Scott Vincent Borba, the 52-year-old co-founder of e.l.f. Cosmetics, is set to be ordained a Catholic priest by the Diocese of Fresno in Visalia on May 23. His entry to the priesthood at this age is rare in the US, where the average age for new priests is 33 and only about 3% of current seminarians are over 50. Now serving as a deacon and seminarian, he has spent recent years preparing for ordination after stepping away from the beauty industry and a high-profile lifestyle to pursue a vocation he says had long been in the background of his life. He describes the transition as the culmination of a call he finally accepted after years of inner restlessness.
Borba’s pivot followed a turning point in his forties when he says he felt unhappy, empty, and exhausted despite outward success. In 2019 he chose to give up his wealth and enter seminary, describing a spiritual experience in which he asked for help to become the man he was meant to be and felt a flood of love and mercy. Reflecting on the decision and its aftermath, he has said he has “never been happier in my life” and explained that “once I started to reorient myself, recalibrate myself with God’s help to the focus to Him, the joy started coming,” according to People. He initially thought the call to surrender would mean letting go of obvious luxuries such as cars, but he came to believe it demanded a more complete renunciation of comforts and status. By his account, the move to the seminary marked not a loss but a restoration of purpose he had struggled to find.
“Never been happier”
Looking back on his earlier years in the beauty world, Borba has characterized that chapter as driven by excess and pride, and he has described himself as “a poster boy for luxury living,” recalling time spent “running around with the likes of Paris Hilton, and partying with Kardashians and just doing up the Hollywood life,” according to ABC7. He walked away from his fortune, donating his wealth—among it luxury cars and a California beach house—to charity. He sold his possessions and moved to St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California, where he now lives in a small, sparsely furnished room, saying his life has been pared down to essentials yet filled with a deeper sense of contentment. He credits family, friends, his community, and the priests and formation team around him for support as he moved through formation as a deacon and seminarian toward priestly ordination this month.
E.l.f. Cosmetics, which Borba co-founded in 2004, has become a billion-dollar brand popular with budget-conscious shoppers across major retailers including Target, Walmart, and Ulta Beauty. The company has been involved in billion-dollar deals and in 2025 added Hailey Bieber’s Rhode label, underscoring the continued momentum of the brand he once helped build even as he charted a very different personal path. His journey also arrives amid broader conversations about vocation and the age profile of clergy. While the national averages place new U.S. priests in their early thirties and show few seminarians over 50, some supporters see Borba’s late vocation as an example with the potential to encourage others to consider religious life. One academic observer has expressed hope that the authenticity of his call could help lead more people toward faith, even as his case remains unusual within current trends.
Ireland ordination
Beyond the US, new ordinations continue to advance in other dioceses, highlighting how individual stories intersect with wider demographic shifts. In Ireland, for example, Tiernan Burke is scheduled to be ordained for the Diocese of Cloyne on May 24 at St Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh. At 41, he will be the second youngest priest in his diocese and says the priesthood was in his mind from a young age; he began actively pursuing his vocation in 2017 after attending an ordination that he described as the decisive moment inspiring him to explore the call. Survey data there point to an aging presbyterate: an estimated 15% of priests are over 75 and still working, more than a quarter are between 60 and 75, and only 2.5% are under 40. Against that backdrop, Borba’s ordination in California this month stands as both a personal milestone and a case study in how callings can surface later in life, even as most new entrants to the priesthood arrive much earlier.