Five Photos of Scott-Vincent Borba, The e.l.f. Cosmetics Millionaire Who Gave Up Kardashian Parties to Be a Priest

Scott-Vincent Borba, 52, who co-founded e.l.f. Cosmetics and once gave actress Mila Kunis a $7,000 (£5,170) diamond-and-ruby facial before the 2011 Golden Globes, will be ordained as a Catholic priest on 23 May by the Diocese of Fresno in Visalia, California, after giving away his multimillion-dollar fortune to charity.

Photo 1: Borba at the 2007 American Music Awards, during his years as a beauty industry mogul and self-described poster boy for luxury living.

From Beverly Hills to Bare Walls

Borba built e.l.f. (Eyes Lips Face) Cosmetics with Joseph Shamah in 2004, starting with 13 products priced at $1 (£0.74) each. The brand reached $100 million (£74 million) in sales before private equity firm TPG Growth acquired a majority stake in 2014.

Photo 2: Scott-Vincent Borba at the launch party for his book 'Skintervention' at Covenant House, Los Angeles, 13 January 2011.

At his peak, Borba had a Beverly Hills office, a beach house, an Aston Martin convertible, and a social calendar packed with Kardashian parties and events with Paris Hilton. He was a regular on the Home Shopping Network and had built campaigns for brands including Neutrogena, Hard Candy, and Murad before he was 30. Born and raised in Visalia, the Santa Clara University graduate was, by his own admission, 'a poster boy for luxury living.'

'I Was Trying to Sell My Soul'

Photo 3: Borba at St. Patrick's Seminary, where he said sitting down with fellow seminarians decades younger was humbling.

But the glamour left him empty. In a 2019 interview, Borba described his Hollywood years as 'vapid' and said he felt he was 'trying to sell my soul for all of the riches of the world.'

The turning point came at a party where, by his own account, he was 'very, very unhappy.' He prayed on the spot and experienced what he later called 'a flood of love and mercy.'

'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,' Borba told OSV News.

Giving It All Up in Stages

He didn't walk away overnight. When Borba first met his vocation director, he showed up in a luxury car and an expensive black suit. The director took one look and said, 'I have got a lot of work to do on you.'

Borba first sold his Aston Martin and donated the money to charity, thinking that would satisfy the calling. Then, he said, God told him to 'give it all up.'

Photo 4: Borba as a transitional deacon for the Diocese of Fresno, preparing for his 23 May ordination in Visalia, California.'

By 2019, he had sold off his remaining assets and given the proceeds to charity. In 2021, he formally left all business ventures and entered formation for the priesthood at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, California.

Today, the man who once ran a beauty empire lives in a sparse seminary room with a few pieces of clothing and a handful of shoes. 'My life has been culled down to the bare minimum,' he told ABC7.

A Rare Path at 52

Photo 5: Borba told ABC7 in May 2026 that he has never been happier in his life.

Borba's path is statistically rare. The average age for newly ordained priests in the US is 33, according to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Only 3% of current seminarians are over 50, according to Zach Flanagin, a professor of theology at Saint Mary's College of California.

'I think that a story like his is a great opportunity to inspire people,' Flanagin said.

Borba said he first felt called to the priesthood at the age of 10, when his mother pointed to the altar at Mass and asked if he wanted to be 'the man in the robes.' He resisted for decades, building a beauty empire instead.

'I have never been happier in my life,' Borba said. 'With everything the world can give me, I would give it back a million times over to be united to Jesus.'