant set is aimed at dull, tired-looking skin.

What decides whether a set is useful is the formula, the texture and where it sits in your routine. Introduce one active at a time, otherwise you can't tell what worked or what irritated your skin. If you are new to retinoids, start with a few nights a week and build up. Ogee's bakuchiol elixir is a gentler alternative for sensitive skin, and NIOD's Copper Regeneration set and Medik8's Liquid Peptides are built around peptides instead. In the first group, Peter Thomas Roth's Retinol Fusion PM and Peptide Skinjection serums, EltaMD's UV AOX sunscreen and Ogee's hyaluronic elixir show how the same routine can be built from single products.

Consistency beats the number of steps. Go from the thinnest texture to the richest, and keep mornings simple. A vitamin C like Trish McEvoy's or Goop Beauty's Vitamin C Duo, a moisturizer, then sunscreen, where Ogee's primer SPF or ILIA's SPF-and-Go set can double as a base for makeup. Nights are for the retinoid, on a clean face washed with something soft like ILIA's foaming cleanser or Chella's balm. Goop Beauty's Easy Evening Routine kit and Gwyneth's Less Is More routine are the short versions if you want someone else to have done the editing. Don't forget your neck and hands, which is where the Tom Ford and Jenni Kayne body creams come in.

Most of the anti-aging benefit comes from a retinoid at night and sunscreen every morning, and a set is just a convenient way to get both into your routine. If you take one thing away, choose a set you will actually finish, start the active slowly, and never skip sunscreen, because it protects everything else you are doing.