I'm growing NP outdoors in NorCal, trying to find optimal harvest time. I thought they looked almost ready last full moon, but I just felt they were a little underdeveloped, but damn they looked good with all those pink hairs! Now the next full moon is upon us, and they still have a lot of "live" hairs, but the buds are far less pretty, most of the pink hairs have dried up or turned brown, the neon green color of the buds has turned a little yellowish/browning, but I did have to spray with insecticidal soap for those damn aphids also, so maybe that's one of the main reasons they turned color.
How long did you wait between flip and harvest? Did you have pink hairs all the way at the end? what was your percent cloudy/clear/amber?
btw, spinosad isn't really working on the aphids we're seeing around here..pyrethrin works though....soap is good too and has no residual, seems like you figured that out already!