Essence Changed Level Requirement!

I just bought a really nice crossbow, and it was a blue, so I went to my essence page and pulled out a low level essence for some cold damage, and when I used the essence on it, the level requirement jumped from like level 8, which I am, to level 36!! what the hell even is that? I looked over the essence very thoroughly and that was not mentioned anywhere that it was about to change the level requirement and brick my item... That is terrible game design and needs to be fixed.