A former model who played a key role in establishing a multi-billion-dollar cosmetics empire is now on the verge of taking vows as a priest, with the ordination ceremony just a week away.
Scott-Vincent Borba, now 53, partnered with Joseph Shamah in 2004 to create e.l.f Cosmetics. The brand quickly rose to prominence for offering clean, entirely vegan, and affordable products with a strong emphasis on sustainability.
Today, the company boasts a market valuation exceeding $3 billion.
During the brand’s meteoric rise, Borba embraced the Hollywood lifestyle.
“We mingled with celebrities like Paris Hilton and partied with the Kardashians, living the quintessential Hollywood dream,” he shared in an interview with ABC 7.
‘I was a poster boy for luxury living,’ said Borba, who also previously worked as a model, designer, singer and actor. ‘I was not in any way humble. I was very prideful.’
But when he reached his 40s, Borba said he experienced a sudden loss of joy that prompted him to change his ways.Â
‘I asked our Lord to help me be the man that he created me to be,’ the future priest said. ‘And upon that instance, I had this massive flood of love and mercy that came into my life.Â
‘It was a very mystical experience.’
Scott-Vincent Borba, 53, who co-founded e.l.f Cosmetics with Joseph Shamah in 2004, has reinvented himself as a priest. He is pictured in 2011 in Los Angeles at the launch for his book ‘Skintervention’
Borba said he has ‘never been happier’ despite his now frugal lifestyle
For seven years, Borba took classes a St Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park, where he studied and underwent a process called ‘formation’
By 2019, he gave up his multi-million dollar fortune to charitable causes, and soon he enrolled as a seminarian for the Diocese of Fresno.
Over the next roughly seven years, Borba took classes at St Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park, where he studied and underwent a process called ‘formation,’ which Diocese of Fresno Director of Public Affairs and Innovation Chandler Marquez described to KTVU as ‘a mixture of practical experience in parish life and studying in a seminary.’
Borba’s life now looks very different than what it did in his younger years.
He said he is now living ‘in a little tiny room with… nothing in it.
‘I have a few bits of clothes and a few pairs of shoes. And my life has been culled down to the bare minimum,’ the former multi-millionaire said.
Despite the frugal lifestyle, Borba said he has ‘never been happier in my life.’
‘Once I started to reorient myself, recalibrate myself with God’s help to focus to Him, the joy started coming,’ he explained.Â
The Diocese of Fresno – which serves one of the largest and most diverse Catholic populations in North America – now hopes Borba will bring that same joy to others when he is ordained as a priest on May 23.Â
elf Cosmetics became a leading beauty brand known for its clean, 100 percent vegan , budget-friendly and sustainable products
‘God calls upon all types to serve,’ Marquez said.
‘Being around Scott, you can see the genuine happiness and fulfillment he now carries and gives to others.’Â
Church officials also note that Borba – who is now known as ‘Deacon Scott’ – brings faith and leadership that have been shaped by real life experiences and challenges.
‘Real yearning, real calling and even suffering – those experiences will aid him in relating to Catholics,’ Marquez said, noting Borba ‘is already making an impact on the Church through his leadership and innovative mindset.’
The Diocese will now assign him to a parish to serve as an associate pastor while being mentored by a pastor.
As part of that process, Borba is set to return to the San Joaquin Valley where he grew up, and where he said he was first called to religious life at the age of 10.
‘Scott developed and cultivated his innovative mindset here in the Central Valley, and he is now bringing that experience home in service to the Church and the people of this community,’ Marquez said.Â