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Scott-Vincent Borba, former California esthetician and e.l.f. Cosmetics co-founder, will be ordained as a priest after leaving his luxury lifestyle for the Catholic faith.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno announced on May 4 that Borba, currently a deacon, will be ordained as a priest on May 23, ending his decade-long return to the church. He is currently a deacon and seminarian at St. Patrick’s Seminary in California.
Digital reached out to the Roman Catholic Diocese and St. Patrick’s Seminary for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
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Scott Borba joined the seminary after growing tired of his “vapid” lifestyle. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images)
Borba was previously a makeup mogul who founded e.l.f. (which stands for Eyes. Lips. Face.) Cosmetics in 2004, which grew to a company with an annual revenue of over $1.3 billion and earned him a position among Hollywood celebrities.
However, in the mid-2010s, Borba made the decision to donate his wealth and accept a calling to become a priest. In an interview with KSEE in 2019, Borba described making the decision after decades of living a “vapid” and “perverse” life.
“[God] not only blessed me with money and awareness, and just every business I had, he allowed me to have success with it,” Borba said. “Then I decided, you know, what is wrong with me? I was vapid. I had a perverse life. I went to LA, I got sucked into the Hollywood lifestyle. It was almost to a point where I was trying to sell my soul for all of the riches of the world, which is not what we’re supposed to be.”
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Scott Borba founded the e.l.f. Cosmetics company in 2004. (Amazon)
“We’re supposed to be living for our Lord and Lady. I was living for myself. I was idolizing myself. I was idolizing everything else out there that was luxury. I was a poster boy for luxury,” Borba continued.
Borba remarked being approached with the idea of joining the priesthood “a thousand times” in his life, with his first experience coming from his mother in the third grade.
“At Mass, she asked me to look up at the altar, and if I wanted to be the man in the robes,” Borba told OSV News. “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.”
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Borba will be ordained on May 23. (Nastco/ iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Borba now lives a modest lifestyle after selling his wealth and possessions, which he described as a way to give himself back to God.
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“I am trying to do everything to show our Lord that He gave me everything in His divine providence. He has taken care of me all my life, and now I am to give it all back and to show Him that He is going to take care of me the rest of my life, whatever it’s going to be,” Borba told KSEE.
