Meet Scott Vincent Borba: e.l.f. Cosmetics founder leaving $3 billion fortune to become a Catholic priest

He's busy planning the next launch: himself as a priest. For most, establishing a multi-billion-dollar empire that is successfully running would be the epitome of making it big. They could now rest and enjoy the luxuries of being rich. A vacation in Italy, a chateau in France and a whimsical day spent daydreaming in London.

However, Scott Vincent Borba, the co-founder of e.l.f. Cosmetics has ditched its riches and redefined luxury as the arms of god. The 52-year-old man who spent his life globetrotting and time hobnobbing with the likes of Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian is now turning into a priest.

Borba is donating his entire $3B fortune including cash, cars and a California beach house to charity. The "father" to-be denounced his lavish lifestyle after having a come-to-Jesus moment at an industry party.

He will be ordained as a Catholic priest in his hometown of Visalia, California by the Diocese of Fresno on May 23rd. He claims to have finally answered the call of the clergy after ignoring it for decades to build his beauty empire with an estimated net worth of $3 billion.

From beauty mogul to priesthood

“I was a poster boy for luxury living,” Borba confessed to ABC7 of his hedonistic habits as a head honcho at e.l.f. an acronym for “Eyes Lips Face." A graduate from Santa Clara University, he worked as a model, singer and actor. He also worked at other beauty brands like Hard Candy Cosmetics, Procter & Gamble's Wella and Johnson & Johnson's Neutrogena.

e.l.f. is a cruelty-free makeup brand he co-created with a father and son duo, Alan and Joseph Shamah in 2004. The brand rose to prominence in the 2010s and reached $100 million in sales by 2014, per Forbes.

However, Borba, a former esthetician to A-listers such as actress Mila Kunis, reaped the benefits before leaving e.l.f. in 2019, long before Hailey Bieber sold her Rhode label to the company for $1 billion in 2025. During his professional years, he was also a supporter of the nonprofit Covenant House California, which helps provide shelter, food, clothing and educational programs for homeless youth. He also wrote books — “Makeup for Dummies” in 2007, “Skintervention: The Personalised Solution for Healthier, Younger and Flawless-Looking Skin” in 2011 and “Cooking Your Way to Gorgeous: Skin-Friendly Superfoods, Age-Reversing Recipes and Fabulous Homemade Facials.”

Now, he works as a deacon and seminarian at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, California, which he joined in 2021. He resides in a small room with only a crucifix as wall décor. “My life has been culled down to the bare minimum,” said Borba, admitting, however, “I have never been happier in my life.”

"I was very unhappy..."

The unprecedented shift in life came after being struck with a sudden sense of misery. “I was at a party and I was very, very unhappy,” Borba told OSV News. “I just felt like I was empty and I was empty. I was exhausted. I was burning the candle on both ends.”

The feeling led him to pray. “I said, ‘God, if this is life, where all you do is work and party and do that all over again and die, then this is not the life that I think that you have made for me. But I can only change if you help me,’” he said. “I said, ‘Help me … I don’t want to do this [anymore].’”

Following his plea, Borba, who was in his 40s back then, felt convinced to forgo his worldly pleasures, however, not without little resistance.

“God called me to give up everything, and I thought that meant just my cars,” he laughed. “So I had an Aston Martin convertible, and I said, ‘All right, Lord, I’m gonna sell this car, give the money to charity, and then use some other money to get myself a truck.’”

But that wasn’t good enough for the Man Upstairs, remembered Borba. “He said, ‘Give it all up.’”

Borba obeyed and completely submitted to the almighty. He shared how he had previously turned a deaf ear to the Lord's voice in third grade when his mother suggested that he grow up to become a clergyman. “At Mass, she asked me to look up at the altar, and if I wanted to be the man in the robes,” Borba said. “Whoever the priest was, his robes at that moment were shimmering like glitter… And I knew God was placing on my heart to become a priest.”

However, unwilling to abandon his pursuit of worldly and material assets he went to college before moving to Los Angeles and creating one of the most globally successful and customer-loved brands in the world of glam.

“I know that our Blessed Mother has brought me into this vocation because of her love for me and for her Son,” he said. He added that he feels like he has been put on earth to help bring people back to "Catholic/Christian religions" and help kids who have "been kicked out of their house."

While Borba's transition from the halls of the beauty world to the church halls marks a first for the industry, it remains to be seen if others will follow suit.