How can I turn a rare item into a rare magic item?

I turned a silk vest into a rare, and then later found that I could not change it into a magic item, because it isn't normal.

Is there a way to turn a rare item into a magic item?

It was normal before I made it rare, so I think that if I had known before hand, I would have been able to make it magic, and then make it rare. I only started playing the game recently, so I have no idea of how things work.

The reason I was trying to turn it into a magic item is because when I used an orb of augmentation on it the message said "failed to apply item: target is not magic", I also tried to use an orb of alteration and it said the same thing.

2 Answers

While Samyam's answer is full of good information, it doesn't fully answer the question, which is "can I turn a Rare (yellow) item into a Magic (blue) item?".

The answer is yes, but it takes two steps:

1. Use an Orb of Scouring on the rare item to remove all properties from the item, turning it into a normal (white) item.
2. Use an Orb of Transmutation to upgrade the normal item into a magical (blue) item.

This process will not change the item's quality, sockets, or links.

POE item tiers are pretty simple:

• Normal Items - Has 1 or no implicit modifier for the item.
• Magical Items - Has 2 additional modifiers for the item.
• Rare Items - Has upto 6 modifiers for the item.

You can use the following Orbs for modifying item rarity -

• Normal - Magical : Orb of Transmutation.
• Magical +1 Affix : Orb of Augmentation.
• Magical Reroll: Orb of Alteration
• Normal - Rare : Orb of Alchemy
• Magical - Rare: Regal Orb (Adds only 1 affix and leaves other affix slots open. Used in crafting)
• Rare Reroll: Chaos Orb
• Rare +1 Affix: Exalted Orb

You can read more here -