This study examines the communicative impact of product color attributes on consumers’ aesthetic preferences and purchase behavior within the cosmetics industry, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of perceived meaning and emotional response. The study conceptualizes color as a multidimensional construct encompassing brightness, saturation, and warmth, and positions it within the Stimulus-Organism-Response Model to explain how visual stimuli influence internal psychological processes and subsequent behavioral outcomes. The proposed model includes color attributes as the independent variable, perceived meaning and emotional response as mediating variables, aesthetic preference as a proximal outcome, and purchase behavior as the final dependent variable. A quantitative research design was employed, and data were collected from a sample of female consumers in the Saudi cosmetics market. The data were analyzed using PLS-SEM to assess both the measurement and structural models. The findings reveal that color
attributes exert significant positive effects on both perceived meaning (β = 0.52) and emotional response (β = 0.48), which in turn significantly influence aesthetic preference (β = 0.36 and β = 0.41, respectively). Aesthetic preference was found to have the strongest impact on purchase behavior (β = 0.58), highlighting its central role in consumer decision-making. Furthermore, the results indicate the presence of complementary partial mediation (VAF = 57%), suggesting that the effect of color operates both directly and indirectly through cognitive and affective mechanisms. The model demonstrated strong explanatory power (R² = 0.57 for purchase behavior) and acceptable predictive relevance (Q² up to 0.35). The study provides important theoretical and managerial implications, emphasizing that color should be treated not merely as a design element but as a strategic communication tool that shapes meaning, evokes emotions, and drives consumer behavior. Practically, firms in the cosmetics industry are advised to align color choices with both emotional and symbolic cues to enhance aesthetic appeal and influence purchasing decisions. The study recommends further research to explore cross-cultural variations and additional moderating variables that may affect the relationship between color and consumer behavior.