Gold and lead boutique vase is brownish (6)
I believe the answer is:
auburn
'brownish' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'gold and lead boutique vase' is the wordplay.
'gold' becomes 'Au' (Au is the chemical symbol for gold).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'lead boutique' becomes 'b' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'vase' becomes 'urn' (both can mean a container).
'au'+'b'+'urn'='AUBURN'
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for auburn that I've seen before include "Copper" , "Reddish-brown, hair say" , "Of hair colour, reddish brown (6)" , "Red-brown hair colouring" , "Golden" .)