{"id":538,"date":"2026-05-12T11:37:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/2026\/05\/12\/e-l-f-cosmetics-co-founder-gives-up-fortune-to-become-catholic-priest-i-have-never-been-happier\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:37:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:37:35","slug":"e-l-f-cosmetics-co-founder-gives-up-fortune-to-become-catholic-priest-i-have-never-been-happier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/2026\/05\/12\/e-l-f-cosmetics-co-founder-gives-up-fortune-to-become-catholic-priest-i-have-never-been-happier\/","title":{"rendered":"e.l.f. Cosmetics Co-Founder Gives Up Fortune to Become Catholic Priest: &#8216;I Have Never Been Happier&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scott-Vincent Borba co-founded e.l.f. Cosmetics in 2004<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/TZslBvMuogYhH0I8GE5jmIn0z2M=\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)\/scott-vincent-borba-051226-b8a06b49fdef4836be81094acf0f4b5d.jpg\" alt=\"Scott-Vincent BorbaCredit: ABC7 News Bay Area\" title=\"Scott Vincent Borba\" \/><figcaption><i>Scott-Vincent Borba<br \/>Credit: ABC7 News Bay Area<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>NEED TO KNOW<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Scott-Vincent Borba, co-founder of e.l.f. Cosmetics, will be ordained as a Catholic priest on May 23<\/li>\n<li>Borba gave up his fortune and luxury lifestyle after feeling unfulfilled and reconnecting with his faith in his 40s<\/li>\n<li>He now lives a humble life as a deacon and seminarian, dedicating himself fully to ministry and charity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Scott-Vincent Borba, co-founder of the makeup brand e.l.f. Cosmetics, has forged a new path in life as a Catholic priest after selling his makeup fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The former makeup brand leader, 52, will be ordained as a Catholic priest in his hometown of Visalia, Calif., by the Diocese of Fresno on May 23, officially marking a new chapter years after his departure from e.l.f. Cosmetics, <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7news.com\/post\/former-elf-beauty-founder-scott-vincent-borba-preparing-become-catholic-priest\/19083729\/\" data-type=\"\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ABC 7<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have never been happier in my life,&#8221; Borba told ABC 7. &#8220;Once I started to reorient myself, recalibrate myself with God&#8217;s help to the focus to Him, the joy started coming.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Borba founded the cruelty-free makeup brand e.l.f. Cosmetics \u2014 which stands for \u201cEyes Lips Face\u201d \u2014\u00a0with father and son Alan and Joseph Shamah in 2004. The brand was successful by the mid-2010s, due to its affordable prices and ethical products, reaching $100 million in sales by 2014, according to <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/stevedenning\/2026\/02\/22\/management-without-managers-elfs-influencer-driven-beauty-revolution\/?ctpv=searchpage\" data-type=\"\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Forbes<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n<p>Borba announced in a 2019 interview on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=moo80FP9M_Q\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">CBS 47<\/a> that he was committing his life to the ministry after giving up his makeup fortune as he opened up about his unfulfilling lifestyle in his earlier years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was vapid. I had a perversed life,&#8221; said Borba. &#8220;I went to L.A., I got sucked into the Hollywood lifestyle \u2014 it was almost to a point where I was trying to sell my soul, right, for all of the riches of the world, which is not what we&#8217;re supposed to be \u2026 I was living for myself \u2026 I was a poster boy for luxury.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Borba said that he had felt a calling of becoming a priest &#8220;ever since I can remember&#8221; and &#8220;finally accepted the call about maybe three years ago.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Borba told ABC 7 that he always felt connected to religion as a child but suppressed his religious side for decades during his company&#8217;s success. It wasn\u2019t until his 40s that he turned to religion again after experiencing a \u201csudden loss of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I asked our Lord to help me be the man that he created me to be. And upon that instance, I had this massive flood of love and mercy that came into my life,\u201d Borba told ABC 7. \u201cIt was a very mystical experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was then that Borba decided to give up his fortune acquired from e.l.f. Cosmetics to charity and commit to ministry, per ABC 7.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/h0I5_eIzqAW8-a53r34MaP5g3Og=\/fit-in\/1280x960\/elf-beauty-products-051226-24574a714a044813996ea88f5888a098.jpg\" alt=\"e.l.f. CosmeticsCredit: Gabby Jones\/Bloomberg via Getty\" title=\"Elf liquid eyeliner arranged\" \/><figcaption><i>e.l.f. Cosmetics<br \/>Credit: Gabby Jones\/Bloomberg via Getty<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forms.dotdashmeredith.com\/people-news-inline\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>PEOPLE&#8217;s free daily newsletter<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Borba is now a deacon and a seminarian at St. Patrick&#8217;s Seminary in Menlo Park, living a much more humble life than before.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I live in a little tiny room \u2026 it&#8217;s sparse, nothing in it,&#8221; he told ABC 7. &#8220;I have a few bits of clothes and a few pairs of shoes. And my life has been culled down to the bare minimum.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>PEOPLE has reached out to St. Patrick&#8217;s Seminary for comment.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scott-Vincent Borba co-founded e.l.f. Cosmetics in 2004 Scott-Vincent BorbaCredit: ABC7 News Bay Area NEED TO KNOW Scott-Vincent Borba, co-founder of e.l.f. Cosmetics, will be ordained as a Catholic priest on May 23 Borba gave up his fortune and luxury lifestyle after feeling unfulfilled and reconnecting with his faith in his 40s He now lives a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everything-else"],"wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"1":{"name":"Everything Else","link":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/category\/everything-else\/"}},"tags_names":[],"comments_number":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}