Bobbi Brown's Eye Shadow Basics

— -- Eye shadow can transform the look of your eyes, but you have to know how to apply it properly.

Enter Bobbi Brown, makeup guru and editor in chief of Yahoo Beauty.

Brown appeared on “Good Morning America” today to share tips on how to apply the eye makeup for best effect. She appeared on "GMA" as part of the Yahoo Your Day series.

“When you see someone and you look and see how good they look, they look rested. They look like they've been on a vacation. Sometimes it's all makeup," she said.

"But their eyes look bright and look happy. And that's when someone looks good. When you don't feel good, your eyes don't look great. So if your eye shadow is wrong, your eyes don't look good.”

Brown’s Tips

1. What color works best? “Well, brown works on everybody. But it's got to be the right brown,” she said. “There are still brown eye shadows on the market that are a little gray, a little muddy. Those aren't great. You want richer colors and true colors. You also want colors that -- for example, on blue eyes, a little bit of lilac or soft purples look beautiful.”

2. Can I wear dark purple? Dark purples look better as eyeliner, while medium colors go well on the eye lid, she said, adding that the lightest color works best as a highlighter under the brow bone. “So if you think of the three colors: light, medium, and dark. Light goes all over. Medium on the lid. And the darkest is liner. Simple,” Brown said.

3. What kind of brush should I use? “You need an eye shadow brush, which is fluffy, which is easy to put eye shadow on. You need an eyeliner brush that's very thin that will line your eyes. Other than that, you can add different brushes. But those are actually the two main ones you need,” she said.

4. I’m still making mistakes. Help! “There's a lot of things women do wrong when it comes to eye shadow. I think a lot of women choose eye shadow that's too dark for their lid. And they end up looking like they've been punched,” Brown said.

“And a lot of women will go for the trends. And right now the trend is pinky eye shadow. You have to know how to use it. Pink eye shadow is not supposed to be around your eyes, because then you look like you've been up all night. So pink eye shadow should be a little bit on your lid to help brighten your eyes. But you still need some depth with liner.”

5. Why isn’t my eye shadow staying on? “A lot of women complain that their eye shadow doesn't stay on. It kind of smears off. Well, you've got to keep your eyelid clean before you put eye shadow on. A lot of us put moisturizer on and put moisturizer on our eyelid. I only do that at night,” Brown said. “I like to take ... a light shadow, a bone or an ivory, and put it all over the eye to get rid of the shine. So your eye shadow will stay flat. There's also primers on the market. If you get a good primer, your eye shadow will stay for a long time.”

6. Can you suggest a daily eye makeup routine? “You want to do the basics. The basic eye shadow is a light color all over the lid, a medium color on the lid. Or you can even wear light on the lid, especially if it has some sparkle that's really pretty. If you need depth on your eyes, that's a medium color. And the darkest color goes for liner. Everybody needs mascara. And everybody needs a bit of liner. Everybody needs to fill in their brow. Everybody needs concealer,” she said, laughing. “It’s very simple, when you get the right thing.”