You indeed absorb many things through your skin. I used a progesterone cream every day during peri-menopause because progesterone doesn't make it through the stomach acids long enough to be absorbed through the intestines, so the best way to get it in your body is through the skin. I believe it goes into the lymphic system rather than the bloodstream, because the instructions were to rub it into a fatty area of the skin. There are several brands of progesterone cream so I had to get one that was best absorbable, because as folks have said many creams are too large to be easily absorbed.
I haven't tried this myself, but I heard that if you put a clove of garlic between your toes, you can taste it after about 20 minutes. That seems like a fun experiment to try, but I'm rarely barefoot in the kitchen so I never think about it when I'm around garlic.