wax = a kind of substance...either natural or synthetic. is used to protect the paint surface...it acts as a sacrificial barrier.
polish = 1) an abrasive substance used to remove paint surface impurities. (from very aggressive to least aggressive)
2) non abrasive substance, containing polishing oils only.
so waxing and polishing is different. base on meguiar's 5 step paint care. u wash -> prep -> polish -> wax(protect) -> maintenance. basically u need to identify the condition of ur car's paintwork, from there u plan what you need to do.
for me, i only use Meguiar's and 3M products. after washing i'll use meguiar's paint cleaner for prepping. then i skip the polishing stage coz i send it to my detailer for polishing once every six months. i'll do one layer of either Meguiar's polymer sealant or Meguiar's NXT tech wax a.k.a. synthetic wax. then a layer of 3M perfect-it carnauba wax a.k.a. natural wax ontop of the synthetic wax. just a reminder, nvr put carnauba wax 1st then synthetic wax ontop of it bcoz the synthetic wax will remove the carnauba layer. reason behind this is most if not all synthetic wax has cleaning detergents inside them which will remove the carnauba wax, whereas a good carnauba wax is just pure wax without any cleaning properties.