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“Once I bought my first Urban Decay palette, I was like, ‘It’s game over.’”

The Circle is an addictive Netflix reality show set inside a social media network, and the casting directors have a way of finding people audiences will fall in love with. In Season 4, now streaming in full, one of those people is Yu Ling Wu, a 26-year-old from San Francisco with a bubbly and engaging personality, highlighter-orange hair, and makeup looks so good they would intimidate the cast of Euphoria.

Wu calls herself a “first-and-a-half-gen Chinese American,” since she was born in China but “raised by the Bay.” She started doing makeup later than you might expect, considering her massive talent. “I didn’t actually get into beauty or makeup until my first year of college,” Wu tells BAZAAR.com. “I have an older sister—she’s nine years older than me—she was always wearing makeup, and I just swore to myself, like, ‘I’m never gonna put on makeup.’”

But that all changed after she bought her first foundation. And her relationship to beauty has been evolving ever since. “Once I bought my first Urban Decay palette, I was like, ‘It’s game over.’”

Game over, indeed. Today, Wu’s Instagram and TikTok feeds show a range of skills that would be impressive for a makeup artists of any background—let alone someone self-taught. From detailed peacock feathers to Yayoi Kusama–inspired graphic dots to the swirly eye she often wears on The Circle, Wu can do it all.

In this (spoiler-free) Circle Chat, Wu talks about her deep connection to beauty, how much product she really brought with her on the show, and a few of the staples she can’t live without.

I grew up first gen, so I had a lot of hand-me-downs. It was hard to wear what I wanted to wear—within the limitations, I had to get really creative. So my personal style started to develop first. And also, as a tiny person, I felt like I needed to overcompensate for being small, so I wanted my fashion to be super loud. It ended up being a mix-matched, sort of eclectic style, because I was working with knockoff hand-me-downs from the ’90s. And then, [I had] this rebellion, like, “I don’t want to wear what my mom puts on me, and I want to be loud and proud, and not conform to a stereotype.”

I didn’t want to get into makeup, but one day in college, I just woke up and I was like, “You know what would be so fun? If I just put on foundation. Like, I just want to give it a go.” I walked to my nearest Walgreens or Duane Reade—I was in New York at the time. I picked the wrong shade of foundation, this Maybelline foundation. I walked to class and somebody said, “Wow, you look different today. You look good.”

Since then, I obviously started collecting makeup, I got really into beauty, but my relationship to it sort of shifted. Instead of feeling like something I had to do, I felt like it gave me this power, sort of being able to reclaim—I know this sounds dramatic—but my body, my image. I didn’t have to have one style; I could transform whenever I wanted.

I was v focused on getting this knocking right 😂 but here’s a #yayoikusama inspired look #makeup #graphicliner #editorialmakeup

Oh, thank you! I am self-taught. I was huge into YouTube and YouTubers, so, like, NikkieTutorials, Desi Perkins, KathleenLights, Michelle Phan—they were all the people that raised me on the Internet. No matter what, I had a tutorial playing in the background. And at some point, when Instagram started to really develop as a makeup community, I think I moved into a more avant-garde kind of style, mixed with sort of an everyday-glam kind of style. Seeing inspiration online and meeting new friends just inspired me to make something every day. It felt like a vehicle for self-expression, where every day I had this meditative practice.

You know those bigger suitcases, not like the carry-on sizes, but one you actually have to check in? One solid one was probably just makeup. Because I didn’t know what kind of looks I wanted to create. I had rhinestones, I had colorful palettes, pastel palettes, tons of neutral palettes, a bunch of shimmers, all of my liners. It was actually a little bit ridiculous. I had four suitcases in total, and one of them was just makeup.

I would say it’s kind of a mix of both. Obviously, I love doing my makeup. If you were going to give me four hours to just do whatever, I would probably do my makeup while watching Grey’s Anatomy in the background, because it feels so meditative. I can spend probably half an hour blending out a single shadow. But at the same time, for TV, I had to make sure I wasn’t sleeping on any of these looks I had in mind. You can’t catch me slacking!

Even during the pandemic, I was putting on a full face every single day. It gave me a sense of normalcy; it gave me routine. I have a background in theater. I couldn’t meet with people. So makeup became my one vehicle of creative expression. When I didn’t have a physical community, I had a digital community.

It’s really just for the other girlies. It’s not like, “Oh, I need to look presentable, otherwise people are going to think I’m ugly.” This is a practice that brings me so much joy, and I know that there are other people out there who are going to put on a full face even if no one sees it, even if no one takes a picture of it, it just feels good.

I kind of forget that that even happened, because it feels like such a fever dream. When I say out loud that I was talking to the Spice Girls…imagine saying that to your friends. It was ridiculous. It was 100 percent the top highlight of being on The Circle. I mean, aside from the fact that the whole experience was so fun.

I grew up with a sister who was nine years older than me. I wasn't fully conscious of the reign of the Spice Girls, but I grew up watching The Nanny and listening to whatever music my sister had on her CDs or her Walkman, and the Spice Girls just mean the world to me. I actually listen to the Spice Girls every single day.

My Milk Hydro Grip Primer, my Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation—that gives me flawless skin, always and forever. Any Pat McGrath palette. If I don’t have that, don’t even bother waking me up. And then, in terms of beauty tools, I have to have a Beautyblender.

I always have to a double cleanse, because anybody who does a full face knows that double cleansing is the way to go. I usually use the Farmacy Green Clean. I love the fact that it’s a balm. It melts everything off and you don’t have to use a cotton pad—you don’t have to be wasteful. I always follow up with my Youth to the People [Superfood] Cleanser. It leaves my skin so hydrated. And then I go in with my skincare.

I was touching up my own hair within The Circle. So if you’re like, “Wait, why does her hair look more vibrant than it did the other day?” I was fully re-dyeing it. I was using Good Dye Young by Hayley Williams of the iconic Paramore. It was their bright orange color. That’s what I used in tandem with a blue shampoo by Fanola, because that’s what my stylist recommended. So that’s how I kept the icy, sort of silvery gray color along with the orange.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.