I need pro help please! pics included

I stopped going to have my hair highlighted because I am tired of paying and I have this itch to do it myself.  It has been 8 months and I have figured that I am a natural level 6 (no red naturally) with 30% grey maybe.  The last time I dyed my hair I used L'oreal Excelence in 6.1 and I put some foils around some previous highlights (loreal cremelights with a cap) to keep some dimension.  It is eh.  I WANT TO BE BLONDE AGAIN.

Is L'oreal cremelights a bleach?  Can I try that again?  The last time I did it was 6 weeks ago and I only left it on for 20 minutes.  This was the outcome which is too orangey for me:

I want to be blonde again like this, and I like the contrast of the darker underneath the lighter highlights:

I realize the issue is in the maintenance.  Because I have the grey, will I have to do allover color then do the highlights with a cap every time?  This seems so damaging to color allover then to pull the highlights.  I am willing to put in the time it takes, I just want to be blonde and I want to do it myself damnit!

CDM