Scott-Vincent Borba, co-founder of e.l.f. Cosmetics is to be ordained as a Catholic priest after abandoning a multi million dollar fortune and stepping away from a long career in the beauty industry.

Borba co-founded e.l.f. Cosmetics in 2004 with Joseph Shamah, helping build a cruelty-free make-up brand sold widely through retailers including Target, Walgreens and QVC.

He later left the business world after deciding to enter seminary training, saying he had lost his sense of fulfilment in his 40s.

Speaking to local ABC affiliate KGO, he 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."

Reflecting on his former lifestyle, he said: “We ran around with the likes of Paris Hilton, and partying with Kardashians, and just doing up the Hollywood life. I was a poster boy for luxury living. I was not in any which way humble. I was very prideful.”

He added: “God called me to give up everything, and I thought that meant just my cars,” he told Catholic outlet OSV News. “So I had an Aston Martin convertible, and I said, ‘All right, Lord, I’m gonna sell this car, give the money to charity, and then use some other money to get myself a truck.’ Then he said, ‘Give it all up.’”

Borba said he gradually gave away his wealth, describing the process as unfolding over time following what he called a spiritual calling.

He now lives at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in a simple room while preparing for ordination.

“I live in a little tiny room with... it's sparse, nothing in it,” he said. “My life has been culled down to the bare minimum.”

He added: “I have never been happier in my life. Once I started to reorient myself, recalibrate myself with God's help to the focus to Him, the joy started coming.”

Borba is due to be ordained by the Diocese of Fresno later this month.