e.l.f. Cosmetics cofounder leaves luxury to become a priest

Scott-Vincent Borba, who co-founded e.l.f. Cosmetics in 2004 with Alan and Joseph Shamah, was ordained a Catholic priest on May 23, 2026, in Visalia, California, after giving away the wealth he built from the beauty brand. The Diocese of Fresno marked him as one of three new priests ordained that day, alongside Fr. Marco Ayala and Fr. Francisco Orozco.

Borba’s path runs through one of the sharpest turns in modern consumer culture. e.l.f. stands for eyes, lips, face, and by 2014 the company had reached $100 million in sales. e.l.f. Beauty later reported that full fiscal 2025 net sales grew 28%, showing the scale of the business Borba helped launch before leaving it behind. What began as a cosmetics company tied to youth, affordability, and mass-market reach ended up becoming the financial foundation for a life he later walked away from.

Borba has said he first felt called to the priesthood when he was 10, but spent years pursuing business and luxury living before returning to faith. Raised in Visalia in a deeply Catholic family, he said his conversion deepened after his father, Anthony Borba Sr., was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died in 2010. Borba described a mystical encounter with God after that loss, a moment that pushed him toward a different form of ambition, one rooted in ministry rather than commerce.

In 2019, Borba donated the fortune he had accumulated from e.l.f. and entered seminary in the Diocese of Fresno. He was ordained a transitional deacon on June 21, 2025, then advanced to the priesthood less than a year later. Borba has said, “I have never been happier in my life.” For a country still fond of reinvention stories, his arc from luxury and celebrity-adjacent success to service to the poor is the kind of narrative that keeps getting elevated as the United States heads toward its 250th anniversary.