e.l.f. Cosmetics co-founder gives up wealth for priesthood
The co-founder of a US makeup brand e.l.f. Cosmetics will be ordained as a Catholic priest this month after he gave up his wealth to answer the call to the priesthood.
In 2019, Scott Vincent Borba exchanged the wealth he had accumulated from his business and devoted his life to the Catholic ministry, per PEOPLE Magazine.
He told CBS 47 then that he saw himself as "vapid. I had a perverse life." While living as a cosmetics mogul, Borba stayed in Los Angeles where he "got sucked into the Hollywood lifestyle," he said, describing himself then as "a poster boy for luxury," living only to make more money.
His makeup brand was a hit with customers due to the products' affordability and the company's commitment to ethical practices. At the height of its success in 2014, e.l.f. Cosmetics was worth at least $100 million (around P6.1 billion), according to Forbes.
Although he felt the call to the priesthood even as a child, he said he ignored it for decades, especially when his company was growing exponentially. When he hit his 40s, however, he went through a "sudden loss of joy," which he addressed by turning to religion.
In an interview with ABC 7, Borba said, "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."
"It was a very mystical experience," he added.
Borba, 52, then donated his e.l.f. Cosmetics fortune to charity and began his journey to the priesthood.
His life today is worlds away from his previous one. "I live in a little tiny room... it's sparse, 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," he told ABC 7.
He is now a deacon, attending St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park. On May 23, Borba will be ordained in Visalia, California, by the Diocese of Fresno.
