I don't like calling anything polish. it can mean many different things. To traumatized, it's a paint cleaner. To older turtle wax, it was a compound. To meguiar's, it is a glaze. That's why I prefer to call it as it is. Either a paint cleaner, swirl remover, compound or glaze. I don't like to call it a polish because it is too ambigious.

And back to the question, if your car has been washed clean and your pads are clean as well, then you can use a circular motion. If your car was not 100% dust free, I would QD the panel clean first before waxing.